Rev. J.J. Warren (he/him) is a public theologian, speaker, advocate, and the author of Reclaiming Church: A Call to Action for Religious Rejects. After making an impassioned plea for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons at The United Methodist Church’s (UMC) top law-making assembly in 2019, J.J.’s speech went viral, and his advocacy has been covered by HuffPostNBCBrut Media, and WXXI Radio. J.J. has earned a Master’s of Divinity (M.Div.) from Boston University School of Theology (’22), which is known as “the school of the prophets,” and a Bachelor’s of Arts from New York’s Sarah Lawrence College (’19) where he studied religion and creative writing. In October, 2022, J.J. began a Ph.D. in Advanced Theological Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he works as a doctoral researcher at the intersection of Paul Tillich’s theology, queer theology, and ecclesiology (the study of the church). In June, 2023, J.J. was Commissioned as a Provisional Member (clergy) in the New England Conference of The UMC, and he currently serves as the Executive Director of Young Prophets Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that seeks to “equip and empower a global community of young LGBTQIA+ religious leaders and allies who use their voices for liberation.”

During his undergraduate studies, J.J. spent a year at Oxford University, England, where he studied Biblical Hebrew, Early Church history, and gender studies of late antiquity. He began a progressive Christian community on his undergraduate campus, and now J.J. travels the world preaching a message of LGBTQ+ affirmation and intersectional liberation.

Click the image to watch J.J.’s speech at the 2019 UMC Special General Conference

Click the image to watch J.J.’s speech at the 2019 UMC Special General Conference