Pacific School of Religion is proud to announce the appointment of Rev. Dr. Kristin Stoneking as our Associate Professor of United Methodist Studies and Leadership. Her work with us will begin on April 15, 2024. Dr. Stoneking is a scholar, pastor, educator, and innovator whose ministry focuses on the intersection of social justice, revitalized faith communities and organizations, faith formation, and interreligious engagement. An ordained elder in the California-Nevada annual conference of the United Methodist Church, she has served as a local church pastor, district superintendent, and campus minister.
She joins the rest of the PSR faculty in their commitment to making their discipline and theological education more widely accessible and impactful, bringing faith to bear on the creation of a world where all can thrive, and offers a research agenda that centers the wisdom and needs of historically marginalized communities. In addition to her faculty appointment, she will serve as Academic Director of PSR’s Congregational Renewal Cohorts Program.
Dr. Stoneking holds a PhD from the Graduate Theological Union where her dissertation focused on Interdisciplinary Studies in Interreligious Education and Nonviolence. As an advisor and former Fellow to the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, her areas of expertise weave together the history and practice of the United Methodist Church, interfaith relations and activism, nonviolence, innovation, and leadership.
She served as the national executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA) from 2013-2107. While at FOR, she led the historic organization with a long track record in anti-racism work in advocating for Syrian refugees and building infrastructure for nonviolent rapid response in communities where agents of the state killed persons of color. While serving as campus minister at the University of California, Davis, she founded and led the building process for the Multifaith Living Community, a community of six residences for 42 students from many faith backgrounds dedicated to faith, community, social justice, and sustainability.
She completed her MDiv at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and her BA in English at Rice University. Her publications include chapters in To Transform the World: Vital United Methodist Campus Ministries (United Methodist General Board of Higher Education, 2009), and The Promise of Campus Ministry: Theological Explorations (United Methodist General Board of Higher Education, 2010), as well as articles in Waging Nonviolence and Fellowship Magazine. She served as adjunct faculty at both PSR and Claremont School of Theology and was a field education mentor for several PSR students while serving as Senior Pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church in Berkeley.
Dr. Stoneking’s leadership at PSR will strengthen our work as a theological school approved by the United Methodist University Senate to prepare candidates for ordination in The United Methodist Church. In addition to her three decades of service in the church, she is a member of the California-Nevada delegation to general and jurisdictional conferences, serves as the chair of the Western Jurisdiction Council on Finance and Administration, and is a member of the external audit committee for the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries and is a board member of Wesleyan Impact Partners.