Fair Witness
on the Middle East
c/o Sr. Ruth Lautt
475 Riverside Drive
Suite 1960
New York, New York
10115
(212) 870-2320
(212) 870-2001 (fax)
srruth@christianfairwitness.com
National Director
Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq.
Sr. Ruth Lautt, O.P., Esq. is the founder and National Director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East. She is a professed member of the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic, Congregation of the Holy Cross, Amityville, New York.
Sr. Ruth received a law degree from NYU School of Law and was previously associated with the law firms of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Parcher & Hayes in New York. Prior to founding Fair Witness she was a litigation partner in the Law Firm of Vollmer & Tanck, P.C. in Jericho, New York.
Sr. Ruth has also served on the Ecumenical Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn , Catholic-Jewish Dialogue. She was previously the Co-Convener of the Five-Towns/Rockaway Interfaith Clergy Council. Sr. Ruth is currently finishing her Masters Degree in Biblical Studies in the Jewish Christian Studies Department at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Board of Directors
Hon. Peter F. Vallone, Chairman
Peter F. Vallone served as Speaker and Majority Leader of the New York City Council from 1986 through 2001 and represented the 22nd District in Astoria, Queens since 1974. In 2002 he rejoined the law firm of Vallone & Vallone, founded by his father, the late Judge Charles J. Vallone, after whom the new Civil Courthouse in Queens was named. Peter Vallone is also a member of the Governmental Consulting firm of Constantinople & Vallone, and serves on the Mayor’s Election Modernization Task Force. He received his law degree from Fordham Law School and has served as professor of Politics and principles of Government at Fordham University. Peter Vallone is a leading Roman Catholic layman in New York State.
Mr. G. Morris Gurley, Esq., Vice-President
Mr. Gurley received a law degree from Harvard Law School. He was previously a Vice President of Trusts and Estates and the Head of Trust Administration at the Chemical Bank. He was also the Chairman of the Annie Laurie Aitken Charitable Distribution Committee, the Co-founder of the National Center for Victims of Crime and the Co-founder of the Brain Trauma Foundation. Mr. Gurley is an active lay member of the Methodist Church and serves as the Vice-President on the Board of Directors of the New York City Council of Churches. He also serves on the Commission of Religious Leaders of the City of New York and on the Advisory Council of the New York Board of Rabbis.
John R. Regier, Esq., Secretary /Treasurer
John R. Regier is a member of the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., practicing as a public finance attorney in the firm's Boston office. He is vice-chairman of the United Methodist Foundation of New England, a director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association and a trustee of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. He serves as treasurer and a trustee of Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts. John received his law degree from Yale Law School.
Executive Committee
Rev. Currie Burris
Rev. Burris is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) currently serving Silver Spring Presbyterian Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. In over 26 years of ordained ministry, Rev.Burris’experience has combined a commitment to work for peace, justice and human rights, service to the church, and spiritual formation. He has worked in ministries with homeless people, refugees and new immigrants, as well as in multiracial/multicultural church contexts. He has degrees from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has traveled and served in Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton
Rev. Chilton is an ordained Episcopal Priest. He is the Director of the Institute of Advanced Theology and the Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York. He is the chair of the Episcopal-Jewish relations Committee in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Throughout his career Rev. Chilton has been active in the pastoral ministry of the Anglican Church; he is currently rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, New York.
Rev. Dr. Roy W. Howard
Rev. Dr. Howard is an ordained Presbyterian Minister and the pastor of St. Mark Presbyterian Church (USA) in Rockville, Maryland. He has served the Presbyterian Church USA as an elder and pastor since 1980, including previous pastorates in Kentucky and Virginia. Rev. Howard earned a Doctorate in Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC., and an M Div. from Emory University, Candler School of Theology He is active in Jewish- Presbyterian dialogue within the Metro DC area and his own congregation is involved in an interfaith dialogue. He has been a leading voice for a fair witness in the Middle East for several years.
Rev. David L. Harvin
Rev. David L. Harvin is pastor of Hay Street United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, NC. David has been an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church for 32 years. In addition to serving local churches, he served in special appointments with Stop Hunger Now, Inc. and the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. Rev. Harvin has traveled to Israel for many years and is profoundly moved to help bring an evenhanded approach to the region to our major denominations. He has a strong background with the international community as well a strong commitment to social justice.
