UBE AWARDS OF DISTINCTION RECIPIENTS The Board of the Union of Black Episcopalians is pleased to announce the awarding of this year’s annual awards of distinction to individuals who exemplify the passion, commitment and work reflective of four trailblazers in The Episcopal Church and our UBE community. Awards will be presented on the evening of July 6, 2022, at UBE’s Annual Awards Dinner during the 54th UBE Annual Business Meeting and Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The 2022 Bishop Barbara C. Harris Prophetic Witness Service Award The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers | Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation Care The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers spearheads Episcopal efforts to follow Jesus’ Way of Love and to grow loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with God, each other, and the earth as Canon to Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry. The author of Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other and the Spirit of Transformation – as well as The Episcopal Way and The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline and New Hope for Beloved Community – Spellers has worked for years at the intersection of practice and reflection, renewal and justice. Prior to taking her current post, she directed mission and evangelism work at General Theological Seminary in New York City, served as a Canon in the Diocese of Long Island, and founded The Crossing, a ground-breaking church within St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston. She began her career as an award-winning religion journalist in Knoxville, Tennessee, a job she took in 1996 upon graduation from Harvard Divinity School, where she studied religion and movements for social change. She later graduated from Episcopal Divinity School and, in 2018, she received an honorary doctorate from the General Theological Seminary. A native of Frankfort, Kentucky, she and her husband Albert deGrasse make their home today in New York’s Harlem neighborhood. The Dr. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper Honors Award Ms. Teresa Turner Chang | Co-founder of the One Human Race Initiative. Teresa Chang is the co-founder and coordinator of the One Human Race Initiative, a ministry of the Myra McDaniel Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians. She serves St. James’ Episcopal Church, an inclusive multicultural community located in Austin, Texas, as Junior Warden, Eucharistic minister, and usher. In her quiet, persistent, creative manner, Teresa has had a profound impact on congregations throughout Austin, the Diocese of Texas and beyond. She began her journey in 2012, as a facilitator who hosted courageous conversations in the larger community using the PBS series, 'Race: The Power of an Illusion'. In 2014, Teresa Chang and Sandy Battise, co-founded 'One Human Race Austin'. Teresa administers, trains the team, and facilitates workshops, virtually and in person. Teresa continues to demonstrate ways 'white allies' can use their privilege, power, and influence to contribute to conversations which shine light on opportunities to end institutional and systemic ism's - sexism, classism, and racism to name a few, in the Episcopal Church, communities of faith and neighborhoods where we live. Since 2014, One Human Race has presented its workshop and The Austin Story, which chronicles Austin’s racial history, at over 19 churches, as well as an elementary school, the Seminary of the Southwest, and organizations such as the YWCA and Episcopal Health Foundation conferences. One Human Race is an all-volunteer organization and does not charge for any of its programs.
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Union of Black Episcopalians (UBE)
