Emory to Host National Black Church Studies Summit

Community leaders, clergy, scholars and students will gather at Emory University Jan. 22-24 for the 5th Annual National Black Church Studies Summit hosted by Candler School of Theology.

The event will include plenary sessions, panel discussions, workshop presentations and public events focusing on the future of the black church and the theme "Where Do We Go From Here? Black Church Traditions, Textures and Transformations."

"This period in America's history marks an important juncture for black churches and faith systems," says Teresa Fry Brown, associate professor at Emory's Candler School of Theology and an organizer of the summit. "While the past two years have marked the fruition of long-awaited social change, it has also been a time of misrepresentation, misinterpretation and misguided discussions about the black church. Now is a pivotal time for black church leaders to gather to discuss the traditions, textures and continual transformations of the black church."

The summit will feature presentations and dialogue about the varieties of black religious experience, the 21st century black church, and the continuing social, political and spiritual impact of people of faith on the church, the academy and society.

Speakers include:

• Walter Earl Fluker, executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College, Coca-Cola Professor of Leadership Studies and interim director of the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection; and

• Katie Cannon, Annie Scales Rogers Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, Va., a leading Christian ethicist and the first African American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Sponsored by Candler and co-sponsored by Emory's Graduate Division of Religion and the Kelly Miller Smith Institute at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the summit will be held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel, 1615 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322.

For full event details, visit http://www.candler.emory.edu.