Faith, Democracy, and the Work of Moral Imagination: Honoring Rev. Dr. Serene Jones
Rev. Dr. Serene Jones
On May 19, 2026, Hindus for Human Rights Executive Director Sunita Viswanath attended “An Evening of Celebration in Honor of Serene Jones” at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Hosted by Union Theological Seminary, the evening honored the extraordinary 18-year presidency of Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, Union’s first woman president and one of the most influential public theologians of our time.
The gathering celebrated not only President Jones’s leadership at Union, but also the launch of the Serene Jones Center for Religion and Democracy, opening in 2026. The Center will be the first space at Union named in honor of a woman and will advance scholarship, public engagement, and moral leadership at the intersection of religion, democracy, and public life.
The evening itself reflected the breadth of Union’s community and the depth of President Jones’s impact. The program included music from the Leo Traverso Quintet, featuring Union alumni David Coleman and James Torres, welcomes from emcees Anna Deavere Smith and Krista Tippett, remarks from The Very Rev. Winnie Varghese ’99, Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and a welcome from Union Board Chair Clifford Hudson. The dinner included a table blessing from Rev. Verity A. Jones, tributes to President Jones from Dean Su Yon Pak ’99, Dr. Cornel R. West, Clifford Hudson, and Charis Jones ’25, followed by President Jones’s keynote address, a benediction from Rev. Frederick A. Davie, and a closing performance by Tyrone Davis ’27.
President Jones’s support has also been deeply personal and meaningful to our own work. She is the reason Samadarshini is a Union-affiliated project, believing in its mission to help build an anti-caste, liberatory Hindu theology for our times. For Hindus for Human Rights, that support reflects exactly the kind of interreligious courage and democratic imagination that Union has long sought to cultivate.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Our presence at this celebration reflects our deep commitment to interfaith solidarity and to the conviction that religious traditions must speak with moral clarity in moments of democratic crisis. At a time when religion is too often used to narrow belonging, justify hierarchy, or sanctify authoritarian politics, Union’s work under President Jones points toward another possibility: faith as a force for public courage, intellectual seriousness, community repair, and human dignity.
We congratulate Rev. Dr. Serene Jones on 18 years of transformative leadership at Union Theological Seminary and celebrate the launch of the Serene Jones Center for Religion and Democracy. This work resonates deeply with our belief that Hindu traditions, at their most liberatory, call us toward ahimsa, pluralism, equality, and the defense of human dignity. In this shared work, theology, public life, and democratic imagination belong together.