Rev. Dr. Charles W. Allen is an out gay Episcopal priest who serves as chaplain for Grace Unlimited, a Lutheran-Episcopal university ministry. He also teaches theology at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. He is a frequent preacher and author of several articles in academic journals, most of which can be found online at www.therevdrcharleswallen.com.

Rev. Dr. Deborah A. Appler is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Moravian Theological Seminary. She is also a team member of the Megiddo archaeological expedition in northern Israel, and each season takes students, interested clergy and laity on the dig. Her academic interests center on the intersection of religion, gender and sexuality in the Hebrew Bible and how these texts and their interpretations impact the church. She is also an ordained elder of the United Methodist Church.

Rev. Dr. Randall Bailey is the Andrew W. Mellon professor of Hebrew Bible at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. He teaches courses in the Pentateuch, historical books and new methodologies of interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. He concentrates on the relationship of Ancient Africa and the Hebrew Bible and he specializes in ideological criticism, especially as regards the points of intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, class, sex, sexual orientation and power in the biblical text.

Dr. Angela Bauer-Levesque is professor of biblical studies at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. In her teaching and writing she has emphasized various aspects of social location (gender, race, sexual identity) and their impact on biblical hermeneutics. Her publications include Gender in the Book of Jeremiah: A Feminist-Literary Reading, Seeing God in Diversity: Exodus and Acts, and various essays in anthologies, including “The Book of Jeremiah” in The Queer Bible Commentary. She is currently working on a book titled Reading While White: Race, Racism, and the Bible. Legally married, she and her partner Irma live in Ogunquit, ME.

Rev. Jacki Belile is the founder of Living Well Ministries (LWM). LWM supports lives of faith, intention and service through spiritual life coaching, weekly classes, and regular retreats. In 1999, Jacki was the first out member of the LGBT community approved for ordination in the American Baptist Churches-USA. Since then, she served as pastor of two welcoming and affirming congregations: Phoenix Community Church (Kalamazoo, MI) and Grace Baptist Church (Chicago). Since 2000, she has led retreats and seminars with LWM. Jacki holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Social Work from Taylor University and a Master of Divinity degree from Chicago Theological Seminary.

Rev. Dr. Michael Joseph Brown is associate professor of New Testament and Christian origins at the Candler School of Theology and the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. He has published widely on the development of religious practices, particularly prayer, in the early church.

Dr. Greg Carey is associate professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary in Lancaster, Pa., and an active layperson in the United Church of Christ. He is the author of Ultimate Things: An Introduction to Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature, among other works, and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC, the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel.

Rev. Dr. Warren Carter is professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, TX. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. His recent studies examine the role that the experience of the Roman imperial world plays in interpreting the gospel.

Rev. Sarah Carpenter-Vascik was raised in a pre Vatican II Catholic household, but left the Roman Catholic Church in 1966. She was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1996, but is not affiliated with any denomination at the current time. She is a Biomedical Engineering Technician at the University of Vermont, where she transitioned male to female in 2005. Reverend Carpenter is also a transgender activist, providing training on transgender issues in education and the workplace, both on and off campus and is working on a GLBT guide to the Bible.

Dr. Valerie Bridgeman is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and Homiletics at Memphis Theological Seminary. She also is founding director of the seminary's Return Beat Theology and Arts Institute. She is general editor of Africana worship resources for The United Methodist Church. Her research and writing interests are in theprophets, with particular interest in Womanist hermeneutics and cultural criticism.

Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre is associate professor of Social Ethics at Iliff School of Theology and director of Iliff's Justice and Peace Institute in Denver. He has published more than 12 books, including the award-winning Reading the Bible from the Margins (2002), Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins (2004) and Santería: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America (2003). He has also published several articles, chapters in books and encyclopedia/dictionary entries. He has recently published A Lily Among the Thorns: Imagining a New Christian Sexuality.

Rev. Dr. Marvin Ellison is professor of Christian ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary and an ordained Presbyterian minister. His publications include Same-Sex Marriage?: A Christian Ethical Analysis (2004); Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love, edited with Sylvia Thorson-Smith (2003); and Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality (1996). He has published numerous essays on same-sex marriage, gender justice in Protestant Christianity and changing patterns of family life. Ellison is an out gay man and co-chair of Maine’s Religious Coalition Against Discrimination, a network of interfaith leaders engaged in education and advocacy for the full rights of LBGT persons. 

