The Center for Reconciliation’s Americas Initiative for Transformation and Reconciliation (TAI) at Duke Divinity School will hold a series of virtual sessions to facilitate interdisciplinary theological dialogue and inspired collective action directed at addressing the root-causes of suffering, injustice, and environmental degradation across the Americas.

The initiative will offer its first Americas Institute for Transformation and Reconciliation as a series of six online sessions, featuring relevant aspects of the Theology of Reconciliation in dialogue with the knowledge, experience, and expertise of Christians in the Americas who are involved in the field of social transformation through local churches, nongovernmental organizations, grassroots associations, and other civil society groups. 

All institute sessions will be conducted in Spanish, with simultaneous English and Portuguese translation available.  

Free registration is required for each session of the institute. Participants who attend all six sessions are eligible for a certificate of achievement from Duke Divinity School and TAI. A separate registration is required for this non-degree certificate program.

Dates and topics for the Americas Institute for Transformation and Reconciliation are:

  • October 13, 2020, 7:00-8:30 p.m. EDT: Why Work for Transformation and Reconciliation?
    • Panelists will be Jocabed Solano, director of Memoria Indígena, Dr. Rolando Pérez, director of the Peace and Hope Institute, and Dr. Nina Balmaceda, missional strategist at the Center for Reconciliation (CFR).
    • The moderator will be Yohan Alverez, exectuvie director of the organization Paz y Esperanza Colombia.
  • November 17, 2020, 7:00-8:30 p.m. EST: Theology of Reconciliation (Part 1 — New Creation)
    • Panelists will be Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, CFR director and also the Irene and William McCutchen Associate Professor of Reconciliation and Theology at Duke Divinity, Bishop Juan de Dios Peña, president of the Council of Methodist Bishops and Presidents of Latin America and the Carribean, and Roxana Bendezu, founder and director of Migrant Roots Media.
    • The moderator will be Dr. James Huff, associate professor of anthropology and associate director of the Human Needs and Global Resources Program, both at Wheaton College.
  • January 26, 2021, 7:00-8:30 p.m. EST: Theology of Reconciliation (Part 2 — Lament)
    • Panelists will be Dr. César Méndes Lópes, dean of graduate studies, Community of Interdisciplinary Theological Studies at CETI Continental in Costa Rica, Germán Vargas, director of Public Policy and Advocacy at Paz y Esperanza Perú, and Alma Tinoco Ruiz, lecturer in homiletics and evangelism and the director of the Hispanic House of Studies, both at Duke Divinity School.
    • The moderator will be Maribel Padial, a member of the grief support team at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Aventura, Fla., who received a M.A. in Christian Practice degree from Duke Divinity.
  • February 16, 2021: Theology of Reconciliation (Part 3 — Hope and Liberation)
    • Panelists will be Dr. Peter Casarella, professor of theology at Duke Divinity School, Ms. Juana Luiza Condori Quispe, Aymaran anthropologist and theologian, Drew Jennings-Grisham, co-founder of Memoria Indígena, and Emily Sarmeinto, president and CEO of Tearfund USA.
    • The moderator will be Bishop Juan de Dios Peña, president of the College of Bishops of the Council of Methodist Evangelical Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL).
  • March 23, 2021: Theology of Justice and Transformation
    • Panelists will be Dr. Nina Balmaceda, associate director of the Center for Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School and president of Peace and Hope International, Dr. Susana Nuin, director of the study center for the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM), and Luis Cesari, national coordinator for Youth for Christ, Uraguay and co-founder and program coordinator of CLAVES.
    • The moderator will be David Nacho, a theologian from Bolivia and an ordained Bapist minister currently pursuing doctoral studies at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. He also serves as academic dean for the Centre for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies (CETI) in Latin America.
  • April 27, 2021: Theology of Reconciliation (Part 4 — Vocation).
    • Panelists will be the Rev. Ismael Ruiz Millán, district superintendent of the Heritage District of the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies (CETI) and the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT) in Latin America, and Alexis Pachecho, Tearfund representative for Central America in Honduras.
    • The moderator will be Eric Hernández, D.Min., of Puerto Rico. He is a psychologist and an ordained minister with the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico.