For Immediate Release: June 20, 2024
Contact: Heather Cabral, hcabral@faithinaction.org, 202-550-6880
Bishop Dwayne Royster is an experienced community organizer, national religious leader, and political strategist.
Washington – Today the board of the largest U.S. and global faith-based grassroots organizing network announced the selection of the leader of one of its largest and most accomplished state federations as Faith in Action’s fourth executive director in its 51 year history.
Bishop Dwayne Royster has served as Faith in Action’s interim executive director since January. He has been the executive director of POWER Interfaith in Pennsylvania for a decade, leading ground breaking campaigns to equalize school funding, raise wages for the lowest paid workers and create green jobs and investment in Black and Latino communities.
“We chose Bishop Royster on the strength of his work building POWER Interfaith from the ground up as a national model for bringing people together across race, faith and economic background to create a state that works for all families,” said the Rev Jennifer Jones, board chair of Faith in Action. “He brings a unique combination of deep community organizing experience, prophetic religious leadership and political strategy to Faith in Action.”
Royster’s range of experience includes pastoring Black congregations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., founding the Society for Faith and Justice, serving as a local elected official in Pennsylvania, co-hosting a widely listened to talk radio show, and working as Faith in Action’s political director on Capitol Hill.
“We are called to do nothing less than redesign America and the world so that our societies work for all people, no exceptions,” said Bishop Dwayne Royster, incoming executive director of Faith in Action, “The tens of thousands of grassroots leaders and clergy who lead Faith in Action federations across the U.S. and in a dozen countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Eastern Europe are the answer to the greatest challenges we face. My mission is to support their work and help our parts add up to an unstoppable force for racial and economic justice. My first order of business is to strengthen the ties and trust that bind Faith in Action together as a network.’’
Royster’s appointment comes amid a contentious presidential election year with democracy on the line and as the organization leans into its rich history of community organizing to increase access at the ballot box for historically marginalized communities and counter White Christian Nationalism.
“Bishop Royster is a deeply experienced faith-based organizer who built the most powerful grassroots institution in the state of Pennsylvania,” said Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Faith in Action board member. “Bishop Royster is deeply committed to organizing through a multifaith, multirace framework and as a rabbi, I’m in awe of his inclusivity. Bishop Royster’s political acumen played a significant role in his ability to lead POWER to significant legislative victories that impacted the lives of many. It is this collection of experience, and willingness to work alongside anyone interested in creating change, that make him the perfect person to take on this leadership role. His vision for a society rooted in justice and environmental sustainability is the vision that we need at this moment in history – a moment in which we are defending democracy, and economic and environmental justice seem to be in jeopardy. I’m heartened that a person like Bishop Royster is taking on the helm of this organization that I so love.”
As Faith in Action looks toward its future, the organization is committed to continuing to support grassroots organizing that builds the power of immigrant communities, elevates the wisdom and leadership of women and the struggle for gender equality, engages young people in building a new America and world, and builds a multi-faith movement that unites people across faith.
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