About the Facilitator
Pádraig Ó Tuama
Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama’s work centers around themes of language, power, conflict and religion. He is the author of several books of poetry and prose: Feed the Beast, Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community, In the Shelter, Sorry for your Troubles, and Readings from the Books of Exile. Ó Tuama is also the host of the popular podcast Poetry Unbound, which immerses the listener into one poem every week, and the author of the collection, Poetry Unbound, an expansion on the podcast that offers reflections on fifty powerful poems.
Pádraig Ó Tuama holds a BA.Div. validated by the Pontifical College of Maynooth, an M.Th. from Queen’s University Belfast, and recently received a Ph.D. in Theology through Creative Practice at the University of Glasgow exploring poetry, Irishness and religion. He splits his time between Ireland and NYC.
About the Facilitator
The Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D.
Womanist biblical scholar, The Rev. Wil Gafney, Ph.D. is The Rt. Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church and translator of its biblical selections. She is the author of Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to Women of the Torah and of the Throne, a commentary on Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah in the Wisdom series; Daughters of Miriam: Women Prophets in Ancient Israel; and co-editor of The Peoples’ Bible and The Peoples’ Companion to the Bible. She has completed the second volume of Womanist Midrash, focusing on women in the Former Prophets.
She is an Episcopal priest and a former Army chaplain and congregational pastor in the AME Zion Church. A former member of the Dorshei Derekh Reconstructionist Minyan of the Germantown Jewish Center in Philadelphia, she has co-taught courses with and for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Seminary in Wyncote, PA. She is a preacher, teacher, activist, and amateur watercolorist.
About the Facilitator
The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, a native of New York City, holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture with a minor in urban studies from Smith College, an M.A. in historic preservation planning from Cornell University, and an M.Div. degree from Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in 1997. Before being elected bishop in 2016, she served in the Dioceses of Newark, Central New York and Chicago. She is the first black woman to be elected a diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Jennifer’s expertise includes historic preservation of religious buildings, stewardship and development, race and class reconciliation, and spiritual direction. She is an accomplished distance runner and triathlete and a passionate chef and baker. She and her husband, Harrison Burrows, are parents to Timothy.
A defining experience of her ministry came when she found herself near the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001. In the midst of a fearful situation, her own faith and that of others who sought shelter alongside her gave her a renewed perspective of faith vanquishing fear. “The Episcopal Church teaches me that the world is filled with incredible beauty and unspeakable pain and that God is deeply in the midst of it all loving us fiercely,” she says.
About the Facilitator
The Rev. Danielle Hansen, Ph.D.
The Rev. Danielle Hansen, Ph.D., is assistant professor of pastoral theology and serves as director of field education at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. Previously she was a lecturer at Yale and Tufts universities and a parish priest in Massachusetts. She is the author of several works in practical theology: Conceiving Family: A Practical Theology of Surrogacy and Self (Baylor University Press, 2019), God and Harry Potter at Yale: Teaching Faith and Fantasy Fiction in an Ivy League Classroom (Unlocking Press, 2010), and Expecting Jesus (Morehouse, 2014), a series of Advent daily reflections. She is also the co-editor of When Two or Three Are Gathered, an anthology of spiritual vignettes composed by a diversity of individuals throughout The Episcopal Church.
In addition to her books, Dr. Hansen has written extensively for publications including Huffington Post and The Guardian about the intersection of popular culture and faith. She is a graduate of Yale University (BA, MDiv, STM) and earned her doctorate at Boston University.
About the Facilitator
The Rev. Raymond Pickett
Raymond Pickett is the Rector (President) of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA, and a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He has been a professor of New Testament for more than twenty years. He formerly served as professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (2009-2017). From 1996-2008 he was professor of New Testament at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest and at the Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest in Austin, Texas, where he also served as academic dean. He also served as pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Manhattan, Kansas and as associate pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Pickett is the author of The Cross in Corinth: The Social Significance of the Death of Jesus and is a contributor to the multi-volume Fortress series entitled A Peoples’ History of Christianity. He wrote the Book of Faith Bible Study on Acts and has written several essays on the Gospels for lectionary preaching resources. He contributed the essay on “Jesus and the Christian Gospels” for the Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The New Testament and edited and wrote the introduction to Paul and Economics: A Handbook and an economic commentary on the Gospels, God, Mammon, and the Hope of the Poor: A Biblical Commentary by Fortress Press.