About Hope for Peace & Justice

Hope for Peace & Justice is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is equipping progressive people of faith to be champions for peace and justice. Founded in 2004 by the Cathedral of Hope, H4PJ is led by the Rev. Michael S. Piazza, a longtime social justice advocate who has been a leading progressive voice in Dallas for more than 23 years.

Religious dialogue is so dominated by conservative churches, denominations and para-church organizations that the average American is left believing that radical conservative views are the only ones held by spiritual people.

In recent years, it has become apparent that there is a need for an organization that will speak to the values and views that are held by progressive people of faith and give voice to those views in our national dialogue. Seeking justice for the marginalized and advocating for peace have been, and continue to be, values deeply rooted in the tradition of Judaism, the history of Christianity and the authenticity of Islam.

The progressive church has a long and noble history of engaging the political system around issues of peace and justice. From the fight for the abolition of slavery to the modern civil rights struggle, churches, synagogues and mosques have worked for justice. In that tradition, Hope for Peace & Justice was formed to be a vocal force for those of progressive faith and ideology. To accomplish this mission, H4PJ has taken a three-fold approach:

• Create, equip and motivate progressive faith-based activists. Through education and inspiration, H4PJ seeks to equip and empower progressive people of faith to be confident and articulate about their values. By utilizing a variety of means to regularly communicate with H4PJ activists, the organization supports their witness for progressive values.
• Create a cultural orientation/bias toward peace and justice. Art for Peace & Justice, our principle strategy for advancing this goal, utilizes the arts to educate, enlighten and inspire people. Through partnering with artists and arts organizations, Art4PJ seeks to create a shift in values away from war and violence toward peace with justice.
• Create practitioners of peace. Through our Peace Practitioners program, H4PJ seeks to recruit, train and support individuals in churches, mosques, synagogues and temples who already have a value for, and orientation toward, peace and justice. These individuals will be trained through a three-level conflict resolution program, literally, to practice peacemaking in, and through, their communities of faith. They will be the resident advocates and activists for peace.

H4PJ has grown into a vital and vibrant justice and peace ministry. In addition to sending more than 2 million emails training and motivating progressive people of faith, H4PJ and Art4PJ creates and produces many peace events in the city.

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	Dennis Bolin has over 20 years experience working with health care and not-for-profit organizations in the areas of strategic planning, marketing, customer service and product development. He has worked with top management and boards of directors on vision and mission development and operational implementation. He has developed and implemented branding and marketing strategies. He has a Master of Management from Northwestern University and has completed Advanced Graduate Studies in Dispute Resolution and Mediation at Southern Methodist University.
	Ferrell Drum is president of Garland Insulating Ltd., a thermal building products provider and installer for the building trades with locations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, Texas. He has a B.S. in Business from Harding University, Searcy, Arkansas. He has served on the Finance and Development Committee of the Board of Directors of Dallas Christian School, on the Board of Directors of Heartbeat, and as founder and director of both First National Bank of Rowlett and Centennial National Bank.
	Wesley English is the president and CEO of HomeVestors Calient Properties, LLC, a franchised real estate investment company, a partner in Hodge Homes LP, a residential property management company and the managing member of Caliente Holdings, LC, a real estate holding company. He received his B.S. from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Texas at Arlington. He serves as secretary for the North Texas Franchisee Council for Homevestors, is a founding member of National Association for Responsible Home Re-builders and Investors (NARHRI), and belongs to the National Association of Realtors, the Texas Association of Realtors, the Greater Dallas Association of Realtors, and the Association of Independent Real Estate Investors. He is a corporate partner for Habitat for Humanity.
	DeSorrow Golden is currently a software developer at Argo Data Resource Corporation. He owns Global Investment Solutions LLC which is a real estate investment company. He serves as a facilitator for the 20 Something and 30 Something ministries at the Cathedral of Hope.  His heart is for reconciliation and peace building. He has a bachelors in Computer Science from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
	Jo Hudson is a spiritual leader, pastor, mentor, and community builder who serves as Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ (UCC), the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a primary outreach to lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. Rev. Dr. Hudson joined the Cathedral in August 2004, after seven years as pastor of Friends Congregational Church UCC in College Station, Texas. She was overwhelmingly elected to serve as the Senior Pastor of the Cathedral of Hope in February 2005, making the Cathedral of Hope UCC the largest church in the State of Texas, and one of the largest in the United States, to have a woman Senior Pastor. A native Texan, Rev. Dr. Hudson received her PhD in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University in 1993 and graduated with honors from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in 1994. She was ordained into the United Church of Christ in 1997. Rev. Dr. Hudson is the former President of the South Central Conference of the UCC, served for ten years on the Board of Directors of the UCC Justice & Witness Ministry, has been elected to the UCC Pension Boards on which she will be seated in 2011, is a member of the Forum on Military Chaplaincy, and currently serves on the Board of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
	Coy James has been the Managing Director of Hope for Peace & Justice since the launch of the organization in 2004. He is also the Director of Stewardship & Communication at the Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. In addition to numerous other volunteer positions, Coy served on the Cathedral of Hope Board of Directors for 16years, all but three years of which as Vice-Moderator. His experience includes more than 20 years as a manager of various communications related organizations within Abbott Laboratories, Diagnostics Division. Coy provides consultation, workshops, seminars and online instruction on Stewardship and Communications for the United Church of Christ and for the Center for Progressive Renewal.
	Michael Piazza serves as the President of Hope for Peace & Justice. Named in August 1999 by The Advocate magazine as one of the most influential people in the gay and lesbian movement, Michael S. Piazza is a spiritual visionary, author and social justice advocate. A native of Georgia, Rev. Piazza has served in the ministry for over three decades, pastoring churches in Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Florida. He holds Bachelor Degrees in history and psychology from Valdosta State College in Georgia and a Master of Divinity from the Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta. Since he came to Dallas in November of 1987 to pastor the Cathedral of Hope, the church has grown from a few hundred to nearly 4,000 members.
	Lynn Walters is an active member of the Cathedral of Hope. She helped to organize the Order of Saint Martin and has organized voter registration drives at COH in 2004 and 2006. She currently serves in the Altar Ministry. In addition, Lynn volunteers regularly at Justice for Our Neighbors (immigration law clinic); serves as an election judge in her precinct; is a board member of Keep Irving Beautiful and was recently appointed to City of Irving Mayor’s Human Relations Committee. She has been a member Dallas Peace Center since 2003; is a graduate of the Damascus Road Anti-Racism Training program and a graduate of Just Faith program at St. Rita’s Catholic Church. She also spends time with her husband, Scott, and two children, Hannah and Nathaniel.

H4PJ Staff

Rev. Michael S. Piazza, President
Coy D. James, Managing Director
Mary Jo Kaska, Director of Programming
David Plunkett, Media Relations
Roger Stanley, Special Events
Kevin DeCloux, Data Manager
David McCollough, Webmaster

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