Summer Institute for Transformation and Reconciliation

This session will explore the three different kinds of Christian Nationalism currently found within the United States with respect to their history and theological rationales. We will also take a look at how each kind worships God, thus gaining insight into how each envisions the church in relationship with God and with the world. 

Presenter: Dr. Lester Ruth, Research Professor of Christian Worship, Duke Divinity School

We are all spiritual care providers, called to care for ourselves, our communities, and the world. This session explores mental health myths, trauma-informed practices, and embodied tools for regulating body, mind, and spirit. Participants will learn how to build communities of care, live missionally with a non-colonized perspective of wellness, and leave with practical tools and resources to integrate mental health care into faith and community life.

Presenter: Rev. Meredith Rawls, Northeast Regional Coordinator, Partners in Health and Wholeness, North Carolina Council of Churches

Can we truly thrive if others are suffering? This session invites exploration of how a deep, prayerful awareness of God’s presence in all of life can shape how we live and act in the world. Drawing on Christian mystics and faith‑filled activists, we’ll consider how recognizing our shared life in God leads naturally to commitments like nonviolence, honoring the dignity of every person, and aligning our actions with Christ’s love. Participants will reflect on the spiritual roots of these commitments and explore practical ways churches and everyday believers can use contemplative practices to gain clarity, courage, and faithfulness in public and personal life.

Presenter: Roberta Romano, CFR Fellow

En esta sesión conversaremos sobre el lamento como una práctica comunitaria y misional que cultiva solidaridad, integridad y una ética del amor al prójimo. Desde las teologías latinoamericanas, el lamento nombra con honestidad heridas sociales, eclesiales y ecológicas, fortaleciendo la responsabilidad compartida, especialmente con las comunidades marginadas. Más que resignación, el lamento abre un proceso de discernimiento ético orientado a la paz justa, la reconciliación y el florecimiento de la creación. Esta sesión explorará cómo el lamento forma comunidades y liderazgos con presencia profética, capaces de aportar al bien común en sociedades plurales mediante respeto, solidaridad y colaboración. 

Ponente: Dr. César Lopes, Rector de la Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios (CETI)

Why do we feel nervous? How do we connect with a person when they are really upset? Resilience is built into all of us, individually and collectively. In this workshop we will learn and practice several easy-to-share neuro‑somatic exercises and strategies that increase awareness of the nervous system and strengthen emotional and relational safety. We will also discuss automatic body-brain responses and signals of self-regulation and co-regulation. 

Presenter: Victor Jones, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Senior Certified Senior Resilience Educator or Reconnect for Resilience™

In this session, we will watch the short film “Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of Afro-Latine Spirituality” by the AfroLatine Theology Project. This film will frame our conversation as we explore how an intersectional approach to history, spirituality, theology, and our own life can allow us to lead towards hope more effectively. During the session, we will engage in activities that will invite you to self-assess and see how your own positionality and intersectionalities influence your perspective and how the awareness of this can positively impact your work towards reconciliation. 

Presenter: Yolanda Santiago Correa, Program Coordinator, Hispanic House of Studies, Duke Divinity School

Antisemitism has re‑emerged with troubling visibility across cultural, religious, and public life. This workshop invites participants to explore how antisemitism appears today and how Christian communities can respond with integrity, courage, and a commitment to reconciliation. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship and lived experience, we will reflect on how factors such as polarization, rapid technological change, and global events shape the environment in which antisemitic ideas can take root, exploring practical ways to reduce harm, strengthen solidarity, and build relationships that honor the dignity, safety, and well‑being of Jewish communities and all peoples.

Presenter: Serena Bazemore, Executive Director of the Duke Center for Jewish Studies, Duke University

This talk explores the lived reality of Christian peace-builders working under conditions of war, repression, and social pressure. Drawing on personal relationships, interviews, and ongoing collaboration, this session looks at how faith-based resistance, truth-telling, and nonviolent witness take shape inside and outside the region. The focus is not on heroism, but on concrete practices of solidarity: listening, material support, shared risk, and the slow work of sustaining communities that refuse to accept war as normal. 

Presenter: Maksim Velichko, Christian peace activist and educator

In this session we will learn a personal history of the local indigenous people and how they have been able to remain here despite adversity through resilience, hope, and faith. Judge Scarlett will narrate how her heritage offers an invitation to embrace an indigenous values system that can support and sustain a shared future.

