About Us

Who We Are

The OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership trains religious and civil society leaders -- clergy and lay, women, men and young people -- to form Interfaith Peacemaker (IP) Teams. It trains them to collaborate across identities, build power, and act only on urgent, relevant, and winnable issues that arise from the ground in their communities, ensuring consistent victories.

OMNIA has trained over 6500 peacemakers and formed them into 325 IP Teams in 8 countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Togo, and Uganda. Each team has approximately 20 religious and civic leaders.

OMNIA was established in 1976 as the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE). An organization of 12 Christian seminaries, it trained seminary students to take the context of the city seriously, and to build theologies from the bottom up. After 40 years of training thousands of pastors in contextual theologies and methods, SCUPE decided to take its learning to religious leaders across the world. With this expanded mission, in December 2016 SCUPE changed its name to OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership.


OMNIA’s Mission is as follows:

By 2027, OMNIA will train 20,000 peacemakers, and build 1000 Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in 12 countries, to effectively address contextual issues of justice and peace, on its way to becoming a powerful and effective peacemaking movement in the world.

OMNIA is governed by an 8-member independent Board of Directors. Each member has signed a statement declaring that they have no Conflicts of Interest. The board has adopted the following policies:

OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership is registered in the State of Illinois, USA, as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation and operates under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Illinois. In seeking to be transparent in its finances and operations, OMNIA offers this link to its most recent IRS form 990 for public review.

OMNIA has received a Platinum Transparency rating from the nonprofit rating agency GuideStar.

Please click here to read the current Strategic Plan 2024-2027

Please click here to read a statement on OMNIA's Mission, Values and Method.

People in Sri Lanka with hands together in prayer

What We Do

Each Interfaith Peacemaker Team has about 20 faith leaders who are tough-minded and focused, collaborate across identity barriers, build power by organizing people and organizing money and act strategically on critical issues that arise from the ground. The Teams have one-on-one conversations with people in their communities to determine shared self-interests, evaluate the level of power they have and undertake strategic actions that are urgent, relevant and winnable. As a result, they usually win.

As IP Teams win, people are often amazed that age-old antagonism crumble in the face of effective and collaborative action. As a result, IP Teams grow. As they increase in number and impact in a particular locality, the culture shifts from one that affirms or tolerates extremisms to one that celebrates pluralism. IP Teams are a valuable component of a community’s social-infrastructure.

Join Us to Dismantle Supremacy

For the past year, OMNIA has engaged in conversations on supremacy. We want to broaden the conversation to include those with varied identities: religious, race/caste/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality etc.

To participate in the on-going conversation, please sign up below, and we will invite you.

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Women's Interfaith Peacemaker Team in Kaltungo, Nigeria
A large gathering organized by a women's Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in Kaltungo, Nigeria.

Leadership Team

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Shanta Premawardhana

President
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Nancy Renick

Chief Operating Officer
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Newlove Bobson Atiso

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David A. Das

National Coordinator, Bangladesh
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Soraya Deen

Coordinator, Women's Initiatives
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Bishop Kumara Illangasinghe

National Coordinator, Sri Lanka
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Abare Kallah

National Coordinator, Nigeria
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William Lloyd

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Evans Nyesi

National Coordinator, Kenya
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Oyergiu Joshua

National Coordinator, Uganda
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Franklin Okello

Coordinator Mombasa, Kenya

Board of Directors

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Larry Greenfield (Chair)

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Daniel Conley

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Paul Knitter

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Isaac Laudarji

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Kristen Opalinski

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Shanta Premawardhana

President
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Renee Regacho-Anaclerio

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Bishop Munib Younan

Resource Team

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Wesley Ariarajah, Ph.D.

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Afri Atiba, D. Min

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Kenneth W. Bensen

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Sharon Ellis-Davis, Ph.D.

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Soraya Deen

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Mohamed Elsanousi, Ph.D.

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Mary Gonzales

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Jeannine Hill-Fletcher Th.D.

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Débora Junker, Ph.D.

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Mary Nelson, Ph.D.

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Sharon D. Welch, Ph. D.

Make Peace Work

Interfaith Peacemaker Teams engage the best resources within every community to help turn the tide of extremist violence to create a new season of peaceful cooperation. You can become a team member - through your voice, your involvement, and your financial support!
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OMNIA Institute for Contextual Leadership 

5001 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL  60615, USA