The Rev. Don Christensen is a retired UCC pastor living in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Rachel. He first visited the Middle East in 1965-66, when he served as a YMCA Student World Service Worker at the new YMCA in Nazareth, Israel. He worked with Christian and Muslim youth and adults in a variety of YMCA programs. In the fall of 2003, he returned to the region to serve as an Ecumenical Accompanier with the World Council of Churches. For 3 months, he lived in the West Bank village of Jayyous and monitored the impact of the Wall on the daily lives of Palestinian farmers. His last two visits to the region were in 2005 and 2006, as a participant in delegations of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. During these trips, he visited the Tent of Nations peace center and ancestral farm of Daoud Nassar and his family located near Bethlehem. Serving on the Advisory Board of TON the past five years has helped him stay in touch with the issues. He is honored and pleased to represent the Minnesota Conference of the UCC and his congregation, Macalester Plymouth United Church, on the Palestine Israel Network Steering Committee.
Meet Our New UCC PIN Steering Committee Members!
UCC PIN is delighted to welcome three new members to our steering committee, in addition to Tala Raheb who we introduced in last month's E-News. Newly elected to three year terms are the Rev. Don Christensen, the Rev. Dr. Edward Davis, and the Rev. Rhina Ramos.
The Rev. Dr. Edward Smith Davis is a Servant Leader. He serves as the Conference Minister for the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ since 2011, covering the states of North Carolina and Eastern Virginia. He previously served as Associate Conference Minister of the Illinois Conference of the UCC. He served as Senior Pastor of St. Mark United Church of Christ in Chicago Heights, where he was the first African American pastor in the church’s 50-year history. He is Pastor Emeritus of GCM UCC in Chicago Heights.
Dr. Davis received his Doctor of Ministry degree in “Collaborative Leadership” from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he served as an adjunct faculty consultant, providing consultation to Faculty Mentors and Doctor of Ministry students. He holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Chicago Theological Seminary, an MBA in Finance and Economics from Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL, and two bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration, from Roosevelt University. He was a past chair of the Board of UCC Global Ministries, visiting 23 countries on behalf of the UCC and has served in the past and again now on the Board of the UCC.
The Rev. Rhina Ramos is an ordained United Church of Christ minister leading Ministerio Lationo in Oakland, CA, a Spanish speaking congregation open to the LGTBQI Latinx community. Rhina is also the National Coordinator for Encuentros Latinx at the United Church of Christ national office promoting inclusion of LGBTQI in faith communities as well as Latinx in traditional white congregations. Rhina was born in El Salvador and emigrated to the United States at age 14 in 1983. She graduated from Hofstra University Law School in 1995 and was a labor attorney for five years recuperating thousands of dollars in unpaid wages for immigrant workers. In 2003, she obtained a Masters in Divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. In her free time, she loves long walks listening to sappy romantic music in Spanish.
