LEPOCO Annual Gathering with special guest, Chris Ney.
“Friendship As Peacemaking“
Saturday, April 6, 2024, 4 pm (doors open @ 3:30)
Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting
4116 Bath Pike, Bethlehem PA
(Route 512, 1/2 mile north of Route 22)
Call the LEPOCO office, 610-691-8730, for more information or to make a reservation.
The Rev. Dr. Christopher Ney, a native of Allentown, has served as pastor of Central Congregational Church (UCC) in Newbuyport MA since 2009. During this time, he completed the PhD degree in Practical Theology at the Boston University School of Theology with a dissertation titled, “Ecumenism, Encounter, and Friendship: A Practical Theology of the Mission Partnership Between the Pentecostal Church of Chile and the United Church of Christ.”
Chris’ interest in and love of Chile dates to 1988 when he participated in a foreign study program there through Earlham College. At Earlham, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Global Studies. He earned a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York with a focus on liberation theology, writing a Master’s Thesis on the Sebastian Acevedo Anti-Torture Movement, a group that used nonviolent direct action to protest torture in Chile.
In addition to his academic and parish ministry work, Chris has served as Public Education and Advocacy coordinator with JusticeWorks Community (advocating reform of the criminal justice system) a community organizer with ACORN (working with low-income residents of Brooklyn on housing and public education), Disarmament Coordinator at the War Resisters League (coordinating the Day Without the Pentagon campaign), and as Fundraiser and Communications Coordinator at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation in Boston. Currently, he serves as co-chair of the National Committee of Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Although much of his work has focused on issues of poverty and defense of human rights, his dissertation led him to understand better the importance of friendship—a human experience so common that it is often taken for granted. Yet it deserves greater attention, especially in these times of social fragmentation and deepening polarization.