Rev. Dr. Scott S. Ickert
The Rev. Dr. Scott S. Ickert has been Senior Pastor of Resurrection Evangelical Lutheran Church, Arlington, VA since 1995. He is a founding member of the Washington, D.C. based Lutheran-Episcpoal Coordinating Committee, and is the Lutheran co-moderator of a local Lutheran-Jewish Dialogue. He serves as the ELCA observer-participant to the USA Catholic-Reformed Dialogue, and was a member of the USA Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue, Round #10. Rev. Ickert earned his M.Div at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and his Ph.D. at Catholic University of America. From 1990 to 1995 he was he Lutheran (LWF) Tutor at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, and part time fellow at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxforshire, UK, where he taught Church History and Theology.
Rev. Chip Larson
Rev. Larson is the Pastor of Christ The King Lutheran Church in Tahoe, California. He is also a Dean, an Assistant to the Bishop and serves on the Ecumenical Commission in the Synod of Sierra Pacific.
Rev. James Loughran, S.A
Fr. Loughran is a Roman Catholic Priest and a professed member of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. He is the Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute of Graymoor and New York. He served as Director of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Commission of the Archdiocese of New York.
Rev. Msgr. Dennis L. Mikulanis, STD
Monsignor Dennis Mikulanis currently serves as the parish priest of San Rafael Parish in the Rancho Bernardo area of San Diego, California and also serves as Vicar for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego. Msgr. Mikulanis graduated with Honors from the University of San Diego with a degree in both Philosophy and History. He attended the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome ("The Angelicum") where he received Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Theology. Monsignor also received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Angelicum, specializing in Ecumenism. He has co-authored two books and written several articles which have been printed in theological journals.
Rev. Dr. Peter Pettit
Dr. Pettit is an ordained Minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He is the Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion.
Reverend Thomas A. Prinz
The Reverend Thomas A. Prinz, is pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Leesburg, Virginia. He is also chair of the Metropolitan Washington DC Synod (ELCA) Office for Ecumenical Affairs. Pastor Prinz was previously Assistant Director of the Office for Ecumenical Affairs in the former Lutheran Church in America and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Theological Consortium. Currently Pastor Prinz is an active member and former officer in the Lutheran Ecumenical Representative Network; the North American Academy of Ecumenists;, the National Ecumenical Officers Association; and the National Workshop on Christian Unity. He is a founding member of the Virginia State Lutheran-Anglican-Roman Catholic-United Methodist Committee (LARCUM). Additionally, Pastor Prinz has served as a delegate to the General Assembly of the NCCCUSA for the ELCA and has been a member of the Standing Committees on Local and Regional Ecumenism, Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim relations.
Rev. Dr. L.T. Archer Summers
Archer Summers is an ordained Minister in the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church and currently serves as the Senior Minister in the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto California. He received a Masters Degree from the Harvard Divinity School, as well as a Masters and Doctorate in Education, also from Harvard. Dr. Summers is also an attorney, having earned a law degree from the Georgetown Law Center.
Rev. Stephen G. Thom
Rev. Stephen G. Thom is the Pastor of Mizpah United Church of Christ in Hopkins, Minnesota. He received his Master of Divinity from Eden Theological Seminary and has ordained ministerial standing in the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ. Prior to his ordination Rev. Thom received a law degree from Lewis and Clark College. He was a practicing attorney first with the Spokane (Washington) Legal Services Center and then in private practice.
Rev. Suzanne E. Wagner
Rev. Wagner is an ordained Minister in the United Church of Christ. Previously serving at the First Congregational Church in Fairfield, Connecticut as its Associate Pastor, she is on study sabatical in Israel this year studying at the Rothberg International School at Hebrew University . Rev. Wagner received a Master of Divinity from the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Rev. Wagner is active in the Connecticut Conference of the U.C.C. and is on the Connecticut Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League and the National Outreach and Interfaith Committee of the National Anti-Defamation League. She has been actively involved in Interfaith Dialogue in the Bridgeport Community.