University of Redlands
Distinguished Alumni Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea
Honorary Doctorate, Mike Wilson
Distinguished Alumni Award
Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea
M.Div. 1989
Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea is an ordained clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), also with clergy standing in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada. She has over three decades of grassroots and national expertise in direct programmatic development, refugee organizational leadership, policy and advocacy, and community education in refugee resettlement and sponsorship, immigrant rights and legislation, asylum seeker policies, and unaccompanied children services. Sharon has Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Politics from St. Andrews Presbyterian College, a Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary. She also received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Lynchburg. After graduation, Sharon spent more than 13 years in a California community nicknamed after a refugee camp in Thailand. She founded and directed a multi-service refugee organization in Fresno, California, nationally led Refugee & Immigration Ministries for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination, and currently is Director of the Washington, DC regional office for Church World Service global refugee and development organization. Rev. Stanley-Rea is deeply committed to refugee resettlement as one of our nation’s most successful public/private and bipartisan partnerships in U.S. history. She has won multiple human rights, justice, and advocacy awards, and has moderated numerous national and local press conferences, vigils, and community actions related to refugee resettlement and the benefits immigrants offer to both local neighborhoods and to the character and strength of our nation.
Honorary Doctorate
Mike Wilson
Human Rights Activist
Mike Wilson is a Native American (Tohono O'odham) human rights activist. He was born in 1949 in the village of Wac in the San Xavier District of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Mike has worked as a teacher and a Presbyterian lay pastor. He served for 22 years in the U.S. Army Special Forces. From 1988 - 1989 he was a military advisor to the Army of El Salvador during that country's brutal civil war. During this period, he witnessed the horrors of a military dictatorship, extreme poverty and the injustices of war. Against his District(Baboquivari) Council’s order, from 2002 - 2014 Mike maintained many life-saving water stations on the O'odham reservation for undocumented migrants crossing tribal lands. He has participated in numerous documentary and feature films and panels about the border. He holds a BA in Spanish, with a minor in History, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and did Graduate studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He is the co-author with José Antonio Lucero, PhD, of “What Side Are You On? A Tohono O’odhamLife across Borders“ to be released June 2024 by the University of North Carolina Press. Mike is currently in production as co-director with Victoria Westover of the documentary film “Whose Land? O’odham Land” to be released in 2025.
Watch the recording.A conversation about queer medievalisms and the use of historical traditions in the ministry and witness of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
This is a FREE, online event and all are welcome 😊. Zoom link here. Calendar invite.
Welcome to the Way of Peace! JOIN US for a very special evening of worship and music as we celebrate the Holiday season. The SFTS Seminary Singers and the Allen Temple Baptist Church Women's Choir will be performing their celestial sounds.
The event is FREE and all are welcome. Download the flyer here.
Wednesday, April 26 for “Wading in the Water: A Chaplain Support Group”
An afternoon event to provide connection, support and rest for Chaplains who have served during Covid-19. Gather with other local chaplains, Connect one-on-one, Share experiences of serving during Covid-19 in a facilitated group, and Spend solo time in nature.
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JOIN US for a conversation about Calvin, the character and legacy of the Reformation(s), and the modern world, with Prof. Ward Holder and other experts, on the occasion of the publication of Holder’s recent book, Calvin and the Christian Tradition: Scripture, Memory, and the Western Mind.
Welcome The Light! JOIN US for a very special evening of worship and music as we celebrate the Holiday season. The SFTS Seminary Singers and the UR School of Music Chorale Ensemble will be performing their celestial sounds. All are welcome.
The event is FREE, but if you would like to support our community programs, we would greatly appreciate an offering to the SFTS Shaw Chaplaincy Institute at this link: redlands.edu/supportsfts.
What does theology say about embodiment? What do bodies say about theology? Wendy Farley writes, it’s time to pay attention to what excluded bodies have to say to theology. Jon Berquist says, the way we understand bodies runs parallel to the way we understand society and God, and so it was in ancient times, in the many competing views of bodies and embodiment present in the Hebrew Bible.
JOIN US for an informal lunch, a panel discussion with Farley and Berquist and the faculty of San Francisco Theological Seminary, and a “Incarnational Spirituality Lab,” in which participants will together reimagine how theology can be embodied in liturgy, practice, and social justice. We will conclude with an Embodiment of Prayer led by Marcia McFee.
The Inaugural Lecture of Julius Bailey as the H. Eugene Farlough California Chair in African-American Christianity.
Watch a recording of the event
