When Prayer Meets Protest: Exploring Faithful Resistance in Prayer
As people of faith, many of us carry a tension between contemplation and action. We pray for peace, yet witness unrest. We pray for justice, yet live amid systems that seem immovable. What does prayer mean in a world that demands both lament and protest?
That question stands at the center of Christian Theological Seminary’s 2025–2026 Lifelong Learning Webinar Series, “Prayer in an Age of Authoritarianism.” Across this academic year, CTS invites participants to explore prayer not as withdrawal from the world, but as a courageous and creative force that sustains resistance, builds community, and renews hope.
In a time when fear, division, and cynicism can erode our sense of shared purpose, the practice of prayer grounds us. This year’s webinars ask how prayer can form resilient leaders and faithful communities in the face of authoritarian tendencies that seek to silence compassion and suppress difference.
The series unfolds through two complementary sub-series:
- Our Life in Common, which brings a public-theology lens to civic engagement and social transformation.
- Skills for Flourishing Congregations, which offers practical ministry tools for sustaining healthy, adaptive congregations.
Each free, one-hour webinar features an expert scholar or practitioner who helps participants think critically and faithfully about the role of prayer in shaping public life and spiritual formation.
The year began with The Role of Prayer in Community Solidarity with Dr. Nick Peterson, followed by Praying Well: The Push Against the Globalization of Indifference with Rev. Dr. Daisy Machado. Both explored prayer as resistance to apathy and as a practice of compassionate engagement.
When Prayer Meets Protest
The series continues this month with a session that brings these themes into sharp relief:
📅 When Prayer Meets Protest
🕛 Wednesday, November 19 | 12–1 pm Eastern
🎙️ Presenter: Keri Day, PhD
💻 Free online webinar — registration required
In this timely conversation, Dr. Keri Day will explore the inextricable link between prayer and protest. Too often, prayer is portrayed as apolitical – an inward, private act of piety – while protest is dismissed as purely political, separate from spirituality. But what if these two practices are deeply connected expressions of faith?
Drawing on key scriptural texts and contemporary movements, Dr. Day will guide participants to see prayer as a form of protest and protest as a form of prayer. From the cries of the prophets to modern justice movements, they will trace how faithful people have long turned prayer into public witness – embodying both lament and hope before God and community alike.
Participants will reflect on how their own prayer life might be transformed when viewed through this lens of action and solidarity, discovering that prayer is not passive but powerfully engaged with the world’s deepest wounds and yearnings.
This free webinar offers an opportunity to think theologically about activism and to imagine prayer as a wellspring of courage and renewal for our time.
About Dr. Keri Day
Keri Day, PhD, serves as the Elmer G. Homrighausen Chair and Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ, and holds an honorary appointment as Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
In 2023, Dr. Day became the first African American woman promoted to full professor in Princeton Seminary’s 212-year history. Her teaching and research engage womanist and feminist theologies, social critical theory, economics, and Afro-Pentecostalism. She holds degrees from Tennessee State University (BS in Political Science and Economics), Yale Divinity School (MA in Religion and Ethics), and Vanderbilt University (PhD in Religion).
Dr. Day has authored four influential books:
- Unfinished Business: Black Women, the Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (2012)
- Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives (2015)
- Notes of a Native Daughter: Testifying in Theological Education (2021)
- Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Belonging (2022)
Her thought-leadership has been recognized by NBC News, which named her among six Black women at the center of gravity in theological education in America. She currently chairs Princeton Seminary’s theology department and serves on the Board of the American Academy of Religion, the world’s largest scholarly society dedicated to the study of religion.
Alongside her scholarship, Dr. Day regularly engages policymakers and the public through writing and advocacy. She has participated in White House briefings on economic justice, religious freedom, and faith-based initiatives and has written for The Christian Century, The Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire, and The New York Daily News.
Her work embodies the conviction that faith and public life belong together – that prayer and protest are inseparable expressions of hope for a more just world.
The Series Ahead
Following When Prayer Meets Protest, the Prayer in an Age of Authoritarianism series continues with three more opportunities for learning and reflection:
- Only Prayer Can Save Us! How to Stay Alive and Sustain Our People During These Times
January 28 – 12–1 pm Eastern
with Cláudio Carvalhaes, PhD
Explore prayer as a resource for survival, sustenance, courage, and collective resilience in a time of weariness and fear.
- Prayer as Political Response and Accompaniment
February 25 – 12–1 pm Eastern
with Yara González-Justiniano, PhD
Examine prayer as political witness and cultural organizing – a strategy for unity, resistance, and hope.
- For What or Whom Else Shall We Pray?
April 8 – 12–1 pm Eastern
with Amy Lindeman Allen, PhD
Learn how ministry leaders can make space for justice-centered petitions related to current events and reconciliation – even in politically divided congregations.
Each webinar stands on its own yet contributes to a larger exploration of prayer as both spiritual formation and faithful action.
Why Lifelong Learning Matters
At CTS, we affirm that formation never ends. Leadership and discipleship require continual renewal of mind and spirit. The Lifelong Learning series exists to equip clergy, lay leaders, and curious learners alike with theological insight and practical wisdom for the church and world today.
In an era shaped by political upheaval, cultural anxiety, and rapid change, these sessions remind us that prayer is a practice of remembering: remembering who we are, whose we are, and what kind of community God calls us to be.
Come ready to reflect, learn, and discover how prayer and protest together can renew both the church and the world.
