The Rev. Dr. John Arthur Nunes, president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), will be at Valpo on Sunday, Dec. 2, the next speaker in the Walter Wangerin Jr. Celebration of Preaching Series at the Chapel. The series, which began Sept. 9, is intended to bring notable clergy to Valpo's Chapel. The service is at 10 a.m. There is also an opportunity to meet and have lunch with him after worship. Students, faculty, staff and guests are invited to purchase a lunch at the Union cafeteria and meet in the Union Hearth Room, for a conversation with John Nunes.

LWR is a $49 million global organization. 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. He has also served as a management consultant, and as an urban parish pastor and community organizer in Dallas, Texas and Detroit, Michigan. A gifted public speaker, John is also a frequent keynote presenter.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College, Ann Arbor, Mich.; a Master of Divinity from Concordia Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; and from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago he holds both a Master of Theology and a Doctor of Philosophy with an emphasis in postcolonial identity. He has also received honorary doctorates from Concordia University, Ann Arbor and Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He currently sits on the board of directors of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations.

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.

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 and is married to Monique Nunes, who is the Director of Student Development for Concordia University, Nebraska.  They have five grown children.

Other upcoming preachers in the series will be the Rev. Dr. David Vasquez, campus pastor, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, on Jan. 20; and the Rev. Dr. David R. Schmitt, Benidt Chair in Homiletics and Literature, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, on April 7. The series is sponsored by the Chapel, the Center for Church Relations, and the Institute for Liturgical Studies.