WRalph David Abernathy Sr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. He collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association which led to the Montgomery bus boycott. He also co-founded and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968, where he led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. among other marches and demonstrations for disenfranchised Americans. He also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE).
WPatriarch Alexy I was the 13th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) between 1945 and 1970.
WTeoctist was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007.
WKenneth Ewart Boulding was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher. He published over 36 books and over 112 articles. Boulding was the author of two citation classics: The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (1956) and Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (1962). He was co-founder of general systems theory and founder of numerous ongoing intellectual projects in economics and social science. He was married to sociologist Elise M. Boulding.
WHilarion Capucci was a Syrian Catholic bishop who served as the titular archbishop of Caesarea in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.
WErnesto Cardenal Martínez was a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and politician. He was a liberation theologian and the founder of the primitivist art community in the Solentiname Islands, where he lived for more than ten years (1965–1977). A former member of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, he was Nicaragua's minister of culture from 1979 to 1987. He was prohibited from administering the sacraments in 1984 by Pope John Paul II, but rehabilitated by Pope Francis in 2019.
WHarvey Gallagher Cox Jr. is an American theologian who served as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, until his retirement in October 2009. Cox's research and teaching focus on theological developments in world Christianity, including liberation theology and the role of Christianity in Latin America.
WCesare G. De Michelis is a scholar and professor of Russian literature at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy.
WPatriarch Filaret is the primate and Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate. He was the honorary Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (2018–2019), and the former Metropolitan of Kyiv of the Russian Orthodox Church (1966–1992). He was defrocked and in 1997 excommunicated by the ROC.
WHeinrich Fink was a German theologian, university professor and politician. In 1991 Fink was dismissed from Humboldt University of Berlin due to allegations against him being a former informer for the East German state security office, the Stasi. Fink denied the allegations.
WEmil Fuchs was a German theologian, the son of Georg Friedrich Fuchs and Auguste Louise Wilhelmine Lonni Hauss.
WGerd Gies is a German politician (CDU). He was the 1st Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt after its creation following the reunification of Germany. Gies held office from October 1990 to 4 July 1991, when he was forced to resign after he was accused of having collaborated with the Stasi. He was succeeded by Werner Münch. Gies remained a parliamentary delegate until 1998. Afterwards, he worked in the energy industry and served on the board of Electrabel Germany.
WHelmut Gollwitzer was a Protestant (Lutheran) theologian and author.
WPaulos Mar Gregorios, born Paul Varghese or Vargīsa Pôla, was the first Metropolitan of the Delhi diocese of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and served for over two decades.
WGustavo Gutiérrez Merino is a Peruvian philosopher, theologian, and Dominican priest regarded as one of the founders of liberation theology. He currently holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, and has previously been a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.
WPatriarch Ignatius IV (Hazim) of Antioch and All The East was the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All The East from 1979 to 2012.
WIlia II, also transliterated as Ilya or Elijah, is the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and the spiritual leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church. He is officially styled as Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, the Archbishop of Mtskheta-Tbilisi and Metropolitan Bishop of Bichvinta and Tskhum-Abkhazia, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II.
WIustin Moisescu was Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1977 to 1986.
WHans Joachim Iwand German: [haːns joːaxɪm iːvaːnd] was a German Lutheran theologian. Iwand's thought was considerably influenced by Karl Barth.
WMetropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna is a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The metropolitans of Krutitsy have traditionally served as auxiliary bishops to the Patriarchs of Moscow, but with a special elevated status making them equal to a ruling diocesan bishop for the countryside part of the Moscow diocese.
WKirill or Cyril is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009.
WMetropolitan Nikodim, was the Russian Orthodox metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod from 1963 until his death.
WJan Milič Lochman was a Czechoslovakian-Swiss Protestant theologian.
WPatriarch Maxim (Maximus) was the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church from 1971 until his death.
