About the Christian Unity Gathering

In many ways, the world has changed since we last gathered. In other ways, the same challenges face us as before. Still, today just as yesterday, the central question is: what does it mean to live as a follower of Jesus today?

Through powerful speakers, seminars, and presentations we will find inspiration to come together as people who are called to bind up wounds, fight injustice, and protect the poor and vulnerable.

Resilience: How do we grow, adapt, and thrive when we get discouraged?

Resistance: What does it mean to “stand in the way?”

Persistence: Where do we go to find the strength to remain engaged?

Our 2017 Christian Unity Gathering will examine all these questions through our theme, “Resilience, Resistance, and Persistence.” Come and be inspired and equipped for the long journey ahead!

 

Current Speakers

Bishop W. Darin Moore

Bishop W. Darin Moore is the Presiding Prelate of the Mid-Atlantic District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Bishop Moore also currently serves as the NCC Governing Board Vice-Chair. An electric preacher, Bishop Moore will bring the message during our opening service on Wednesday evening November 8 at 7:30pm. Bishop Moore has served the AME Zion Church in a variety of capacities including on boards and as pastor of several churches.

Vanita Gupta

Vanita Gupta serves as the President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation's premier civil and human rights coalition. She is an experienced leader and litigator who has devoted her entire career to civil rights work. Most recently, from October 15, 2014, to January 20, 2017, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Appointed by President Barack Obama as the chief civil rights prosecutor for the United States, Gupta oversaw a wide range of criminal and civil enforcement efforts to ensure equal justice and protect equal opportunity for all during one of the most consequential periods for the division. She will speak during our Awards Gala on Thursday November 9 at 6pm.

Under Gupta’s leadership, the division did critical work in a number of areas, including advancing constitutional policing and criminal justice reform; prosecuting hate crimes and human trafficking; promoting disability rights; protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals; ensuring voting rights for all; and combating discrimination in education, housing, employment, lending, and religious exercise. She regularly engaged with a broad range of stakeholders in the course of this work.