Imago DEI
Consistent with our core values outlined in the CTS 2030: Project Transformation strategic plan, CTS continues to prioritize affirming God-given human dignity, working towards justice for all, and embracing diversity. Over the course of the 2024-2025 academic year, a committee consisting of staff, faculty, alum, trustee, and senior leadership stakeholders adopted the name Imago DEI and established the following theological commitments to its ongoing work even as the landscape of the work continues to shift.
Image Dei Committee Commitments
The gospel of Jesus Christ and the testimony of scripture compels us as a theological learning community to give witness to and act in ways that affirm God’s transformative love, restorative care, and life-affirming concern for all humans as divine image bearers:
- As the work of the gospel, we create and support opportunities for all to flourish and live fully into their vocational call and potential. Difference is not a distraction but an opportunity for us to best serve the world God loves and the church God empowers. (Exodus 31:1-11, Ephesians 4:11-16)
- There is room for everyone. We are one body with many members. We take joy in fortifying our learning community through explicit practices of welcome, making sacred space for authentic self-expression, and encouraging transformative pedagogy. (Ezekiel 36:26, Romans 12:2)
Towards the goal of God’s shalom and the Beloved Community, we are committed to:
- Seminary-wide learning about our theological vision of God’s presence in people of all ethnicities, races, and backgrounds and what that means for our shared life together as a community. (Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:17)
- Clear expression of this theological orientation and commitment in our teaching, communal programs, and public theology. (Habakkuk 2:2, 1 Peter 2:9-12)
- Review of seminary policies and procedures to ensure alignment with this core theological conviction. (Lamentations 3:20, 2 Corinthians 13:5)
We celebrate the strides our community makes to affirm the Imago DEI in all. As stated in the President’s State of the Seminary address, we as a Seminary remain “clear eyed” around challenges and steadfast in our commitment to live our core values.
