wfn.org | Premawardhana Now Heads Ecumenical Body's Interfaith Relations

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The Rev. Shanta D. Premawardhana Elected to NCC Interfaith Relations Post

October 8, 2003, NEW YORK CITY -- The Rev. Dr. Shanta D. Premawardhana, a
Baptist pastor and a leader in interfaith work in Chicago, was elected Sept.
29 by the National Council of Churches Executive Board to serve as the
Councils Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations and Director
of the NCC Interfaith Relations Commission.

For the past 14 years, Dr. Premawardhana has been senior pastor of Chicagos
Ellis Avenue Church (formerly Cornell Baptist Church), and during that time
has been active in the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council. Founded in
1911, this organization is said to be one of the nations oldest interfaith
organizations.

 From 1996-1998, he served as president of that organization, which currently
includes 38 Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim congregations and
on Removing Anti-Judaism From the Pulpit.
interfaith dialogue and for helping Christian members of the Council reflect
across social boundaries that normally divide, for training people in
organizations. He is recognized for his leadership in building relationships

More recently, Dr. Premawardhana has been a leader in the congregation-based
community organizing network, the Gamaliel Foundation. Christian, Jewish and
Muslim congregations across racial, ethnic and economic lines join in 51
community organizations in 28 states to work together for issues of economic
justice and immigrant rights.

Dr. Premawardhana also is the vice-president of the Chicago-based
Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations, which currently has a membership of
about 100 congregations. Recently, these congregations successfully lobbied
to pass legislation that allows immigrant students to pay in-state tuition
in Illinois colleges and universities. They are also working on legislation
to reform education funding, which currently perpetuates wide disparities.

His accomplishments built on earlier interfaith experience, including the
insights he gained as founding pastor of the Chicago Ashram of Jesus Christ
in Skokie, Ill., a Christian community with an outreach to South Asian
immigrants of various faith groups. The Ashrams programs included small
group interfaith dialogues, in which persons of different religious
traditions met weekly in each others homes, to learn from each others
journeys of faith.

Dr. Premawardhana is Vice-President of the Alliance of Baptists, an NCC
member communion. From 1995-98, he chaired the standing committee on
Interfaith Relations and was instrumental in helping the Alliance adopt an
historic Statement on Jewish Christian Relations.

Of his role as pastor, Dr. Premawardhana notes that his job is to equip the
saints for the work of ministry. Acting on that phrase from Ephesians
4:11-12, he has led members of his congregation in focused efforts to
identify the gifts with which God has graced them, and to use their talents
in ministries that touch their immediate neighborhood, their city and state.
Internationally, he has led the church to develop relationships with
churches in Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.

Among the honors he has earned, the Academy of Parish Clergy, a national
organization of Christian clergy, named him 1998 Parish Pastor of the Year.

Dr. Premawardhana was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and received his seminary
education in Sri Lanka and India. He went on to do graduate work at
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., earning a masters degree in
Comparative Religion: Buddhism and Christianity, and a doctoral degree in
Phenomenology of Religions, with a specialty in Hinduism and Christianity.
He is married to the musician and piano teacher, Dhilanthi Fernando, and has
three children, Charith, Devaka and Amali.

The National Council of Churches is the leading ecumenical organization in
the United States.  Its 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican member
communions (denominations) comprise 50 million adherents in 140,000 local
congregations nationwide.

Along with interfaith relations, Council programs include education and
leadership ministries, Bible translation, environmental justice, faith and
order, church renewal, public policy research and advocacy, research and
communication, and work to reduce poverty.

-end-

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