William Barber launches new center at Yale, will retire from church

Yale Divinity School is launching a new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, an advocacy-focused body to be led by prominent pastor and activist William Barber II.

“The goal of this center will be to prepare a new generation—what we call moral fusion leaders—that are going to be active in creating a just society both in the academy and in the streets,” Barber said in an interview.

Barber, a Disciples of Christ pastor and bishop with the Fellowship of Affirming Bishops, will begin teaching his first class at Yale with the start of the new semester in January. Though he’ll be “in and out” of New Haven, Barber said the new role will require some changes, including his retirement as pastor from Greenleaf Christian Church in North Carolina and a shifting of his duties with Repairers of the Breach, an advocacy organization he founded.