Dr. Wimberly

[RCCAtl]

Dr. Edward Powell Wimberly has been named one of the recipients of Boston University School of Theology’s Distinguished Alumni Awards.  The school will bestow this honor on five individuals on September 20th in Boston.  Dr. Wimberly will join the special company of church and community leaders that include bishops, scholars and educators, missionaries, civic and social activities, etc.

Dr. Edward P. Wimberly is currently the Jarena Lee Professor of Pastoral Care at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia.  He returned to the classroom at ITC after ten years of service as the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost.   He has served ITC as a professor and administrator for twenty-nine years (1975-1983, 1991-present). From 1983-1991, he taught at Oral Roberts University School of Theology as Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and was the Associate Dean of Doctoral Studies.  He also served as Professor of Pastoral Care and the Director of the Church and the Black Experience at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.  He has lectured and led workshops across the globe including: African University; Candler School of Theology;  Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales; Princeton Theological Seminary; Duke University Divinity School; The Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa; The University of West Indies;  and at five  Historically Black Theological Seminaries in the United States.  He has also served on accreditation teams for the Association of Theological Schools and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. 

Dr. Wimberly attended the University of Arizona earning a football athletic scholarship, and receiving a BA degree in 1965 majoring in history.  He earned three degrees from Boston University: two from the School of Theology and the Ph. D. Degree from the Graduate School.  He did his clinical training at the Danielsen Institute for Pastoral Care and the Solomon Carter Fuller Community Mental Health Center at Boston University.  He is an ordained elder and has served in the New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church since 1966.  He served as pastor of Emmanuel Church in Winchendon, MA (1966-1968) and at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Worcester, MA (1968-1974).  He has published fifteen trade books including Pastoral Care in the Black Church (Abingdon 1979), African American Pastoral Care and Counseling: The Politics of Oppression and Empowerment (Pilgrim, 2006), Recalling Our Own Stories: Spiritual Renewal for Religious Caregivers (Jossey-Bass, 1997), and his most recent publication is No Shame in Wesley's Gospel: A Twenty-First Century Pastoral Theology (Wipf and Stock, 2011).  His trailblazing and narrative orientation organizes human experience in terms of plot sequences, where life is shaped by stories, faith themes, and images  inviting theological and practical reflection in the pursuit of significant meaning and vocation.

In addition to his scholarship in the field of pastoral care, he has served on the Board of Directors of the United Methodist Children's Home in Decatur, Georgia for more than twenty years, serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and Historian of the Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta, an interfaith organization that identifies and renews justice issues, and served for eight years on the Trinity Homeless Ministry Board of Directors. 

He has also remained very active throughout the years in the United Methodist Church, leading many workshops at Annual Conferences including: East Ohio Conference, Northern Illinois Conference, South Carolina Conference, and the Zimbabwe Conference.  He has also been on many UMC boards and agencies and a consultant to them including the Board of Discipleship, Division of Ordained Ministry, the Commission on Religion and Race, and Commission on Face and Order.  Most recently, he and his wife of forty-six years, Dr. Anne Streaty Wimberly, led the Bible Study at the Northeastern Jurisdiction Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charleston West Virginia in July 2012. He is a graduate of Lawnside Public School, Lawnside, NJ (1958); he attended Haddon Heights High School (1958-1959), Haddon Heights, NJ; and he graduated from Chester High School (1961), Chester, PA.