James Rowe Adams founded The Center for Progressive Christianity in 1994 while serving as Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill, a position he held for nearly thirty years. He retired from parish ministry in 1996 to devote his energies to organizing the network of progressive churches and individuals. After ten years as president of TCPC, he began his second retirement and currently spends what time he has apart from family obligations in encouraging local progressive Christian groups and in writing. His most recent book is From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors. He and his wife Virginia live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They have three adult daughters and five grandchildren.

Mary Farrell Bednarowski is professor emerita of religious studies at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities where she taught for twenty-eight years. Her research interests have always been inter-disciplinary and focus on religious studies, American studies, women's studies, and theological creativity. Her most recent book is The Theological Imagination of American Women (Indiana University Press, 1999), and she has just completed editing a volume for Fortress Press's series, A People's History of Christianity: Global Christianity in the Twentieth Century, which will come out in spring, 2008. After many years of teaching on the faculty of a liberal Protestant seminary, she is now teaching feminist theologies with the Hedgerow Initiative, a new ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet who are among the most progressive Christians she has ever encountered.

Delwin Brown, now retired, was the dean and professor of theology at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, and at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, and professor of religious studies at Arizona State University. He published a number of articles and books on process and liberation theologies, the Bible and theology, and tradition and innovation in religion. Since retirement he has lectured and written on “progressive Christianity” for lay Christian and secular audiences. What Does a Progressive Christian Believe? A Guide for the Searching, the Open, and the Curious, will be published by Seabury Books in February 2008. He and his wife, Nancy, dedicated hikers, just completed a 21-day trek in Nepal. They live in California and have three married daughters and five fabulous grandchildren.

Jim Burklo is the pastor of Sausalito Presbyterian Church just north of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. A United Church of Christ ordained minister, he is the author of Open Christianity: Home By Another Road, a primer on the progressive Christian movement. He is on the board of directors of The Center for Progressive Christianity, www.tcpc.org . His new book, Birdlike and Barnless, will be published by St. Johann Press in 2008.

Rev. Jennifer Butler is Executive Director of Faith in Public Life. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Butler most recently served as the Presbyterian Church (USA) Representative to the United Nations (UN). During her nine years at the UN, Butler represented the denomination on a range of issues, including women’s rights, genocide in the Sudan, and the war in Iraq. As a member of the UN Executive Council of the Committee of Religious Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), Butler was a leading spokesperson and published author on the issues of religion and human rights. Her book on the Christian Right and international policy was published by the Pluto/University of Michigan Press in October 2006.

Butler served in the Peace Corps from 1989 to 1991 in a Mayan village in Belize, Central America. A graduate of Princeton Seminary, she holds a Master of Social Work from Rutgers University and Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary. She grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and is married to Glenn Zuber; they have one son, Eli. Butler attends church at Journey’s Crossing in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Pat has been Senior Minister of First Church, Berkeley since 1994. She is ordained in the United Church of Christ and has served on several national church and local community boards. She is a graduate of Western Michigan University and Pacific School of Religion. She has served as a Campus Minister at the University of Oregon, the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Before coming to Berkeley she served as Minister of Education for Christian Discipleship at The Riverside Church in New York City (1984-88) and as Senior Minister of the Urbandale United Church of Christ in Des Moines, Iowa (1988-94. She is married to Sam Keen, a writer and philosopher.

Dr. Eric Elnes, is a biblical scholar with a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is also Senior Pastor of Scottsdale United Church of Christ (www.artinworship.com) a founding member of No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice, and co-founder of CrossWalk America (www.CrossWalkAmerica.org) - a progressive Christian organization that walked from Phoenix to Washington, DC, last year to promote the values of inclusion, compassion, and intellectual honesty within Christianity . He was the lead author and editor of the Phoenix Affirmations - a popular, ecumenically developed set of twelve principles that are becoming in important theological backbone of the progressive Christian movement in and outside the United States. Elnes' commentary on the Affirmations, The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity (Jossey-Bass, 2006), is widely used in book discussion groups and bible studies around the country. His new book, Asphalt Jesus: Discovering a new Christian Faith Along the Highways of America (Jossey-Bass, 2007) is based on his experiences walking across the country and offers further reflections on the Phoenix Affirmations in everyday life. Finally, Elnes is known as much for worship innovation as for progressive Christian leadership. His book, Igniting Worship: The Seven Deadly Sins, gives an in depth look at his church’s internationally recognized multi-sensory, experiential worship service known as The Studio.

