From MFSA
The Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) has announced the Rev. Alan Storey as the speaker for its Plumbline Lecture to be held at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC on Monday, Sept. 15.
"I am excited to share Rev. Alan Storey with the faith and activist communities in Washington, DC. Alan provides insights into the intersections of injustices through his teaching and preaching which speak to the heart of what it means to be in solidarity with the most marginal in our world," said Chett Pritchett, executive director of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. "Alan has an ability to engage his listeners and challenge us to offer our lives for the transformation of both Church and world."
Alan Storey is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and is currently ministering at the Central Methodist Mission (CMM) in Cape Town. Before moving to CMM, Alan was serving at Calvary Methodist Church, Midrand, situated halfway between Pretoria and Johannesburg for 11 years. No stranger to the Church, Alan is the son of Rev. Peter Storey, former president of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and bishop of Johannesburg, former president of the South African Council of Churches, and chaplain to Nelson Mandela.
According to an announcement in MFSA's newsletter, "Alan's commitment to peacemaking was tested early in his life when he faced conscription into the apartheid regime's military. After spending a year of discernment working as a laborer in Australia, he returned to South Africa, declaring he would never fight in the apartheid army – or [in] any army. He was arrested and faced trial with a six-year prison sentence as the likely outcome. Alan's trial was abandoned midway, and he became the last conscientious objector to be tried in apartheid South Africa.
"During his theological training at Rhodes University, he was involved in the Gun Free South Africa Campaign that was launched at the time of transition to democracy, and is currently chairperson of Gun Free SA. Alan was ordained in 1996 and sent to a small, exclusively white congregation in Midrand. He built a new church that embodied a rich diversity of peoples and that engaged deeply with dwellers in the Ivory Park settlement in the area. Alan himself lived in one of these settlements for two years to identify more deeply with the people there.
"Alan has spearheaded the transformation of the Stipend Policy within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa over the past number of years, calling the Church to take seriously the Gospel imperatives of economic justice. He is also a founding member of Sacred Worth which is an organization working for the full inclusion of LGBT people within the Church."
During his time in the Washington, DC area, Rev. Storey also will preach at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and Wesley Theological Seminary before he heads to Charlotte, N.C., where he will present a series at Myers Park United Methodist Church.
"I'm so glad Alan will be able to share his ministry and teachings to so many while he is here in the United States," states Rev. Michelle Shrader, Minister of Mission at Myers Park and a member of the MFSA board of directors. "He walks the talk and calls others to that journey with him."
Tickets for the Plumbline Lecture are $12 and can be purchase here. An offering for MFSA will be taken during the evening. Student tickets are also available.