Upcoming Events

Prophetic Proclamation: Clergy Against immoral Evangelical Politics & Supreme Court Rulings

When:
August 31, 2022 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
2022-08-31T18:30:00-04:00
2022-08-31T20:30:00-04:00
Where:
Facebook Live and YouTube Live
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Nyya Toussaint

Clergy Against immoral Evangelical Politics
& Supreme Court Rulings

Join us on Wednesday, August 31 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm ET for an online event, Prophetic Proclamation. To honor the continued struggle for Black freedom, we will hear a prophetic proclamation from clergy against immoral evangelical politics and supreme court rulings. Participants can view this video live on the Union Facebook page and Youtube Channel.

This event is hosted by Rev. Dr. Samuel Cruz and Nyya Flores Toussant. Panelists will include Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder, Father Luis Barrios, Bishop-elect Vanessa M. Brown, and Reverend Dr. Juan A. Carmona. Panelist bios are below.

RSVP TODAY

Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder

Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder, a San Francisco native, has served her call through prophetic action and ministry for justice for over thirty years. The call to “blend proclamation, worship, service, and advocacy on behalf of those most marginalized in church and in society” led to the founding of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in 1991. In 2003, Rev. Dr. Flunder has consecrated Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, a multi-denominational coalition of over 100 primarily African American Christian leaders and laity. She is a graduate of the Certificate of Ministry and Master of Arts programs at Pacific School of Religion and received her Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Bishop Flunder is a DEMOS board member and Senior Fellow at Auburn Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Seminary. She has also served as an Adjunct Professor and speaker at Pacific School of Religion and numerous seminaries and universities including Auburn, Brite Divinity, Chicago Theological, Columbia University, Drew, Duke, Eden, Howard, Lancaster, New York Theological, and Yale. She is also an award-winning gospel music artist and author of Where the Edge Gathers: A Theology of Homiletic and Radical Inclusion.

Rev. Dr. Luis Barrios

Rev. Dr. Luis Barrios is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and a Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice & Member of Ph.D. Faculty in Critical Social/Personality Psychology; & the Social Welfare, Ph.D. Program, Graduate Center-City University of New York. He is a Consultant to the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities (IHRAAM). He is also a professor of Latinx theology at the Episcopal Divinity School / Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Barrios is the co-editor with Louis Kontos and David C. Brotherton of Gangs and Society: Alternative Perspective (2003-Columbia University); co-author with David C. Brotherton of Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation: Street Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang (2004-Columbia University); and co-editor with Dr. Mauro Cerbino of Otras naciones: Jóvenes, transnacionalismo y exclusión. Quito: Ecuador: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales. Dr. Barrios is also the author of Josconiando: Dimensiones Sociales y políticas de la espiritualidad (2000-Editorial Aguiar), Pitirreando: De la desesperanza a la esperanza (2004-Editorial Edil) and Coquiando: Meditaciones subversivas para un mundo mejor (2008-Editorial Búho). Fr. Luis Barrios is an Episcopal priest in charge of Holyrood Church / Iglesia Santa Cruz in Upper Manhattan. He is a community priest and faculty activist.

Rev. Dr. Vanessa M. Brown

Rev. Dr. Vanessa M. Brown is a licensed and ordained minister currently
serving as the Senior Pastor of Rivers of Living Water Ministries UCC, a radically inclusive ministry located in Harlem and Newark, NJ. Rev. Dr. Vanessa M. Brown is a part of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM) where the presiding prelate is Bishop Yvette A. Flunder. In July 2013, she was elevated to Episcopal Liaison of the North East Region of TFAM and in 2019 she was made the Bishop-Elect of the North East Region serving faith-based institutions and community-based organizations from the DMV to Maine. Dr. Brown received her Certificate of Theological Education for Leadership from Pacific School of Religion (Berkley, CA) and is a graduate of New York Theological Seminary with her Masters of Divinity and most recently her Doctors of Ministry in May of 2020. Ministry is at the forefront of her life as her heart and passion are in spreading the inclusive message of God’s love for all.

Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona

Reverend Dr. Juan A. Carmona, D.Min. is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America. He was born and raised in New York City by his Puerto Rican family. He received his Bachelors of Arts in Comparative Religions from the State University of New York, a Masters of Divinity from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry degree in Liberation Theology from the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. He is a retired prison chaplain with the New York State Department Correctional Services and has taught at various institutions of higher education, including having served as a Visiting Scholar at the Tainan Theological College & Seminary in Taiwan. Dr. Carmona is the author of two books: “The Puerto Rican Diaspora: A Model Theology,” and “The Sovereignty of Taiwan: A Theological Perspective.” He is married to Ruth Ayala-Carmona and has three children, Dr. Geoffrey Antonio Carmona-Baez, Jennica Carmona-Arandia, and Jessica Carmona-Baez.

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