The Most Rev. Dr. Emilio Alvarez is Primate of the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches and founding director of the Institute for Paleo-Orthodox Christian Studies.

Reared in a Holiness-Pentecostal household within the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), he served as a minister in the denomination until he questioned its anti-Catholicism and transitioned into the Convergence Movement. In 2011, Alvarez was consecrated to the episcopacy as a bishop for the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. He was invited to attend an audience with Pope Francis in 2014 and served as official translator for the meeting, themed "The Miracle of Unity."

In 2019, he helped establish the Union of Charismatic Orthodox Churches and was unanimously elected as its interim presiding prelate, before being appointed Primate. In 2022, Alvarez published Pentecostal Orthodoxy: Toward an Ecumenism of the Spirit, and in 2023, Pentecost: A Day of Power for All People, both through InterVarsity Press.

Since 2022, Bishop Alvarez has been Associate Provost for Lifelong Learning at Asbury Theological Seminary, relocating from Rochester, New York where he pastored The Cathedral at The Gathering Place. He holds a Master of Arts in Religious Education from New York Theological Seminary, a Ph.D. in Religious Education from Fordham University, and is currently pursuing a second Ph.D. in Divinity at Aberdeen University under the supervision of the Very Rev. Dr. John Behr. An expert on the intersection of religious education and theology in America, his vast ministerial experience has positioned him as a prophetic voice, especially within Afro/Latino communities of faith. 

Dr. Kirsteen Kim is the Paul E. Pierson Professor of World Christianity and Associate Dean for the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Theological Seminary. 

A native of the United Kingdom, Dr. Kim served at Leeds Trinity University, the Selly Oak Colleges, and the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide before joining Fuller in 2017. She began her career in South Korea, where she taught English Bible study and cross-cultural skills. Between 1993 and 1997 she lectured in missiology at Union Biblical Seminary in Pune, India, as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church of Korea.

In ecumenical contributions, Dr. Kim has been a member of the Lausanne Theology Working Group and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, chairing the drafting group of the mission statement Together Towards Life (2013). She was also research coordinator for the Edinburgh 2010 project, drafted its Common Call, and coedited the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series that emerged from it.

Dr. Kim does theology from the context of world Christianity and for missional purposes. She was the editor of Mission Studies, journal of the International Association for Mission Studies and now coedits the book series Theology and Mission in World Christianity, both published by Brill. Her research interests and networks include theology of mission, pneumatology, world Christianity, Korean studies, and development studies. Among her 150 publications, Kim is the author of five monographs, including The Holy Spirit in the World (2007) and Joining in with the Spirit (2012). The most recent, A History of Korean Christianity (2015) and Christianity as a World Religion (3rd ed., 2025), were written in collaboration with her husband, Sebastian C. H. Kim, Wiley Professor of Renewal in Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary. She was the lead editor of The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies (2022).

Rev. John H. Armstrong is an author, minister, and noted Evangelical ecumenist who has taught, lectured, and promoted Christian unity for more than thirty years.

He is the author of eight books, including Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission is Vital for the Future of the Church (Zondervan, 2010), Costly Love: The Way to True Unity for All the Followers of Jesus (New City Press, 2017), and Tear Down These Walls: Following Jesus into Deeper Unity (Cascade Books, 2021). He has also edited several other books and produced the documentary One: Following Jesus’ Call for Unity (Vision Video, 2020).

Originally ordained a Baptist minister, Armstrong pastored two congregations in the greater Chicago area for over twenty years before receiving a call in 1992 to dedicate his life to furthering Christian unity.

As founder and president of the ACT 3 Network, he taught, preached, and led retreats, unity forums, and city-wide cohorts guided by the vision that unity among Christians is central to spreading Christ’s kingdom. His unique ecumenical style marked by hospitality, humble learning, and ongoing personal conversion inspired the founding of The Initiative in 2018, an ecumenical community committed to helping Christians from various traditions build relationships across divisions, so that all would embody the love and oneness that Jesus prayed for in John 17:23.

Currently a minister in the Reformed Church of America (RCA), Armstong taught graduate-level mission courses at Wheaton College Graduate School until 2017. Now retired, he continues to write, mentor, teach, and build grace-based friendships.

William P. Gregory is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.

He joined the Clarke faculty in 2008, having previously taught at the University of Dayton and with the Christian Brothers in The Gambia, West Africa. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology at Boston College while pursuing studies of African Christianity and mission in Ghana and at Boston University.

Dr. Gregory is the editor of Go Forth: Toward a Community of Missionary Disciples (Orbis, 2019), a collection of Pope Francis’s teachings on mission. He has published articles in the International Bulletin of Mission Research, the International Review of Mission, and in Regnum Press’s Edinburgh and International Missionary Council Centenary Series.

His research interests include theology of mission, ecumenism, religious epistemology, and the mission of Catholic higher education. At Clarke University, he teaches courses in ethics, science and religion, Christianity and American culture, and intellectual challenges to religious faith. In 2023 he produced the audio course, The Mission of Catholic Higher Education: A Short Course for Leaders.

Dr. Gregory is a past president of the Association of Professors of Mission and the Midwest Mission Studies Fellowship. In the American Society of Missiology, he is a longtime reviewer for Missiology: An International Review.