Duke Divinity School and the Center for Reconciliation (CFR) will welcome Peter Goodwin Heltzel on Feb. 11 at 2:00 p.m. in Goodson Chapel as he gives a public lecture on “Faith-Rooted Organizing in a Time of Travail.”

Heltzel, an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is the director of the Micah Institute and associate professor of systematic theology at New York Theological Seminary. He also serves as assistant pastor of evangelism at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City. Heltzel’s book Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World, co-written with Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, invites Christians to organize for justice in ways that take their faith seriously.

Heltzel’s lecture kicks off a series of events designed to recognize the CFR's 10-year anniversary. These events include a lecture series entitled “Reconciliation Conversations: Parts of the Whole,” which features Allan Boesak, Desmond Tutu Chair of Peace, Global Justice and Reconciliation Studies at Christian Theological Seminary;  David Anderson Hooker, professor of the practice of conflict transformation and peacebuilding at  the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs; and Grace Ji-Sun Kim, associate professor of theology at the Earlham School of Religion.

The lecture series is designed to feature a variety of perspectives on reconciliation and its role in Christian life, and will include responses from a number of Divinity School faculty members and local social justice activists. The lectures are co-sponsored by Duke Divinity School groups including Asian Theology Group, Hispanic House of Studies, the Department of Ministerial Formation, Project BriDDDge, Students Thinking Theologically about Reconciliation (STAR), and Thriving Rural Communities. 

Additional CFR anniversary events include an exhibit of photos commemorating important aspects of the center’s work and a reception in June with CFR founders Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice.