Rumi Forum, Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington, and Washington Theological Consortium present the 6th Interfaith Leadership Forum: “Covenantal Partnership with God and Other Faiths: The Legacy of Nostra Aetate” on March 4, 2025, at Virginia Theological Seminary. The program features keynote speaker Dr. John Borelli and an interfaith panel, including Dr. Pim Valkenberg and Rabbi Gerry Serotta.

Keynote Speaker

Dr. John Borelli is a distinguished scholar and leader in interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. Currently, he serves as the President of Georgetown University’s special assistant for Catholic identity and dialogue and as the Coordinator for Interreligious Dialogue and Relations for the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. With a doctorate in the history of religions and theology from Fordham University, Dr. Borelli has dedicated his career to fostering dialogue among religious communities. He previously served for sixteen years at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, managing key interfaith dialogues with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Orthodox Christians, and Anglicans. A former consultor to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, he has played a pivotal role in shaping Catholic engagement with other faiths.

Dr. Borelli has authored and edited numerous works on interfaith relations, including Interfaith Dialogue: A Catholic View and A Common Word and the Future of Christian-Muslim Relations. With over 250 published articles and decades of leadership in global religious dialogue, he continues to be a driving force in advancing mutual understanding among faith traditions.

Panelists

Rabbi Gerry Serotta is a distinguished leader in interfaith cooperation, social justice, and human rights advocacy. He served as the founding rabbi of Shirat HaNefesh and later as Executive Director of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington (2014–2020), championing religious freedom and interfaith collaboration. He has held key leadership roles throughout his career, including Executive Director of Clergy Beyond Borders, Associate Rabbi at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, and Director of the Hillel Foundation at George Washington University. A founder and chair of Rabbis for Human Rights – North America, Rabbi Serotta has also chaired the Board of Chaplains at George Washington University. Recognized for his contributions, the University of Maryland School of Law named him a Public Policy Conflict Resolution fellow. He was a senior rabbinic scholar-in-residence at the Religious Action Center of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Dr. Wilhelmus (Pim) Valkenberg is a Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of America. He specializes in historical and systematic theology, religion, and culture. An expert in Christology, Christian-Muslim relations, comparative theology, and interreligious dialogue, he has dedicated his career to fostering theological understanding across traditions.

Born in the Netherlands, Dr. Valkenberg earned his M.A. and M.Div. from Utrecht. He later held academic positions at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, Loyola University Maryland, and The Catholic University of America. His research focuses on Christian-Muslim dialogue, medieval theology, and Abrahamic partnerships. He has authored and edited numerous books, including Sharing Lights on the Way to God and World Religions in Dialogue. His current projects explore interreligious readings of scripture and the theological contributions of Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement.

About the Interfaith Leadership Forum

Interfaith Leadership Forum (ILF) is a DMV area learning platform that aims to make the existing expertise, capacity, and scholarship on interfaith engagement available to clergy, educators, public servants, and other interested individuals. The Forum is a partnership of the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington, Rumi Forum, and Washington Theological Consortium.

ILF aims to promote pluralism by convening leaders of various religious, ethnic, racial, cultural, and gender backgrounds to exchange ideas and generate an action-oriented agenda. It provides a venue where a diverse group of community leaders, scholars, clergy, and public officials can engage in in-depth discussions on shared values and explore ways to harness them for social action. ILF is open to all individuals interested in advancing their interfaith literacy and serving the community as interfaith mobilizers in their professional or individual capacities.

Objectives

Interfaith Leadership Forum aims to strengthen interfaith relationships, literacy, and leadership by;

• Equipping one another with various models of dialogue with distinct ends.
• Experiencing deeper levels of interfaith encounters and dialogue
• Strengthening literacy about other’s faiths and about one’s own
• Overcoming prejudices and misconceptions about other faiths
• Eliciting social action through interfaith engagement.