U.S. Christian Leaders Complete Yearlong Study of Judaism in Israel

JERUSALEM, July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Prominent American Christian leaders have completed an intensive 13-month educational program on Judaism, co-sponsored by AJC and the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100816/AJCLOGO)

The last stage of the program, the Christian Leadership Initiative (CLI), took place where it began, in July 2010, in Jerusalem. Participants engaged in ten days of studying Jewish texts, focusing on Jewish concepts of community. In between the two programs in Israel, the ten Christian leaders, representing ten institutions and six religious denominations, engaged in monthly distance-learning sessions, studying classical Jewish texts with leading Israeli scholars.

"Christian Leadership Initiative participants dedicated more than a year to explore Jewish religion, thought, culture and politics in depth," said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC's director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations. "We look forward to working with them as they apply their expertise to their work in Jewish-Christian relations."

With generous support from the Allen H. & Selma W. Berkman Charitable Trust, CLI, a partnership of AJC and SHI, has been training top leadership of Christian seminaries, denominations and theological schools since 2008.

"CLI is the kind of program that is essential to advancing interreligious relations," said Marans. "It provides an open space for Christian leadership to experience and study Judaism and Israel from a Jewish perspective."

The CLI fellows who completed the 2010-2011 course are:

Dr. James Buchanan, Executive Director, Edward Brueggeman Center for Dialogue, Xavier University, Cincinnati

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Carter, Sr, Chapel Dean, The Martin Luther King International Chapel, Morehouse College, Atlanta

Rev. Dr. Robert Cathey, Professor of Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago

Rev. Dr. Alan Culpepper, Dean, McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University, Atlanta

Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins, Pastor, 19th Street Baptist Church, Washington, DC

Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary, Faith and Order and Interfaith Relations, National Council of Churches USA, New York

SOURCE American Jewish Committee