- Home
- About the SCE
- History
- Who We Are
- Archives
- Current Officers and Committees
- Official Documents
- By-Laws
- Charting the Future: Advisory Committee to President Yeager
- Commonly Used Forms
- Policies, Standards, and Procedures
- Report from the Task Force on Contingent Faculty
- Statement on Contingent Faculty Practices
- 21st Century Initiatives
- Scholarship and Family Care
- 2020 Future of Christian Ethics
- Statements
- Caucuses
- Interest Groups
- Working Groups
- Regional and Other Groups
- Annual Meetings
- The Journal of the SCE
- Global Initiatives
- Resources
- Membership
Letter from President Rebecca Todd PetersOctober 2, 2025 Dear Colleagues and Friends, It's the time of year to renew membership in The Society of Christian Ethics (SCE)! The SCE membership year runs from October 1 – September 30. As a member of the SCE you receive the following benefits:
You are also cordially invited to attend the annual meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics which will be held January 8-11, 2025, at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC. More information and registration for the Annual Meeting here. To reserve your room online click here or call 202-393-1000 and reference “SCE.” The Society of Christian Ethics has secured discounted rates per night, plus applicable taxes for Annual Meeting attendees. Attendees are responsible for making their own hotel reservations. The special rate will be offered until Monday, December 15, 2025, or until the group block is sold-out, whichever comes first. The discounted room rate will be available for up to three days before and three days after the meeting, rooms not reserved by Dec. 15 will be subject to regular room rates. The 2026 annual meeting theme is “Christianity, Politics, and Power: What must we do?” The theme draws on the wisdom of our foremothers, Beverly Wildung Harrison, who taught that the art of Christian social ethics lay in asking critical moral questions that were answered by something we must do and Katie Geneva Cannon, who pushed this idea even further by teaching us that authentic Christian ethics results in “doing the work our souls must have.” In a time when armed national guard troops and ICE agents fill the streets of many American cities and our neighbors, friends, and colleagues are experiencing heightened surveillance and apprehension – I hope you will join us in Washington as we ask critical moral questions about what we must do as Christian ethicists in the world today. The first plenary will be delivered by feminist biblical scholar Sarojini Nadar who holds the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She received her Ph.D. in biblical hermeneutics and gender from the University of Natal and identifies as a transdisciplinary scholar within the fields of gender and religion with a focus on religion and social justice, spanning issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Dr. Traci West, James W. Pearsall Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics and African American Studies at Drew Theological School will be the respondent. The second plenary, “Exercising power in the face of chaos” will feature a panel of SCE members with unique vantage points from outside the academy to help us reflect on the wide variety of ways that Christian ethicists should and can be active in facing the imminent threats to the least of these in our society and to our democracy. Panelists include Shaun Casey (political strategist), Julian Cook (pastor), Marcia Mount Shoop (pastor), Charlene Sinclair (community organizer). I also invite you to two particular opportunities this year that promise to enhance your experience at the annual meeting. First, the SCE will offer our 2nd Annual joint plenary with the SJE and SSME on Wednesday, Jan. 7 from 11-12:30 ET. Since our partner societies, SJE and SSME, are both meeting virtually this year, the joint plenary will also take place via Zoom, and you will be automatically registered for it when you register for the SCE Annual Meeting. The theme is “Teaching each other’s texts” and it will feature plenary presentations by Katherine Kueny, SSME (Fordham University), Michal Raucher, SJE (Rutgers University), and Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, SCE (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), followed by ample opportunity for engagement and discussion of theme. Second, in response to SCE members' desire to actively engage in discussion and organizing in the current political moment, the SCE is offering a pre-conference workshop titled “Streams Become Rivers: Skills for Building Power” focused on learning practical skills for organizing communities to work for justice in, from, and with other SCE members. Participants will be invited to register for one of five themes, led by SCE colleagues:
In addition to a pre-conference, the SCE is coordinating a public ritual action to take place in the late afternoon on Thursday between the close of the pre-conference and the beginning of the annual meeting. All SCE members and the public are invited to participate. I invite you to join me in honoring our colleague Jean Porter with the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award. President of the Society of Christian Ethics from 2005-06, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012 and is John A. O’Brien Professor Emeritus of Theology at Notre Dame where she taught for over thirty years. A leading voice in the retrieval of Thomistic ethics, she authored six books and numerous articles and has been a pillar of leadership in our society throughout her career. With five concurrent sessions, three working group and interest group sessions, a poster session, pre-conference and public ritual action, the annual Presidential address, two plenary sessions, and twenty-three books to celebrate in conversations with an author - there will be many opportunities for learning, dialogue, organizing, and action. I look forward to seeing you in DC.
Sincerely, Rebecca Todd Peters President |