About
OMNIA organizes Interfaith Peacemaker Teams of local leaders who act in response to urgent, relevant, and winnable issues in their communities. Through consistent wins, these teams build power from the ground up—transforming the conditions that sustain injustice and creating alternate structures for just-peace. As these teams grow in strength and number, they become a powerful and effective peacemaking network in the world.
Our Mission
1976 - SCUPE Founded in Chicago
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 needs of the city seriously and to root theologies in the context of lived experience.
2016 - Transition to OMNIA
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.
Today - A Global Movement
OMNIA has trained over 10,000 peacemakers and formed them into 550 IP Teams in 11 countries: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Togo, South Sudan, Ghana, Cameroon, and the USA. Each team has approximately 20 religious and civic leaders.
Our History
OMNIA accepts The Paul Carus Award for Interreligious Understanding from the Parliament of the World’s Religions
Our Friend, Suzanne Morgan
Generosity that powered a movement
Early in OMNIA’s journey, when Nigeria was the only country we worked in, a consultant asked our Advisory Board participants for a prediction. “What might be a newspaper headline in Gombe State in Nigeria, ten years from today?” Suzanne Morgan wrote: “Peace has broken out in Gombe State: and it’s because of the Interfaith Peacemaker Teams.”
It took only 6 years. In 2023, Gombe State became the 2nd safest state in Nigeria, and in 2024, it was the only state in Nigeria with zero kidnappings. Acknowledging that this was because of the Interfaith Peacemaker Teams, the Governor gave us an award. With that premonition in mind, Suzanne Morgan became OMNIA’s largest donor.
Suzanne’s primary motivation comes from her desire to create “healing communities.” Since religion is a key factor that fractures human communities, and since architecture is her primary passion, she endeavored to bring religious communities together using religious architecture. Her museum-worthy Sacred Spaces exhibit—a collection of models of churches, temples and synagogues—was on display at the Chicago Theological Seminary library. Her project of organizing religious people to systematically invite others into their worship spaces as a preliminary step to dialogue led her to start “Sharing Sacred Spaces.” She served as the Ambassador for Sacred Spaces for the Parliament of the World’s Religions and authored The Architecture of Faith.
Convinced that the Interfaith Peacemaker Teams create “healing communities” around the world, Suzanne has continued to engage with and financially support our work.
Sharing Sacred Spaces shared OMNIA’s office space from the time we were SCUPE. Our regular meetings and conversations led to closer cooperation between the two organizations. Even after Suzanne moved back to Hudson, Ohio, and Sharing Sacred Spaces to Greenwich, Connecticut, Suzanne continues to be involved both as a substantial donor and a trusted advisor. In 2017, OMNIA gave Suzanne Morgan its Kenneth W. Bensen award for excellence in Contextual Leadership.
Suzanne’s heart for healing, early belief in OMNIA, and extraordinary investment in its potential gave us the foundation to grow Interfaith Peacemaker Teams with remarkable momentum and reach. Today, 581 Interfaith Peacemaker Teams in 11 countries gather across lines of difference and act to advance good living in their communities.
