General, Get Closer, Inclusive Impact, The Well

Conversations Across Generations: Shawn Dove and Peter Storey

April 7, 2023

Building an America where everyone can thrive is not a solo endeavor. It requires us to come together across lines of difference that have largely divided and fragmented us. At New Profit, we firmly believe that, if we are to create the transformational change we seek in our schools, our communities, and our economy, we must come together as multi-racial, intergenerational, and cross-sector communities to advance this work together.

We must also share and understand each other’s ideas, experiences, and hopes. This is why we’re hosting a series of dialogues between social impact leaders: To lift up stories based on connection with someone with a different vantage point.

In this conversation, Shawn Dove, a Managing Partner and New Profit, speaks with Peter Storey, a South African Methodist minister who is a former president of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA), and of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), and the W. Ruth and A. Morris Williams Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School.

Peter Storey recently spoke with Shawn about his 40-year ministry in South Africa, a time that was defined by sustained opposition to the infamous apartheid government and its oppressive racist policies, first in Cape Town during the forced removals of people of color and as chaplain to Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners on Robben Island. Later, as a Methodist and Ecumenical leader he played a significant national role in the Chruch’s anti-apartheid struggle. He and then Bishop Desmond Tutu were witnesses-in-chief for the SACC when the apartheid regime put the organization on trial. Peter wrote about his experiences in a recent book Protest at Midnight: Ministry to a Nation Torn Apart.

Watch the video below to hear the conversation:

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