The Very Reverend Gary R. Hall, Ph.D., became the ninth Dean and President of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in January, 2005. Prior to coming to Seabury, Dean Hall was rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania for four years. For the eleven years prior to that he was Senior Associate at All Saints, Pasadena, with particular responsibility for Education, Church Growth, and Incorporation of New Members. A native Californian, Dean Hall received his A.B. at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his M.Div. with distinction at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He returned to California to study at UCLA where he earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English.

Dean Hall has served parishes in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Among his ministries, he has been Chaplain at the Cranbrook Schools in Michigan, Vicar of St. Aidan's Church in Malibu, California, and Member of the Standing Committee and later Sexual Misconduct Officer for the Diocese of Los Angeles. In Pennsylvania he chaired the Campus Ministry Study Committee, the Diocesan Review Committee, and the Committee on Diocesan Finances. Dean Hall also has extensive teaching experience as lecturer in Episcopal Polity at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, as yearly lecturer in leadership and ethics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, as long-time lecturer in American Literature at UCLA, and as faculty member at the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont. He was also English Teacher, Director of Studies, and Interim Principal at Oakwood School in North Hollywood, California.

Before becoming Executive Director of The Beatitudes Society in September, 2006, Anne served as Associate Rector at a church well-known for its prophetic social justice teaching, preaching and action, Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, CA .She is now Preacher-in-Residence at Trinity. Prior to ordination, she was Director of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race at All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA. Since ordination in 1988, she has served as Associate and Interim Rector at All Saints by-the-Sea, in Santa Barbara and as Canon to the Ordinary for Bishop Fred Borsch in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and also as Director of Mt. Calvary Invites, an adult education program of Holy Cross Monastery in Santa Barbara. She is a graduate of Episcopal Divinity School and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She travels widely from Santa Barbara, where she lives with her husband Randy Howard. Their son, Benjamin, is a third year medical student, intent on reforming American medicine.

Rev. Jennifer Kottler has been recently hired by The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign to serve as Executive Director. Jen is the former Deputy Director of Protestants for the Common Good, a statewide education and advocacy organization working in Illinois. As a registered lobbyist at the state level, she worked closely with the GLBTQ community on the passage of the Illinois Human Rights Act amendment that outlaws discrimination in housing, employment and credit on the basis of sexual orientation, and with the pro-consumer advocacy community on the passage of HB 1100 that reforms the payday lending industry. Working with Let Justice Roll, Jen organized the Illinois faith community to support an increase in the Illinois minimum wage in November of 2006. Additionally, Jen organized members of the Chicago faith community to rally in support of the Chicago City Big Box Living Wage Ordinance. Raised in the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Jen is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and serves as a senior advisor on issues of domestic poverty and economic justice for the Disciples Center on Public Witness in Washington, DC. She believes that fair living wages are critical to fighting poverty both on a domestic and global perspective.

Rev. Peter Laarman became executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting in April 2004 following a ten-year stint as senior minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Prior to beginning his training for ministry in 1990, Peter worked for 15 years as a strategist and communications specialist in the U.S. labor movement. Under Peter's leadership, Progressive Christians Uniting has increased its numeric and geographic reach within California and elsewhere and has refocused its action programming in three primary areas: eco-justice, youth/racial justice, and LGBT justice. PCU also launched a campus connection program in Southern California called the Faith/Activism Collective. Peter writes, lectures, and preaches on issues of wealth and democracy, on the culture of distraction and consumerism, and on the specific contributions that a revived progressive Christianity might be able to make within our current context of no context. In 2006 Boston's Beacon Press published a book of essays Peter edited called Getting On Message: Challenging the Christian Right from the Heart of the Gospel. Raised in the Dutch Reformed farming enclave of Oostburg, Wisconsin, Peter was graduated summa cum laude from Brown University and the Yale Divinity School.

