Building Belonging & Peace Across Difference

Join us for a special program on Building Belonging & Peace Across Difference: Living into the Christian Call Now at Calvin Theological Seminary with featured speakers, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Martin Accad, and Gary Burge.

Monday, April 28, 2025

• 4:00-6:00pm - Featured Speaker Presentations
• 6:00-7:00pm -Dinner & Guided Conversations
• 7:00-8:30pm - Panel Discussion with Featured Speakers

In a time when our US communities are experiencing division and witnessing the impact of fear and hatred among different groups, how can our Christian tradition guide us? What role do we have to play as those seeking the good news and engage with our neighbors who are different from us? In the face of hatred and bigotry, who are we going to be? What does it mean to be a peacemaker when we encounter different forms of hate, recognizing that hate impacts us all? While some communities face the direct impact of hate and discrimination, some communities perpetuate it. How do we engage with other Christians whose interpretations of scripture are totally different than ours? And how do we work with non-Christians whose motivations might be different than ours?

In this special program, participants will explore theological and practical elements of what it means to live out the Christian call to build belonging and peace across differences today, and engage with each other on what that call looks like in our own lives.

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Featured Speaker Bios:

Ruth Padilla DeBorst: Ruth yearns to see peace and justice embrace in the beautiful and broken world we call home. A wife of one and mother of many, theologian, missiologist, educator, and storyteller, she has been involved in leadership development and theological education for integral mission in her native Latin America for several decades. She teaches at Western Theological Seminary and serves with the Comunidad de Estudios Teológicos Interdisciplinarios, a learning community with students across Latin America), and with INFEMIT (International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation. She serves on the board of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and the American Society of Missiology. She lives with her husband, James, in Costa Rica as a member of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian Community with deep concern for right living in relation to the whole of creation. Her studies include a Bachelors in Education (Argentina), an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Wheaton College), and a PhD in Theology (Boston University).

Martin Accad: Martin is the recently appointed 11th President of the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon. Formerly Chief Academic Officer at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut, Lebanon, for 19 years, Accad transitioned to form a new initiative, Action Research Associates, in January 2021. In 2001, Accad received his DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford in the UK. He teaches in the fields of Islam, Middle Eastern Christianity, contextual hermeneutics, Christian-Muslim Relations, peacebuilding. Martin is also heavily involved in grassroots dialogue and peacebuilding activism with Christian and Muslim faith actors, political activists, and other public figures in Lebanon.

Gary Burge: After completing 25 years as professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and Graduate School, Gary joined the Calvin Theological Seminary faculty until his retirement in 2023. His interests center on the gospels (particularly the Gospel of John), the historical Jesus, and the contextual and cultural background of the first century Judea as a framework for interpretation. He has also taught graduate seminars on the integration of psychology and theology as well as the integration of theology and the politics of the Middle East. Gary is ordained in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and is a frequent speaker at conferences, retreats and churches. For over 15 years while at Wheaton he was on the teaching staff of Willow Creek Community Church (S. Barrington, IL). He also leads faculty development workshops at colleges and seminaries based on his 2015 book, Mapping Your Academic Career. He is also deeply invested in the Middle East and its churches and travels there annually. He has organized pastors’ conferences, taught at seminaries, and been a frequent conference speaker in settings from Iraq to Egypt. He is often called on to interpret the Israel-Palestine conflict at American churches and denominational settings. Gary earned an M.Div. degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies at King's College, Aberdeen University, Scotland.

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This event is hosted by The Shoulder to Shoulder Implementation Team for the Christian Reformed Church in North America and the Reformed Church in America. The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign is a multifaith and faith-rooted coalition committed to building a more inclusive and pluralistic U.S. by addressing the problem of anti-Muslim hate and discrimination, among other forms of bigotry. We approach under a notion that what impacts one, impacts all and that people of faith are powerful agents of change.

Host or Publisher Shoulder to Shoulder