ECBCS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OCTOBER 18th-19th, 2024
Celebrating 50 Years of Service to the Black Community
Join the Celebration of Community
October 18th & 19th
Meet Our Speakers
Keynote Address
Keynote Address
Keynote Address
Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. descends from two of the most influential names in American history: he is the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great-great-grandson of Booker T. Washington. His mother, Nettie Washington Douglass, is the daughter of Nettie Hancock Washington (granddaughter of Booker T. Washington) and Dr. Frederick Douglass III (great-grandson of Frederick Douglass). Ken's life until the year 2007 could be described as distinguished yet decisively disengaged from his lineage until Providence called.
Ken received a Bachelor of Arts Religion degree from the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies at the University of La Verne. As did Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, he firmly believes that education is the pathway to freedom.
Keynote Address
Keynote Address
Keynote Address
Rev. Dr. Richard Rose is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at the University of LaVerne. Dr. Rose is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Rose serves as the Executive Director of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies (ECBCS). The Ecumenical Center’s purpose is to provide in-service professional education for ministers, other staff, seminarians and laity of whatever ethnic background, who serve the African American Community. Through a partnership between ECBCS and the University of La Verne.
Visionary Address
Banquet Keynote Speaker
Banquet Keynote Speaker
Tamisha A Tyler, PhD, MDiv (she/her) currently serves as Visiting Professor of Theology and Culture. She works with several arts organizations and projects including Level Ground and Grunewald Guild, and teaches in the areas of Theopoetics, science fiction, theology, and womanist thought.
Banquet Keynote Speaker
Banquet Keynote Speaker
Banquet Keynote Speaker
Dr. West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West is the former University Professor at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Cornel West graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He is the first Black person to receive a Ph.D. In Philosophy from Princeton University. He has written 20 books and he is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.
About Ecumenical Center For Black Church Studies of Southern California
Our Vision
The Center’s purpose is to provide in-service professional education for ministers, other staff, seminarians and laity of whatever ethnic background, who serve the African American Community.
Our Approach
Because the instructors in the ECBCS program have accredited academic degrees, and are also practitioners in their respective fields, our students see ECBCS meeting the needs of the community through.
its very existence. Dr. Henry Mitchell, the Founder of ECBCS, modeled the scholar, teacher, practitioner example sought at ECBCS.
Our Accomplishments
An example of the ministry demonstrated by ECBCS at COR was the April 2016 Social Impact Lecture. The lecture focused on Rev. Dr. King’s legacy and the church's role with guest speaker, Dr. Cornel West. Dr. West is a living illustration of the African-American prophetic oral
tradition. The lecture was well received and symbolized ECBCS coming of age in its new location.