I was ordained to the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 1987, and have served as Senior Minister to the Unitarian Society of New Haven in Connecticut since 1991. I am deeply committed to the premise that our communities of faith can and ought to be homes for both spiritual maturity and more effective social justice work in the world. Though I continue to work on a variety of justice issues, my principle commitment is toward an end to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; I am a founder and Steering Committee member of Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, a Connecticut faith-based peace group. I also serve on the Ministers’ Advisory Committee for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and represent the UUSC on the National Religious Coalition Against Torture. I am married and the parent of three children ages 21, 14 and 12.

Rev. Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale is the Executive Director of Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank devoted to supporting movements that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society. We expose movements, institutions, and ideologies that undermine human rights.

Rev. Ragsdale served for 17 years (8 of them as chair) on the national board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. As chair, she led the Coalition through a change of its name, mission, and organizational structure. During that time, the Coalition more than doubled in size of both staff and budget. She also serves on the board of NARAL: Pro-Choice America, The White House Project, the Progressive Religious Partnership, as well as the bi-national advisory board of The Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.

She has testified before the United States Congress as well as numerous state legislatures, and is a widely sought speaker on public policy issues affecting women, professional ethics, and lesbian/gay rights. She is an Episcopal priest serving as Vicar of St. David's Church in Pepperell, MA; the editor of Boundary Wars: Intimacy and Distance in Healing Relationships; the author of "The Role of Religious Institutions in Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis" in Albany Law Review (vol. 58, number 4, 1995), and Hannah, a short story about late term abortion, as well as many other articles and speeches.

The Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry serves as a consultant to the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign. Until February, 2007 he served as the National Coordinator of the Let Justice Roll Campaign and as Coordinator of the Anti-Poverty Program of the National Council of Churches.

Dr. Sherry was the President of the United Church of Christ from 1989 to 1999. From 2000 to 2005 he served as a consultant to the Center for Community Change and began work with the National Council of Churches in 2003. He was the Executive Director of Chicago’s Community Renewal Society from 1983 to 1989. Before that, he worked in New York City for the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, the then U.S. mission arm of the denomination. During his 17 years with the Homeland Board, Sherry was General Secretary of the Publication Division and Publisher of the Pilgrim Press (1977-82), Executive Associate for Planning and Strategy (1971-1982), Editor of The Journal of Current Social Issues (1968-1980), and Secretary for Planning (1969-1971). From 1965 to 1969, he was the Executive Secretary of the United Church Council for Higher Education. Dr. Sherry was a parish pastor for seven years at Community United Church of Christ, Hasbrouck Heights, NJ (1961-1965), and at St. Matthew’s (now St. Luke’s) United Church of Christ, Kenhorst, Reading, Pa. (1958-1961).

Dr. Sherry has hosted religion and society talk shows on television and radio in Chicago, New York City and Cleveland. He is the author of numerous published articles, the Editor of The Riverside Preachers, Co-author of A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future, and a contributor to a number of other publications.

Born in Tamaqua, a small coal town in northeast Pa., on December 25, 1933, Dr. Sherry grew up as a member of what is now St. John’s United Church of Christ. He earned a B.A. degree (1955) from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa. and an M.Div. (1958) and a Ph.D. in theology (1969) from Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the Midwest and elsewhere. Dr. Sherry is married to Mary Louise Thornburg. They are members of Euclid Avenue Congregational United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio. They have two children and four grandchildren.

The Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, is the program director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Institute for Welcoming Resources, a national, ecumenical collaboration of the welcoming church movement. Before coming to the Task Force/Institute for Welcoming Resources, she served as interim national coordinator for the United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns, as pastor of Spirit of the Lakes Church of Christ as program staff for the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence.

