John Arthur Nunes joined Lutheran World Relief (LWR), a $35 million global
organization, as president and CEO in 2007. With a passion for service and deep
commitment to LWR’s core values, John leads staff in 17 countries in working to
end poverty, injustice and human suffering worldwide.
Prior to joining LWR, John served on the faculty of Concordia University Chicago
as a professor of theology, and as pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Chicago.
He has also served as a management consultant, and as an urban parish pastor
and community organizer in Dallas and Detroit. A gifted public speaker, John is
also a frequent keynote presenter.
“I believe deeply that God created everyone to live in justice, dignity and peace,”
John says. “When people’s most basic needs, like food, water and shelter, remain
unmet, they are unable to live out their true calling. By working alongside
families and communities struggling to lift themselves out of poverty, LWR helps
people around the world live into their full promise.”
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College, Ann Arbor, Mich.; a Master
of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; and a
Master of Theology from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago. He has
also received honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Ann Arbor and
Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin. Currently, John is a PhD candidate at the
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
John is the author of Voices from the City: Issues and Images of Urban
Preaching and, with his wife Monique, the children’s book Little Things Make
Big Differences: A Story about Malaria. He has written for Concordia Journal,
Hartford Seminary’s Conversations in Religion and Theology and
www.Beliefnet.com
Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, John grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and
has lived in the U.S. since 1981. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with Monique,
who is an administrator for Baltimore Lutheran School, and John, Jr., the
youngest of their five children.
Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), individuals and parish groups in international relief,
development, advocacy and social responsibility.
John’s Favorite Quotes:
“Deeply woven into the fiber of our tradition is the conviction that all people are
made in the image of God. If we accept this, we cannot be content to see people
hungry or suffering.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The future does not belong to those who are content with today….
Rather it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a
personal commitment.”
(RFK 22 Oct 1966, Univ. California—Berkley)
“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that
love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
Derek Walcott
“The worst crime is to leave a person’s hands empty.
People are born makers, with that primal simplicity
in every maker since Adam and Eve. (DW, Omeros, 150)
“The words of Jesus are not pious embroidery for religious pillows. The ministry
of Jesus is radical and it is ultimate: it crashes the boundaries of death and
summons all to a resurrection.” Eugene Peterson
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Working Groups are a central part of the way InterAction supports and aids its members. Working Groups are first and foremost a place for member agencies to share information that is important to them in several ways:
- by providing a way for member organizations to share information about field-based issues, concerns, and topics;
- by serving as a place for members to receive training and to share best practices with each other; and
- by offering a space for members to develop new products and materials on a given topic.
Working Groups are member driven and supported by InterAction staff (with the exception of a few non-staffed working groups). Members identify an interest, issue area, or need around which they feel their collective voices will clarify or strengthen responses. Depending on the number of member organizations interested, a meeting or consultation is planned to explore the topic and allow members to share their issues and concerns. Such consultations or exploratory meetings may lead to the formation of an on-going Working Group.
InterAction's current working groups are described below. For more information on a specific working group, contact the group's staff contact.
| Group | Description | Staff Contact |
|---|---|---|
| HPPC--SYRIA |
this is a working for Syria |
Abby Bruell |
| SIT--Transparency |
SIT--ransparency |
Laia Grino |
| Shelter and Settlements Working Group |
InterAction Shelter And Settlements Working Group |
Mohamed Hilmi |
| Allen-test-group |
this is a test group |
Allen Abtahi |
| InterAction Business Council |
Promoting and leveraging corporate and NGO partnerships for sustainable and inclusive international development and economic growth. |
Luisa Córdoba |
| HPPC--Humanitarian Policy and Partnerships Working Group |
HPPC--Humanitarian Policy and Partnerships Working Group |
Abby Bruell |
| SIT--Aid Effectiveness-Members |
SIT--Aid Effectiveness-Members |
Kimberly Darter |
| HPPC--Horn of Africa |
HPPC--Horn of Africa |
Lucy de los Reyes |