Rev. Dr. Holly Hearon is assistant professor of New Testament at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and Catholic Biblical Association and is currently serving as president of the Midwest Society of Biblical Literature. Her research interests are Christian origins within Formative Judaism, women in the early church and the study of oral narrative and social memory in relation to the biblical text. She is also a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is an out lesbian who teaches New Testament and Greek at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. She is the author of The Mary Magdalene Tradition: Witness and Counter-Witness in Early Christian Communities, and a contributor to the Queer Bible Commentary.

Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Hopson holds a joint appointment in the department of psychology and the school of divinity at Howard University, Washington, DC. He is a clinical psychologist and ordained minister. He is currently working on advancing psychologically-informed body-friendly theologies in the Black church. 

Rev. Dr. Norman J. Kansfield is a conservative Calvinist theologian who lost his job as a seminary president after he presided at the marriage of his daughter to another woman. He is convinced that the Christian church needs to recover awareness that God changes God’s mind (as in the story of Jonah). Such awareness makes our current task one of keeping up with God as God calls a wondrous variety of persons into the fellowship of God’s people. Norm currently serves as senior scholar in residence at Drew University. He and Mary Klein Kansfield have three children: Ann and Jennifer, who serve as pastors in Brooklyn, NY, and John, who is doing graduate study in architecture in Tempe, AZ.

Dr. Tat-siong Benny Liew is associate professor of New Testament at Pacific School of Religion. He is the author of Politics of Parousia: Reading Mark Inter(con)textually (1999) and guest editor of the Semeia volume on "The Bible in Asian America" (2002). He is interested and invested in the issue of sexual justice and has written several articles on this particular issue in connection with the practice of biblical interpretation.

Rev. Phyllis V. Pennese is the founding and senior pastor of Pillar of Love Fellowship Church, Chicago, which is a new church start affiliated with Refuge Ministries and a member of The Fellowship. She also serves as chaplain for Plymouth Place, a retirement community affiliated with the UCC. Her distinctive achievements include the 2004 recipient of the G. Campbell Morgan Preaching Award from Chicago Theological Seminary and selection in 1991 by Chicago Women in Philanthropy as one of “Chicago’s Women Leaders.” She is the devoted partner of ten years to Vickie R. Sides. Together they are the grateful parents to their son, Brandon K.T. Sides.

Rev. Dr. Sandra H. Polaski is a New Testament scholar. She has published numerous works, including A Feminist Introduction to Paul. She was ordained by Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn., and has been active in Baptist life.

Rev. Dr. Christine M. Smith is professor of Preaching at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Her research and teaching interests include: preaching and social justice from ethnic, cultural perspectives, celebrating and proclaiming resurrection, and LGBT studies. She has published widely on preaching and social justice, including Risking the Terror: Resurrection in this Life (2001).

Dr. Ken Stone is professor of Bible, Culture and Hermeneutics and director of the Ph.D. program at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Practicing Safer Texts: Food, Sex and Bible in Queer Perspective (2005) and Sex, Honor and Power in the Deuteronomistic History (1996). He is also the editor of Queer Commentary and the Hebrew Bible (2001). The winner of a Lambda Literary Award, Stone focuses much of his research and writing on the relationship between biblical interpretation and matters of gender and sexuality. His other research and teaching interests include interdisciplinary approaches to biblical interpretation, neglected areas of the canon and ways of rethinking biblical theology in the contemporary world.

Rev. Dr. Linda E. Thomas is professor of theology and anthropology at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Thomas’ research into the cultural significance of theology and community has taken her to South Africa; Peru; Cuba; and the former Soviet Union provinces of Russia, Kiev and Leningrad. She has published numerous works including Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa. In addition, she has contributed articles and book reviews to numerous journals, including The Journal of Religious Thought, The Journal of Black Theology in South Africa and The Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry. She has pastored congregations in White Plains and Brooklyn, N.Y.

Rev. Dr. Mona West is the senior pastor of Church of the Trinity, Metropolitan Community Church, in Sarasota, Fla. Originally ordained in the Southern Baptist denomination in 1987, she transferred her credentials to MCC in 1992. She holds a M. Div. and a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible from Southern Seminary in Louisville, Ky. West is the author of Take Back the Word: A Queer Reading of the Bible from the Pilgrim Press. She is one of four editors for the recently published collection The Queer Bible Commentary, by SCM Press.

Rev. Dr. Judith Hoch Wray is an out lesbian biblical scholar, teacher and preacher. An activist for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the church for over 25 years, her diverse writings reflect her passion for preaching, for the New Testament, for the church and for justice action informed by feminist and queer theology. She is director of the Faith Empowerment Institute and pastoral associate at Park Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in New York City.