She is the author of Preventing Sexual Abuse: A Course of Study for Teenagers (Pilgrim Press, 1996) as well as numerous articles and sermons that have appeared in such journals as Spirit Currents, The Journal of Religion and Abuse, and Parenting for Peace and Justice. She is a graduate of Earlham College and Yale Divinity School and is currently working toward a doctor of ministry at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.

Obadiah (Oby) Ballinger is a native of Minnesota who has also lived in Idaho and Montana. He is a middle child with five siblings. He received a B.A. in Religion with minors in Philosophy and Women's Studies from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. While at college he joined the United Church of Christ. He now serves as co-chair of the national UCC Council for Youth and Young Adult Ministries and sits on the Executive Council of the UCC. He is in his third year at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT, seeking ordination in the UCC. His religious passions include theology and preaching.

Brooks began as Pastor of First Congregational UCC in Vancouver, Washington, this past September. He is also in the process of completing his dissertation for a PhD in homiletics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His dissertation looks at nine preachers in Oakland and assesses the possible ways their social class influences their preaching. Before becoming a Pastor, Brooks worked for Religious Perspectives on Work, a national organization seeking to promote economic justice curriculum at theological schools.

Julia resides in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband Jim. She is currently seeking Masters of Divinity and of Counseling Ministry at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Her background and work is in sexual abuse and domestic violence victim advocacy, while she also remains deeply involved in the issues of human trafficking/modern slavery and a fully inclusive United Methodist Church.

April Blaine is a full time youth pastor and fourth year seminary student at the Methodist Theological School in Columbus, Ohio. Next spring, she will be taking three months away from work to do some independent research on several mainline protestant churches across the country who are connecting their progressive, Protestant theology to imagine new, life-giving practices in their congregations and communities. She loves to travel, play board games, eat, cook, observe the 4th commandment, and sit with friends and young people in coffee shops for hours talking about God and life. Both she and her husband Martin are originally from Arkansas (home of the underrated Arkansas Razorbacks), and have resisted the strong pull to become an Ohio State Buckeye Fan. Perhaps she can teach you to call the Hogs this weekend!

Alexander Carpenter is in thesis at the Graduate Theological Union, studying New Media, Aesthetics, and Religion. The Online Communications Manager at The Regeneration Project + Interfaith Power and Light, he also blogs for Faith in Public Life, The Spectrum Blog, and The Beatitudes Society.

Gage Church is a second-year Master of Divinity student at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He spent 20 years as an editor at various newspapers, including the New York Times, USA Today and the Des Moines Register. Gage grew up as a member of the Episcopal Church in Fremont, Neb., and currently belongs to the United Church of Christ. His home church is Urbandale UCC in suburban Des Moines. He and his partner, Tim, live in New Brighton, Minn.

Abby d’Ambruoso grew up in Oregon and attended St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where she studied Spanish and religion. Abby then attended Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, which is part of the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California. She spent last year serving as an intern pastor at an inner city congregation in Toledo, Ohio. This year, she is a chaplain resident at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, California. She is a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Abby enjoys cooking, knitting, and fly fishing and camping with her partner Will.

Audrey deCoursey is a Church of the Brethren student at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, seeking an MDiv with a Certificate in Women and Religion. She is interested in ecofeminism, pacifism, labor issues, homiletics, and food. She currently serves on her denomination's Women’s Caucus steering committee, edits her school's monthly journal, and Jazzercises.

I graduated from Saint Olaf College in 1997 with a degree in religion and Latin American studies, and United Theological Seminary in 2005 with a M.A. in Religion and Theology. I am currently working toward my Master of Divinity degree, and anticipate graduating in 2009. My interests are somewhat eclectic: global poverty and global justice issues; liberationist and multicultural theologies; mysticism; global education; critical pedagogy; antiracism education; queer theologies; and organizing faith communities around social justice issues. My denominational affiliations are also eclectic: I am currently serving as the seminary intern at University Baptist Church in Minneapolis, but I am a member of both Plymouth Congregational Church and Mayim Rabim, a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation. In addition to serving on the planning task force for this conference, this fall I will also begin work on the Wider Church Ministries board of directors—which is one of four covenanted ministries of the United Church of Christ—in Cleveland, Ohio.