Presenter: Judge Beverly A. Scarlett, Co-founder of Indigenous Memories 

¿Cómo influye nuestra percepción en la forma en que nos relacionamos? El objetivo de este seminario es analizar los sesgos intrínsecos que condicionan la comprensión interpersonal, para así transformar nuestras barreras subjetivas en oportunidades de entendimiento. Exploraremos cómo reconocer algunas de esas barreras y así identificar formas de colaboración para el fortalecimiento de nuestros vínculos afectivos a nivel familiar y/o comunitario.

Ponente: Roberto Chia Cherre, Terapeuta Cetificado en Salud Mental

In this session we will examine practical steps churches can take toward ecological moral repair. We will examine practical strategies of place-making and community building, particularly through attending to biblically based ecological commitments. This session contextualizes health disparities, environmental injustice, and ecological grief that characterize vulnerable communities’ attempts at place-making and community flourishing. The questions we explore include: What happens when churches learn the history of the land in their community? What does theologically and ethically grounded place-making look like in our particular faith communities? This context of flourishing is embedded in a haunted past, precarious present and uncertain future, thus, we will explore where hope can be found in our practical restorative congregational action.

Presenter: Dr. Wylin Wilson, Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke Divinity School
 

This session will offer a comparative case study of three organizations engaged in mobilizing diverse Christian groups in Latin America to work for environmental justice and indigenous cultural preservation. Session participants will take part in a reflective discussion about the different ways these organizations approach transformation. Together, we will explore who is involved, how the work is done, and why it matters, with the goal of inspiring and strengthening our own efforts in peacebuilding, transformation, and reconciliation.

Presenter: Dr. James Huff, Associate Director of the Human Needs and Global Resources Program, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Wheaton College

Experience the sacred and healing power of a circle process as we connect, reflect, and support one another. Facilitated by a trained circle keeper, a community circle is not a typical meeting or a debate. It is an organic, respectful, non-performative conversation that flows thanks to the use of a talking piece. We literally sit in a circle and share our stories, thoughts, or simply our presence. There is no pressure to speak—listening is a wonderful gift too!

Registration will be limited for these circles, with space priority given to Cohort 5 of Foundations in Conflict Transformation and Reconciliation (FCTR).

Muslims have been a part of the landscape of America since before the United States existed, and yet today there is arguably no other religious community that is as regularly, as publicly, and as viciously demonized as Muslims. This seminar is intended to open up a discussion for the role of faith in imagining a different relationship between Islam, America, and other communities of faith.

Presenter: Dr. Omid Safi, Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University

Christian Nationalism is deeply intertwined with systemic racism. This session unpacks the historical connections and racialized roots of Christian Nationalism, its impact on civil rights and religious freedom, and ways to counter its influence. The presenter offers contemporary models of repair for addressing Christian Nationalism within three sectors: religion, education, and government.

Presenter: Rev. Brandon Wrencher

This breakout session will explore how Christian theology might inform our perspective on criminal justice and shape our calling as the body of Christ located in a country obsessed with incarceration and capital punishment. We will center the biblical text and Christian principles as we discuss sin, crime, redemption, who/how/why we punish, and the implications for a community forged through the execution and resurrection of a convicted criminal.

Presenter: Meredith Manchester, Assistant Public Defender in Pennsylvania

A través de un proceso interactivo, las y los participantes identificarán las habilidades y prácticas clave para una facilitación de grupos liberadora y eficaz en la actualidad (ya sea de manera presencial o en línea). Reflexionaremos teológicamente sobre la responsabilidad de esta tarea y compartiremos recursos para fortalecer la confianza y el desarrollo de habilidades necesarias.

Ponente: Dra. María Teresa Gastón, Psicóloga Organizacional

Where is the natural world in the wider landscape of doing justice?  How do love of neighbor, land, and water intersect?  Come to consider together what environmental justice looks like in the places where you and your neighbors (near and far) live, and share creative and practical ways that faith communities are involved to offer care, healing, and restoration.

Presenter: Dr. Laura S. Meitzner Yoder, Director and John Stott Chair of human Needs and Global Resources, Professor of Environmental Studies, Wheaton College

This is an invitation only session that includes a lecture from Dr. Nina Balmaceda and celebrates the conclusion of FCTR cohort 4 and PCTR cohort 1. Certificates of completion will be presented at this time. Lunch is included for all cohort participants and guests as part of this gathering.