MSNBC: The Reid Out - Center for Public Theology and Public Policy.

On Monday, Dec. 19th, 2022, Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin, and Yale Divinity School announced the establishment of the new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy to instituionalize decades worth of moral movement-biuilding work by creating a training ground for leaders who wish to be equipped with a moral framework as a guide for their vocations and to further explore the interconnectedness of public theology and public policy through scholarly research. 

“YDS is thrilled to launch the new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy and to welcome William Barber to our community,” said YDS Dean Greg Sterling. “Dr. Barber’s work and service is in the tradition of public witness that produced Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, Walter Rauschenbusch and Howard Thurman, Ida B. Wells and Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Baker, and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Establishment of the Center at YDS is an opportunity to deepen our relationship to a historical movement that revives nearly two centuries of social justice tradition to meet the complex social realities of our time.”

The establishment of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at YDS is made possible by the generous gifts of individuals and foundations, including the Ford Foundation and the Fetzer Institute.

“Throughout my time as president of the Ford Foundation, I have witnessed Bishop Barber lead with a conviction of hope that stretches our moral imagination and calls us all to action in whatever capacities we hold,” said Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. “His work affirms my own deep belief that despite the contradictions and injustices of our past and present, a just and equitable society is possible in America. The Ford Foundation is honored to support this historic endeavor to institutionalize the Moral Movement and to invest in the growth of a new generation of leaders in its tradition.”

Read the official annoucnement HERE.