Greta Leach is a Master of Divinity student and Convener of the Beatitudes Society chapter at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. She is a candidate for ministry in the United Methodist Church. Greta grew up in Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with her B.S. in Business Administration/Accounting. Before coming to Iliff, Greta worked as a Senior Auditor for a public accounting firm for three years. She is currently a social entrepreneur and office manager for Turnabout, Inc., a faith-based non-profit that supports inmates and former offenders in career and educational opportunities. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, and snowshoeing in the Rocky Mountains.

Herbert A. Perkins, Ph.D., teaches courses at United Theological Seminary, New Brighton (Contextual Theology), Carleton College, Northfield (Interdisciplinary Studies), and Hamline University, St. Paul (Social Justice and Sociology) while also pursuing a divinity degree at United Theological Seminary, New Brighton, Minnesota. Herb recently served Hamline University in the Wesley Center as director of the Theological Exploration of Vocation Program and as a visiting professor of vocation supported by a Lilly Endowment Grant. For most of his professional career, he has worked with, and on behalf of, students in higher education as teacher or administrator in the social sciences, contextual theology, and intercultural studies. He has developed an expertise in intercultural communication and antiracism dialogue. Herb is the creator and executive director of a transformative antiracism program, Antiracism Study-Dialogue Circle (ASDIC Partnership ®), and works with colleagues to host ASDIC Circles at churches and community sites. In support of this work, he mentors and trains people in facilitating dialogue circles. Herb also participates in leadership positions at the local and national level of the United Church of Christ.

Charlene Sinclair is the Principal of InSinc Consulting, a consulting firm that provides comprehensive grassroots organizing and political strategy in addition to targeted organizational development assistance. In addition to her role with InSinc Consulting, Ms. Sinclair works with the Spirituality and Social Justice Project of the Center for Community Change. Previously Ms. Sinclair served as the Director of National Campaigns for the Center for Community Change (the Center), one of the nation’s leading organizational voices for traditionally disenfranchised communities. Ms. Sinclair also served as the Director of Organizing for the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. Prior to joining the Center for Community Change Ms. Sinclair served as the Deputy Director of Housing for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Ms. Sinclair received a B.S. in Sociology from Trinity College in Hartford, CT and is currently a candidate for the Masters of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Ms. Sinclair is a long time community organizer with extensive experience in areas that include income support, youth organizing, higher education, and building the capacity of community organizing groups and networks. In addition to the experience gained from her work with grassroots organizations, Ms. Sinclair brings a strong sense of spiritual and intellectual inquiry to her work.

Eugene Suen is a second-year M.Div student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. He was raised in Taiwan and moved with his family to Chicago at the age of fourteen. He studied philosophy, religion, and film at the University of Iowa and has been living in Pasadena since 2006. He chairs the peace and justice group at Fuller and is interested in theological ethics, politics and religion, and the question of war and peace. He enjoys the arts (especially film) and is in the process of finding a way to combine all of his interests.

Paul is currently a second year MDiv student at Union Theological Seminary. He earned his undergraduate degree in 2006 where he double-majored in Justice and Peace Studies/Theology. Prior to that, he worked for a financial services company in Minneapolis for 14 years. Raised in Iowa, Paul has spent most of his life as a Lutheran although this past April, he became a member of Judson Memorial Church (UCC/American Baptist) where he is completing his field placement this year as a community minister. Next year, he will apply to PhD programs in Social Ethics. He hopes to teach and write in the future, maintaining a close relationship to churches and deeply involved in radical activism whose aim is to strive for non-violence, welcome the neighbor, promote simple living, and following the Gospel imperatives to bring about social transformation that brings liberation to all who are or have been oppressed.

I grew up in an intentional Christian community in the remote mountains of Washington State. Educated in philosophy and literature by the Jesuits at Seattle University, I am continuing my education at Yale Divinity School in a Masters of Divinity program, concentrating in theological ethics. My focal interest is in Christian practices of peacemaking and nonviolence, both ancient and contemporary.