WSergio Méndez Arceo was a Mexican Roman Catholic bishop, activist and human rights supporter. A product of a wealthy family, Méndez Arceo's father was a successful lawyer and his uncle was a prominent archbishop believed to be involved in the church-state conflict of the 1920s. Méndez Arceo graduated from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome and served as a Seminary professor in Mexico. He became Roman Catholic Bishop of Cuernavaca, Morelos, in 1953 and served in that capacity until 1983.
WJürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian who is Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen. and is known for his books such as the Theology of Hope, The Crucified God, God in Creation and other contributions to systematic theology. Jürgen Moltmann is the husband of Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, a notable feminist theologian. Jürgen Moltmann described his own theology as an extension of Karl Barth's theological works, especially the Church Dogmatics, and he has described his own work as Post-Barthian. He has received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions, such as Duke University (1973), the University of Louvain in Belgium (1995), the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Romania (1996), the Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan (2002), the Nicaraguan Evangelical University (2002), and the University of Pretoria in South Africa (2017). Moltmann was selected to deliver the prestigious Gifford Lectures in 1984–85, and was also the recipient of the 2000 University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
WAbraham Johannes Muste was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. He is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, antiwar movement, and civil rights movement.
WAntoni Naumczyk, was a priest of the Polish Catholic Church, protonotary apostolic and general vicar, doctor of theology, and lecturer of the Christian Theology Academy in Warsaw.
WFriedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known for his opposition to the Nazi regime during the late 1930s and for his widely quoted poem "First they came ..." The poem has many different versions, one of which begins "First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Communist," and concludes, "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
WPaul Oestreicher is an Anglican priest, Quaker, peace and human rights activist.
WMetropolitan Philaret was the emeritus Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus and the leader of the Belarusian Orthodox Church that is an autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church. He resigned on 25 December 2013, and was succeeded by Metropolitan Pavel.
WKenneth Lee Pike was an American linguist and anthropologist. He was the originator of the theory of tagmemics, the coiner of the terms "emic" and "etic" and the developer of the constructed language Kalaba-X for use in teaching the theory and practice of translation.
WPatriarch Pimen, was the 14th Patriarch of Moscow and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1970 to 1990.
WHenning Scherf is a German lawyer and politician (SPD). He was the 6th President of the Senate and Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen from 4 July 1995 to 8 November 2005.
WPope Shenouda III was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. His episcopate lasted 40 years, 4 months, and 4 days from 14 November 1971 until his death on 17 March 2012.
WJerzy Toeplitz AO was born in 1909 in Kharkiv. He was educated in Warsaw. After World War II he was the co-founder of the Polish Film School, and later took up an appointment in Australia for the Film and TV School.
WAndré Trocmé and his wife, Magda, were a French couple designated Righteous Among the Nations. For 15 years, André served as a pastor in the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, on the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon, in south-central France. He had been sent to the rather remote parish because of his pacifist positions, which were not well received by the French Protestant Church. In his preaching, he spoke out against discrimination as the Nazis were gaining power in neighbouring Germany and urged his Protestant Huguenot congregation to hide Jewish refugees from the Holocaust of the World War II.
WAndré Trocmé and his wife, Magda, were a French couple designated Righteous Among the Nations. For 15 years, André served as a pastor in the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, on the Plateau Vivarais-Lignon, in south-central France. He had been sent to the rather remote parish because of his pacifist positions, which were not well received by the French Protestant Church. In his preaching, he spoke out against discrimination as the Nazis were gaining power in neighbouring Germany and urged his Protestant Huguenot congregation to hide Jewish refugees from the Holocaust of the World War II.
WWiktor Wysoczański is a bishop and the present Superior of the Polish Catholic Church. He became Superior in 1995, succeeding Bishop Tadeusz Majewski. As Superior, Wysoczański was chosen by the National Synod of the Church and consecrated by at least three bishops who are members of the International Conference of Old-Catholic Bishops.
WJohn Howard Yoder (1927–1997) was an American theologian and ethicist best known for his defense of Christian pacifism. His most influential book was The Politics of Jesus, which was first published in 1972. Yoder was a Mennonite and wrote from an Anabaptist perspective. He spent the latter part of his career teaching at the University of Notre Dame.