Rev. Dr Sarita WIlson-Anderson
Rev. Dr. Sarita Marie Wilson is a native of Hampton, VA, and currently resides in Memphis, TN. She is an Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and is an associate minister of Saint Andrew African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Sarita is an anointed and gifted spiritual leader who lives according to Romans 12:1 by presenting her body as a living sacrifice to God through the ministries of preaching and dance.
Dance the Word is the mantra on which Dr. Sarita’s ministry is founded. She has served as the Minister of Dance for Saint Andrew for over 20 years, and is sought after nationwide to share her unique spiritual gift of dance ministry. Rev Sarita is the Director of Ministry in Motion, which initially was composed of seven youth members. Over the years, the group has grown to include over 100 children, youth, women and men who are not ashamed to praise the Lord in dance.
More About Dr. Sarita
Bi-Annually, Ministry in Motion hosts “Dance the Word,” a liturgical dance conference. Each year over 200 dancers attend the conference, which offers workshops in healing through dance, embodied prayer, warfare dance, prophetic dance, praise and worship dance, choreography, step, pageantry and flags and banners and much more. She has ministered and choreographed for national recording artists Kurt Carr and Brian Courtney Wilson. Additionally she serves as the TN Chairperson of the National Liturgical Dance Network. Most recently she became Connectional Director of Dance for the Music and Christian Arts Ministries (MCAM) Division of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
She is the Founder and Director of Dance The Word Ministries, a unique combination of liturgical dance and therapy for self-report mood disorders, specifically designed for African-American women. Dr. Sarita focuses on self-care from a spiritual perspective and is a proponent of eradicating the stigma associated with mental health in the African-American community. She has a heart for journeying with clergy and women as they face the complexities of life. Her mission is to restore hope and bring healing to all.
In 2011 Dr. Sarita published her first book, Dance The Word: A Handbook for Liturgical Dance Ministries. She believes that dance is an effective mode of healing because no matter what circumstances present themselves, life keeps moving. Liturgical Dance can be therapeutic because in God we live, MOVE and have our being.nce the Word: A Handbook for Liturgical Dance Ministries.
Dr. Sarita is as a Board Certified Chaplain and a certified grief counselor. She is employed with Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital as the Director of Spiritual Care and co-chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Her work in chaplaincy has afforded her the opportunity to serve as a consultative resource to the greater Memphis community on grief, resiliency training, cultural humility, self-care and other spiritual care related issues. In 2022, she founded Women of Color in Chaplaincy, a Sister Circle ro support women who work in professional chaplaincy.
She is a cum laude graduate of Howard University, and received her Masters of Divinity from Payne Theological Seminary. She completed doctoral studies at Argosy University, receiving her Ed.D. in Pastoral Community Counseling. Her researched focused on the benefits of liturgical dance on self-report depression and anxiety. She is married to Eddie Anderson III. She is also a proud spiritual and heart mother of many, and has two daughters by birth. Additionally she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.