CPTnet
8 November 2016
CPT INTERNATIONAL: Introducing Steering Committee Members
Waltrina Middleton and Flavio Conrado
Christian Peacemaker Teams
has two new at-large Steering Committee members with exciting gifts and
experiences to contribute to the organization!
Rev. Waltrina Middleton is actively
engaged in social justice issues in the United States and throughout the
African diaspora. Her advocacy
work addresses systemic cultures of violence and
racism against marginalized communities from Charleston, SC and Cleveland, OH
to Hebron, Palestine and Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is founder and organizer of
Cleveland Action, a bridge organization and resource in solidarity with the
Black Lives Matter movement.
She is a preacher, poet, social critic
and community organizer committed to actualizing the vision of a Beloved
community. Rev. Middleton, a passionate preacher and keynote, has been invited
to share this vision and message of faith, love and justice in diverse settings
across the world including the World Council of Churches Forum on Peace and
Justice in Trondheim, Norway; National Council of Churches; The Carter Center;
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference; Ecumenical Advocacy Days; Churches Uniting in
Christ; Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; and as a part of a United Nations
delegation addressing U.S. drug policies and mass incarceration. She is
currently the Associate Dean of the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard
University, Washington, DC and is a D.Min. Candidate, Class of 2017
Flavio Conrado is anthropologist, translator,
organizer, scholar-activist, and a huge fan of Christian Peacemaker Teams. He
holds a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of State of Rio de Janeiro
(1997), a M.A. and PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro (2006). Since the 1990s he’s been engaged with Peace and
Disarmament, Human Rights, Child Rights and Interreligious Dialogue/Cooperation
issues in Brazil and Latin America. Recently he created a festival, called
Festival Reimaginar dubbed the “Wild Goose Festival” of Brazil. It was
the first-ever space of its kind for people of faith (broadly-defined) to have
courageous conversations on undoing racism, sexism, capitalism, and
heterosexism. Bringing together speakers from across Brazil and internationally
(including CPT Executive Director Sarah Thompson), Festival Reimaginar spawned
a nationwide network of radical and inclusive faith-filled activists.
He has edited In Harms Way: The History
of Christian Peacemaker Teams (forthcoming) into
Portuguese and other several works related to Faith and Justice, Spirituality,
Incarnational Mission, and History and Religious Studies through his publishing
house Novos Diálogos [New Dialogues]. He was raised in Baptist tradition and
now works with a missional nondenominational initiative on the outskirts of
Brasilia, Brazilian’s capital. Through his work as a consultant he is
accustomed to thinking organizationally, and building infrastructure for social
movements. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
