2024 Helen White Lecture: the Rev. Chebon Kernell

• Lecture: June 3rd, 4-6pm in the Church, followed by reception in the Parish Hall
• Forum: June 4th, 2-4pm in the Parish House

This year's speaker is the Rev. Chebon Kernell, an internationally known Biblical Studies scholar and indigenous rights activist. He is an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and is of Muscogee Creek heritage. He will discuss what the Bible means through the lens of the deep and broad religious riches’ of indigenous peoples in the context of reconciliation work and the recovery of native practices, as well as how the last 250 years of North American Native Peoples understand “the beauty and the pain” of the Bible.

The Rev. Kernell, an ordained Elder in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, is the Executive Director of the Native American Comprehensive Plan of the United Methodist Church. He has worked with the World Council of Churches, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops assisting in a denominationally mandated effort to improve relationships with Indigenous communities through dialogue, study and local or regional acts of repentance acknowledging harms inflicted upon Indigenous communities.

In 2016 he was honored by receiving the Westar Institutes Religious Literacy Award for his "tireless efforts to educate the general public, including not only mainstream American Christians but also Native peoples themselves, about the 'deep and broad religious riches' of Indigenous Peoples in the context of reconciliation work and the recovery of native practices" 

Learn more about the Native American Comprehensive Plan of the United Methodist Church: Indigenous languages, spirituality, women and climate justice.