Rev. Dr. Stephen G. Ray Jr. (he/his) is the Senior Minister of the historic United Church on the Green in New Haven, CT. He began this role in the Summer of 2023 after a long and distinguished career in theological education. Ray was the 13 th President of Chicago Theological Seminary (a seminary related to the United Church of Christ) and a past President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, Ray has served as assistant minister at Faith Congregational Church in Hartford, CT., pastor of The Black Church at Yale in New Haven, CT., interim pastor at Imani Fellowship Community Church (UCC) in Hartford, CT., and Plymouth Congregational Church (UCC) in Louisville, KY.
Ray’s academic appointments included the Neal F. and Ila A. Fisher Chair of Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary; Jeremiah A. Wright Sr. Associate Professor of African-American Studies and Director of the Urban Theological Institute at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and lecturer at Yale Divinity School and the Hartford Seminary.
Ray received his Ph.D. in Theology and African-American Studies from Yale University and his M.Div. (summa cum laude) from the Yale Divinity School. Among his awards are the Hooker Fellowship for Excellence in Theological Studies; Charter Oak State College Distinguished Alumni Award; Kentuckiana Metroversity, Distinguished Teacher of Adult Learners; 2006 Associated Church Press Award of Excellence for Column; 2018 Alumni Award for Distinction in Theological Education from Yale Divinity School; Doctor of Divinity honoris causa, United Lutheran Seminary, 2020.
A prolific author, his works include: A Struggle from the Start: The Black Community of Hartford, 1639-1960 and Do No Harm: Social Sin and Christian Responsibility. In addition to his own monographs, he is co-author of Black Church Studies: An Introduction; editor of the 20th Anniversary Edition of We Have Been Believers: An African-American Systematic Theology; co-editor of Awake to the Moment: Introduction to Theology; and a contributor to several other books, academic journals, and church publications.
Ray has dedicated his career to activism on behalf of marginalized people and communities. In his writing, teaching, and public speaking Ray has advocated strongly for the rights of LGBTQ+ people and communities in our society.