A Dialogue on Divinity featuring Imam Khalid Latif (The Islamic Center of New York City ; Muslim Campus Life) and the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones (Union Theological Seminary) in conversation with the Very Rev. Winnie Varghese (Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine)
Sunday, May 10, 2026
12:30-2:00 pm Eastern
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10025
Our moment in the United States is distinguished not only by threatened institutions and coarsened political discourse but also by an erosion of social trust: between individuals, between individuals and local institutions, and between local institutions and governments. But widespread public mistrust is not merely an inconvenience, leading families and religious communities to turn inward; it weakens civil society, diminishes the credibility of institutions on which we depend, and undermines the possibility for reparative social and political peacebuilding in the years to come.
In light of such trends, what are faith leaders to do? Whether they serve communities as full-time ministers or bring faith-based perspectives to bear in nonprofit, governmental, or educational settings, what opportunities or obligations do they have to repair the connective tissues of pluralistic democracy? What do our religious traditions have to offer, in terms of resources for public moral engagement and communal commitment to peace and solidarity in times of intentional and incentivized division?
Join us at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as Dean Winnie Varghese hosts Imam Khalid Latif (Executive Director and Community Chaplain, Islamic Center of New York City) and the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones (President and Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy, Union Theological Seminary) for a hopeful and urgent conversation on the role of faith leaders and religious communities in anchoring an unsteady society that appears all too ready to give up its coherence and collective identity.
About the Speakers
Imam Khalid Latif is the Executive Director and Community Chaplain for The Islamic Center of New York City and serves as Director of Campus Support with Muslim Campus Life, a national initiative supporting Muslim students in higher education. He previously served as the University Chaplain for New York University (NYU) and Executive Director of the Islamic Center at NYU, where he also held faculty positions in the NYU Wagner School of Public Service and Gallatin School of Individualized Study. He continues to serve as Visiting Faculty at Bayan College of Chicago Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary.
The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, a highly respected scholar and public intellectual, is the 16th President of the historic Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. The first woman to head the 186-year-old institution, Jones occupies the Johnston Family Chair for Religion and Democracy. Jones came to Union after seventeen years at Yale University, where she was the Titus Street Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, and Chair of the University’s Program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of several books including, most recently, her memoir Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World (Penguin, 2020). Jones, a popular public speaker, is sought by the media to comment on major issues impacting society because of her deep grounding in theology, politics, women’s studies, economics, race studies, history, and ethics.