Reverend Dr. Mitri Raheb, Founder and President of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, will be our keynote speaker. The most widely published Palestinian theologian to date, he is the author and editor of 50 books including: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible; In the Eye of the Storm: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire; Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire; The Cross in Contexts: Suffering and Redemption in Palestine; and Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes. His books and numerous articles have been translated so far into thirteen languages. Rev. Dr. Raheb served as the senior pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem from June 1987 to May 2017 and as the President of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land from 2011-2016.  A social entrepreneur, Rev. Raheb has founded several NGO‟s including the Christian Academic Forum for Citizenship in the Arab World (CAFCAW). He is a founding and board member of the National Library of Palestine, and a founding member of Bright Stars of Bethlehem, a US 501c3 non-for-profit organization. He is an elected member to the Palestinian National Council as well as the Palestinian Central Council.

Bishop Rusudan Gotsiridze, a bishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and a women’s rights activist, will preach during Saturday’s worship service. She was the first female Baptist bishop in Georgia. She has advocated against gender violence and for women’s equality, and created interfaith dialogues to support religious minorities. She was also one of the first members of the religious community in Georgia to publicly support the rights of the LGBT community. She also spoke at the 6th United Nations Forum on Minority Issues about religious minorities in Georgia. She received a 2014 International Women of Courage award.

Reverend Mia McClain, a licensed Baptist minister and ordained in the United Church of Christ, will preach during the Friday worship service. Mia currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. where she is the first African American and first woman to serve in the role in the church’s 165-year history. Prior to Riverside DC, Mia served as the Associate Minister of Faith Formation and Outreach at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Interim Director of Children’s Ministries at Fort Washington Collegiate Church in New York City.

She is the recipient of the Innovation Grant (2021), awarded by the Foundations of Christian Leadership program at Duke Divinity School, which enabled research and production around decolonizing liturgical practice and space, and she launched a 4-week course entitled Decolonizing Liturgy. Most recently, she has served as liturgist and songwriter for the United Church of Christ at General Synod 34, and for the United Church of Canada + United Church of Christ Advent Unwrapped 2022 and 2023 projects.

Reverend Racquel C.N. Gill, a native of Winnsboro, SC, will be preaching during the Sunday worship service. She is the daughter of Camilla Gill and the late Stephen Gill. Having begun her preaching ministry as a teenager, Racquel was ordained in 2008 at the St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Winnsboro under the leadership of the late Rev. Roy C. Jeffcoat. Racquel is a 2012 graduate of Columbia College in Columbia, SC where she holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Education. Racquel received her Masters of Divinity in May of 2015 from Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. Upon completion of her theological studies, Racquel served on the pastoral staff at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York under the leadership of Pastor David K. Brawley. After her time in Brooklyn, Racquel served as the Associate Chaplain at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC. Rev. Gill currently serves as the Minister for Intercultural Engagement at Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina. 

Reverend Amy Lewis, is interested in how our bodies store and metabolize trauma from generation to generation, which has led her to embodiment practices. She participates in antiracism embodiment groups alongside white-bodied people who are committed to ending racism. She is proud to have been ordained as an Alliance Clergy in 2002. As a student of spiritual health, Amy has learned as a chaplain, congregational minister, and facilitator of embodiment practices. Amy will be leading the Morning Embodiment Practice.