Episcopal Divinity School at Union

Join us on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 6:00 PM EST for a public address and conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret.

Join EDS at Union tonight Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 6:00 PM EST for a public address and conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret. Each semester, Episcopal Divinity School at Union selects a theme and book to guide a semester-long discussion on justice issues critical for faith communities to address. This spring 2021, EDS at Union is joining with the Center for Earth Ethics and the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to focus on the structural challenges facing communities living in poverty and to explore how economic, environmental, and racial issues exacerbate inequality in the United States. Register at the link below!

Register today for this two-day, online course 'Why Pauli Murray Matters' taught by Dean Kelly Brown Douglas. The course includes a stellar lineup of speakers including the Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng and Senator Kim Jackson on Murray's legal impact, Dr. Anthony Pinn on her sermons and writings, Dr. Sarah Azaransky who wrote The Dream is Freedom: Pauli Murray and American Democratic Faith and Dr. Rosalind Rosenberg, author of Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray.

Dean Douglas wrote a letter to the editor in response to David Brooks' New York Times column "Christian Social Justice, Redux." On the relationship between reconciliation and justice: "As I read David Brooks’s column, Jesus’ words echoed in my mind. He said: Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! Jesus calls us to a different kind of division. Not a kind that separates us one from another. But instead into a divide be...tween a white supremacist present, where there are people considered more valuable than others, and a future where all are valued as the sacred children of God that they are. To reach a future without the divides that separate, we must strive not for reconciliation but justice. Reconciliation follows justice, not the other way around. And justice requires more than forgiveness and apologies to promote good feelings, as our country remains trapped in the sin of white supremacy." Click below to read the column and Dean Douglas' letter to the editor.

Follow Dean Douglas on Twitter at @DeanKBD.

On Wednesday, March 3 at 2:45 pm EST, join The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas as she speaks with Rev. Dr. Delman Coates, Senior Pastor at Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland. Dr. Coates founded the Our Money Campaign, an economic justice campaign that seeks to solve some of our nation’s greatest social and economic challenges. He also founded the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality which addresses the social and spiritual challenges of the African Americ...an faith community. They will discuss the diverse, grassroots, bi-partisan movement that Dr. Coates has built, and Our Money's recently released "The Freedom Plan: A Policy Agenda for a Better America." This plan seeks to utilize a progressive economic framework to minimize the disparities that many Americans face in employment, healthcare, public education, and provide opportunity for building community wealth. Just Conversations with Kelly Brown Douglas is a series of interviews that explore the racialized inequities intrinsic to our nation and our collective responsibility to create a more just future. Tune in on Facebook Live.

It is no wonder that the recidivism rates are high when we are returning people to the very circumstances of limited opportunities and choices that contributed to their incarceration in the first place." - Dean Kelly Brown Douglas https://themilsource.com//recidivism-rates-for-black-men-/

Tonight! Join Union Theological Seminary tonight, 2/25, from 5:30-7:00 pm ET for a conversation on the recent PBS film The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. In partnership with THIRTEEN, this event will screen highlights from the documentary and interview Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union, and Josef Sorett, Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. The evening conversation will be moderated by, Jenna Flanagan, host of MetroFocus on THIRTEEN. Both Dean Douglas and Dr. Sorett are featured in the film.

On Wednesday, February 24, from 6:00 to 7:15 pm EST, EDS at Union will host a virtual panel discussion that focuses on Isabel Wilkerson’s New York Times-bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Our panelists will discuss the history and themes explored by the book, and what Ms. Wilkerson describes as America’s hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings that goes beyond race, class, or other factors. Joining Dean Kelly Brown Douglas on the panel will be ...Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Ph.D., the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology and director of the African American Studies Program at Colby College, and The Rev. Dr. Joshua Samuel, Visiting Lecturer for Theology, Global Christianity, and Mission at Union Theological Seminary and the author of Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation on a theology of liberation among Hindu and Christian Dalits. The conversation will be moderated by Hope Wabuke, a poet, writer and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Wabuke was asked by NPR Books to review Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. By linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wilkerson who also authored The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration explores how the cruel logic of caste requires a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against. She also writes about caste’s health costs, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics.

In this episode of The Just Vote, Dean Kelly Brown Douglas will speak with Ari Berman, author of the award-winning book Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. They will reflect on any issues of voter suppression and access to the ballot experienced during the November 3rd election.

EDS at Union is where Anglican faith and scholarship meet to reimagine work of justice. The Anglican Studies M.Div. and S.T.M degree programs bring together excellent theological formation, Anglican spirituality, and practical leadership skills with an eye toward helping faith leaders tackle the most pressing challenges facing our world today. Email [email protected] for more information on EDS at Union's Anglican Studies programs. Our program director and admissions team are glad to help you as you discern next steps! Click the link below to see the recordings of EDS at Union's Facebook Live conversations on The Just Vote about voter turnout and suppression, and the important role faith leaders must play in getting souls to the polls.

Reminder: Today at 1:00 PM ET, Dean Kelly Brown Douglas will be speaking with Ari Berman about the election and what we have seen regarding voter turnout and suppression efforts. Join us here on Facebook for that conversation!

Follow Dean Douglas on Twitter at @DeanKBD

In this episode of The Just Vote, Dean Kelly Brown Douglas will speak with The Rev. Patrick Cheng Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Adjunct Professor at EDS at Union. Rev. Cheng, a former lawyer, will debrief election night with Dean Douglas and considers the election's implications (and likely ongoing result determination) from a faith and constitutional law perspective.