Patheos Featured Writers

Rakesh Peter Dass is a Christian scholar and ecumenical worker. He has extensive ecumenical and leadership experience at the local and international levels. From 1992-95, he served as youth leader in Junnardeo Lutheran Church, India. From 1997-2001 he volunteered with the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), was President, Student Christian Movement, Nagpur (1998-99), and was assistant to the NCCI General Secretary in 2001. From 2001-05, he managed the ecumenical formation and leadership development programs of the Hong-Kong based Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), an ecumenical network of hundred+ national churches and eighteen national councils of churches in Asia (geographically from Pakistan to Japan and Nepal to Australia). From 2003-05, he was Chairperson of EASYNet, a Manila-based consortium of six international organizations. He was CCA's Designated Representative to the New York-office of the United Nations from 2004-05. He currently serves (2009-12) as Church Council member at Faith Lutheran Church, Cambridge, MA.

He has co-edited three books: Worship and Liturgy in New Key (2004), In the Quest for Peace (2004), and Building Communities of Peace for All (2005). He has contributed essays to the NCCI Review (1999) and the books The Asian Church in the New Millennium (2000), Peace Be With You (2002), and Together in Action for Peace and Reconciliation (2004). He has lectured on interfaith issues, globalization, the Asian ecumenical movement, and peacebuilding in Australia, Bangladesh, East Timor, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States of America.

Rakesh has studied religion and business and has earned a Bachelor and Master of Commerce (Nagpur University), MBA (Indian Institute of Modern Management), Certificate in Human Resources Studies (Cornell University), and Master of Divinity (Yale University). In fall 2008, he joined Harvard University as a doctoral student.

His work focuses on Christian theologies and practices and the use of management tools for church growth. His research interests include Christian-Hindu comparative theology, South Asian religious history, Asian Christianity, the ecumenical movement, postcolonial thought, and faith & work practices.