Kinnamon honored as Divinity School Alumnus of the Year
Michael K. Kinnamon was honored by the University of Chicago Divinity School as its Alumnus of the Year on May 2, 2013. Internationally regarded as an ecumenist, scholar of ecumenism, and church leader, he received his MA (1976) and PhD (1980; Religion and Literature) degrees from the Divinity School as a Disciples Divinity House Scholar. His address was titled A Report from the Front Lines of a Renewal Movement Under Siege. During his visit, he also led a Craft of Teaching seminar at the Divinity School and spoke with Scholars at the Disciples Divinity House.
Michael Kinnamon served as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches from 2008-12. His influential ecumenical leadership began in 1980 when he was called as Executive Secretary of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, and also included service as General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union (later Churches Uniting in Christ), from 1999-2002. His extensive writing on the ecumenical movement includes co-editing the definitive The Ecumenical Movement: An Anthology of Key Texts and Voices, and authoring The Vision of the Ecumenical Movement and How it has Been Impoverished by its Friends, and, forthcoming in 2013, Can a Renewal Movement Be Renewed?: Questions for the Future of Ecumenism.
He is also a leader within and a major interpreter of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), who lectures widely and has written Disciples of Christ for the 21st Century and Disciples: Reclaiming Our Identity, Reforming Our Practice, co-authored with Jan Linn. Key to Kinnamon’s leadership has been a consistent theology of the church and of the ecumenical movement, articulated in writing, teaching, and leading. He follows theological issues to their broadest social impact, using his insight and stature to press these matters in faith communities across the country and throughout the world.
In August 2012, Michael Kinnamon began a three-year term as the Spehar-Halligan Visiting Professor of Ecumenical Collaboration in Interreligious Dialogue at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry. Previously he was a member the faculties of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Lexington Theological Seminary (also serving there as academic dean), and Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. He received honorary degrees from Bethany College and the Aquinas Institute of Theology.