The Reverend Lorena M. Parrish, Ph.D., is (tenured) Professor of Urban Ministries and Director of the Community Engagement Institute at Wesley Theological Seminary, and Co-Director of Wesley’s Children and Youth Ministry and Advocacy Specialization and Certificate Program. An ordained American Baptist minister and scholar-activist, Dr. Parrish is a womanist theologian, urban ministry scholar-practitioner, and a staunch advocate for the just treatment of God’s most disenfranchised communities. Her work centers on providing transformative, innovative modes of community engagement and ministry design. Her courses prepare students to design and implement ministries that advance inclusion, justice, and equity; create new entrepreneurial initiatives that address a community’s needs; and develop curriculums that transform the Church’s teachings on spirituality, justice, inclusion, and the politics of Jesus. Her research interests include Womanist, Black, and liberation theological, social, and ethical traditions; faith-based activism of Black women and the Black Church; urban ministry; and theology in the public square. Dr. Parrish’s commitment to connecting faith, race, gender, economics, and social justice has led her to provide nuanced understandings, as well as new ways of addressing marginalization and disenfranchisement with a particular focus on urban environments.
Dr. Parrish has over 16 years of nonprofit experience and has served in multicultural and multi-racial congregations, including on the ministerial staff of New York’s Collegiate Church Corporation, The Riverside Church in New York City, Trinity Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, and as Pastor of Claryville Reformed Church in Claryville, NY. She also served as the Chief Executive of Girls Incorporated of NYC; a nonprofit committed to advocating for and serving young women and girls in underserved communities.
She earned her Ph.D., Master of Philosophy, and Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and holds a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University.
Her publications include, We Have Plenty: A Womanist Theology of Communal Abundance for the Black Church (published by Fortress Press, Sept. 2025); articles in The Huffington Post and Liturgy; and contributed chapters in several books, including Let Your Light Shine: Mobilizing for Justice with Children and Youth (Reginald Blount and Virginia A. Lee, editors. Friendship Press, 2019) and A Ministry of Reconciliation: Essays in Honor of Gregg Mast (Al J. Janssen, editor. Eerdmans, 2017).