MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 11, 2022
Contact: Rev. Cynthia Owen Jarrold, Sr. Advisor for Funding Strategies and External Affairs
[email protected] /(913) 219-3198
The Gamaliel Network announces new partnership with Eden Theological Seminary
Chicago, IL – April 21, 2022 – The Gamaliel Network is pleased to announce that it is entering into a partnership with Eden Theological Seminary (ETS) as part of our ongoing effort to dismantle structural racism through our Race and Power Institute.
“The partnership with Eden Seminary in the development of Gamaliel’s Race and Power Institute is a testament to the recognized need for faith leaders to help to repair the soul of our nation or in the words of Kelly Brown Douglas, the ‘moral imaginary,’” said Rev. Dr. John C. Welch, Chairman of the Gamaliel Board of Directors. “Seminaries are where formation happens and where the conversations can begin.”
ETS is a Progressive Christian institution located in St. Louis, MO. Since 1850, ETS has been committed to the theological and spiritual formation of Christian leaders and the pursuit of justice. According to Eden President Deborah Krause, “This partnership empowers Eden to combine impactful resources of theological education for social justice with Gamaliel’s proven capacity to move people to change systems of domination and structures of oppression. We are excited for what this means for ministry and for justice organizing!”
Through this partnership, courses focused on race and power in community organizing will be taught to ETS students and will launch on May 31, 2022. A certificate in Race and Power will also be added to ETS’s course offerings.
These efforts are part of Gamaliel’s ongoing effort to launch the Race and Power Institute (RAPI), an entity within Gamaliel that aims to create a bridge between race analysis and organizing work and provide ongoing professional development and resources for organizers and leaders within and outside the Gamaliel Network at the intersection of policy, praxis, and philosophy. Already at work to fulfill its purpose, the Gamaliel Race and Power Institute will fully launch at Gamaliel’s biennial Race and Power Summit in December 2022.
Ms. Angela James, a 30-year veteran faith-based community organizer and national staff member in the Gamaliel Network, and racial equity specialist, is the Director of the Gamaliel Race and Power Institute. Rev. Dr. Dietra Wise-Baker, Eden Assistant Professor of Community Engagement and Contextual Education, serves as Organizing Director of the Gamaliel Race and Power Institute at Eden Theological Seminary.
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Gamaliel is a grassroots network of non-partisan, faith-based organizations in 13 states and 43 regions that has, for 35 years, trained ordinary people to effectively participate in the political, environmental, social and economic decisions affecting their lives. Gamaliel’s work is rooted in a shared set of values like diversity, inclusion, and democracy. Gamaliel is committed to a long-term transformational agenda that creates structural racial equity, builds the people’s control of government and the economy, and expands the public sphere. Gamaliel builds power to transform the world as it is into a new world marked by equity, compassion, hope, shared abundance, and radical inclusiveness.
