Rev. Dr. Rebecca Ann Parker, D.Min.

(she/hers), Founding Secretary of the Board

Rebecca Parker educated a generation of ministers, scholars, artists and civic leaders during her 25-year stint as President and Professor of Theology at the Starr King School for the Ministry, the Unitarian Universalist and multi-religious theological school  in Berkeley, California.  Through her leadership, the historically white liberal School was transformed to become a multi-racial, counter-oppressive institution. Now emerita, she is  a noted feminist theologian  and author, a poet, a musician and a composer, and a life-long advocate for social change. A graduate of Claremont Theological School,  she is the author (or co-author) of several books, including Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire and Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us, both with Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock. Dr. Parker, a fourth generation United Methodist minister,  holds ministerial standing in the Unitarian Universalist Association as well as the United Methodist Church where she has been a life-long advocate for LGBTQ full inclusion and racial justice.   A founding board member,  Dr. Parker has been the primary architect of the Braxton Institute  programs on Recovery from Moral Injury and with it, our collaborations with the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School and Volunteers of America, leading seminars for teaching faculty during the 2017 “Moral Injury and Collective Healing” advanced training seminar in Princeton, New Jersey and the 2019 national “Recovery from Moral Injury” training seminar in Los Angeles. She was a keynote speaker at our inaugural “Recovering Human Sustainability in a Time of War” program in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2014 and more recently led a stimulating Braxton Institute Community Dialogue on “Grounding Resistance in Love and Joy”  in Washington, D.C.  In 2019 she also co-presented an online Dialogue on “The Human Ecology of Racism” with board member Richael Faithful. 

On her work as a theologian and minister, Parker says "Legacies of violence, terror and trauma continue to bring anguish into the world.  Now more than ever, people of conscience and love need to do the hard work of theological thinking that deconstructs religion that sanctions violence.  We need to re-dedicate ourselves to the creation of life-giving theologies, justice-making religious communities, and joy-infusing spiritual practices. This is the calling to which my life is devoted and I’m grateful to be part of the work of the Braxton Institute which advances sustainability, resiliency and joy!”