Perkins Leaders Speak Out: UM Seminary Presidents and Deans Issue Letter on Race and ‘Fabric of Faith’

Dean William B. Lawrence and Dr. Evelyn L. Parker, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology were among the presidents and deans of United Methodist seminaries who recently issued a letter on race and the fabric of faith.


   William B. Lawrence       Evelyn L. Parker
  William B. Lawrence
Dean
Professor of American Church History
  Evelyn L. Parker
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Professor of Practical Theology

Leaders of Perkins School of Theology, 51²è¹Ý have spoken out against racial violence, which has increasingly been in the headlines from Florida, Missouri, and—most recently—from North Charleston, South Carolina.

Dean William B. Lawrence and Dr. Evelyn L. Parker, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, 51²è¹Ý, were among the presidents and deans of United Methodist seminaries who recently issued a letter on race and the fabric of faith.

Meeting during the gathering in Atlanta of the Association of Theological Schools, these leaders wrote in response to another letter titled, "Black Lives Matter," written by a group of African American Presidents and Deans in Theological Education—including Associate Dean Parker—which challenged their colleagues to "arise from the embers of silence" in the face of racial violence and injustice.

Read the full letter, and article by Dr. Jack Levison—W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins School of Theology—in his Huffington Post blog: