Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute Launches
OCTOBER 2, 2026
Introducing:
The Office of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement &
The Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute
McCormick Theological Seminary celebrates a new chapter in its public mission today with the official unveiling of the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement (SPACE) and the launch of its inaugural initiative, the Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute (LDI).
Held during McCormick Days 2026, the launch brings McCormick’s commitment to prophetic leadership, public theology, and community-rooted learning to life.
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“The Office of SPACE operationalizes our S.T.O.R.Y. Strategic Plan and our institutional commitment to Re-Storying—recovering incomplete histories, honoring lived experiences, and translating community yearnings into practice,” said the Rev. Dr. Maisha Handy, president of McCormick Theological Seminary.
“By bringing the Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute to life, McCormick reaffirms its commitment to being a global convening hub where prophetic legacies, civic ethics, and community-rooted scholarship converge to serve leaders in their own contexts.”
CREATING A PUBLIC GATEWAY TO MCCORMICK
The Office of SPACE will serve as a broad public gateway to McCormick, connecting the seminary with faith communities, grassroots organizers, scholars, civic institutions, and philanthropic networks.
Through noncredit masterclasses, organizational cohorts, public programs, and digital intensives, SPACE will extend McCormick’s intellectual and theological resources beyond the traditional classroom. Its programming will create new opportunities for leaders and communities to engage McCormick’s faculty, scholarship, and formation while establishing accessible pathways into the seminary’s credit-bearing academic programs.
“We are not merely preserving history or building a static video archive; we are building an active, global learning community,” said the Rev. Dr. Derrick Rice, executive director of SPACE and the Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute.
“The Jeremiah Wright LDI equips faith leaders, organizers, and lay practitioners with practical tools for civic transformation, global ethics, and community development. Whether a leader participates in a single masterclass or continues into graduate theological study, McCormick is fulfilling its public vocation to serve, equip, and empower.”
EXTENDING A TRANSFORMATIVE LEGACY
The inaugural initiative of SPACE, the Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Leadership Development Institute, was established with the written concurrence and blessing of the Rev. Dr. Wright. The Institute was created to preserve, teach, transmit, and extend his transformative legacy for generations to come.
Widely regarded as a “preacher par excellence,” the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is a nationally and internationally recognized pastor, theologian, author, educator, and advocate for social justice. During more than three decades as senior pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, he helped grow the congregation from 87 adult members to nearly 10,000 while making community engagement and advocacy central expressions of its ministry.
Known for his dedication to the Black sermonic tradition and his willingness to confront issues including racism, economic injustice, and HIV/AIDS, Dr. Wright has influenced generations of faith leaders through his preaching, scholarship, and commitment to a gospel grounded in both worship and action.
The Institute will organize its work around five enduring pillars:
Globalization, Pan-Africanism, and Diasporic Engagement
Civil and Human Rights, Reparatory Justice, and Public Ethics
Sacred Music, Ethnomusicology, and Cultural Witness
Community Economic Development, Ministry, and Organizing
Global Prophetic Leadership, Preaching, and Formation
The Institute’s initial programming is already underway with the Rev. Dr. Iva E. Carruthers’ God Box Talks. Additional LDI masterclasses will feature leading scholars and practitioners, including longtime colleagues and mentees of Dr. Wright.
LDI’s public-formation framework will also create a pathway toward the planned reintroduction of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Doctor of Ministry Cohort in Global Prophetic Leadership.
FAITH, LEADERSHIP, AND THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY
The SPACE and LDI unveiling took place in conjunction with the McCormick Days keynote roundtable, “Organizing for Democracy: A Light in Today’s Shadows.”
Inspired by Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks’ book, My America: Langston Hughes on Democracy, the roundtable brought together distinguished civic leaders, prophetic voices, and scholars to explore the role of faith and moral leadership in the future of American democracy.
Featured participants included the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, former U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush, the Rev. Dr. Marshall Elijah Hatch Sr., attorney Jeanette Wilson, and Bishop John Michael Villareal.
Together, the unveiling and roundtable offered a compelling expression of what SPACE and the Jeremiah Wright LDI were created to do: connect scholarship with lived experience, bring faith into conversation with the urgent questions of our time, and equip leaders to pursue meaningful transformation in their communities.
The launch marked not only the beginning of two new McCormick initiatives, but also a renewed commitment to expanding who can access theological formation, where that formation can happen, and how it can help transform the world.