{"id":59624,"date":"2025-09-29T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=59624"},"modified":"2025-09-04T10:54:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:54:34","slug":"alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Awards: Bridge-builder Brittany Caine-Conley MDiv &#8217;14\u00a0selected for Outstanding Young Alum Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This is the third and final profile about the recipients of 91短视频\u2019s 2025 Alumni Awards. For more information about the annual awards and a full list of past winners, visit\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/alumni\/awards\">emu.edu\/alumni\/awards<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AS ONE OF THE <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/ems-alumnus-leads-clergy-protest-charlottesville-emu-community-members-join-activism\/\">LEAD ORGANIZERS<\/a> FOR CONGREGATE CHARLOTTESVILLE, BRITTANY CAINE-CONLEY MDIV &#8217;14 <\/strong>(aka \u201cSmash\u201d) called for 1,000 clergy and faith leaders of all denominations to counter-protest a gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. Her efforts denied white supremacists key locations that would have made their Unite the Right rally more visible, and later that year, she was <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/congregate-charlottesville-co-founders-honored-national-council-churches\/\">honored<\/a> by the National Council of Churches as a co-recipient of the President\u2019s Award for Excellence in Faithful Leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caine-Conley believes in the importance of connecting Christian communities with radical activists, using her pastoral presence as a bridge to form meaningful relationships between the church and social justice movements. She has been selected by 91短视频\u2019s Alumni Association as the 2025 Outstanding Young Alum. The award is given annually to an alum who, through professional achievement and\/or Christ-like compassionate service, is making a significant contribution to the local, national or global community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI feel honored,\u201d said Caine-Conley. \u201cAs a queer, Christian woman called to serve in the clergy, the space hasn\u2019t always been welcoming. This award feels like an acknowledgement of my work and an affirmation for other queer folks who are serving the church and the kin-dom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The space between\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Caine-Conley learned to bridge the gap between communities at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (EMS), where she earned a master of divinity degree. Professor <strong>David Evans<\/strong>\u2019 <em>Christianity through the Eyes of the American Outsider<\/em> course impacted her deeply. Reading from the texts of enslaved people, Jewish individuals and queer Christians, she was able to explore the experiences of marginalized groups within Christianity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In another course, <em>Formation in God\u2019s Story<\/em> with <strong>Dawn Monger, <\/strong>Caine-Conley\u2019s small group was challenged to think about life journeys and how they intersect with God\u2019s story.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur group considered how many loops, intersections, roadblocks, obstacles, and reversals we experience in our individual paths. The conversation led us to one word: mangled.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cmangled\u201d moment stuck with Caine-Conley, as did the seminary experiences of discussing theology over beers at Billy Jack\u2019s and sitting on the campus lawn learning about peacemaking from people across the globe.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caine-Conley graduated from EMS in 2014, the same year she married her wife, Lindsay. The two met while working on the leadership team for RISE United Methodist Faith Community in Harrisonburg.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy love for ministry was significantly shaped by RISE and its pastor, Amanda Miller Garber. There, I learned to yearn for beloved community, and now I seek to co-create such community wherever I go.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Baptism by fire<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the summer of 2017, co-creating community in Charlottesville meant undergoing \u201cbaptism by fire.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone remembers that night on August 12, but there\u2019s so much that came before it\u2026 prayer and worship meetings, late-night strategizing, direct action training on nonviolence, even active shooter training. It was a lot,\u201d said Caine-Conley.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through it all, she was focused on building bridges between communities that didn\u2019t want to interact with each other, between people\u2014particularly white, progressive Christians\u2014who had different ideas about what it meant to resist, from peacefully protesting to doing nothing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To build greater understanding between progressive groups who desired change, Caine-Conley organized educational seminars and anti-racism training. She wrote various post-rally articles, and Congregate Charlottesville received national press coverage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Vocation and community\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Caine-Conley is now bringing her experience to the classroom at Denver\u2019s Iliff School of Theology where she is a PhD student in religious studies and adjunct instructor of Identity, Power, and Vocation in Community. A theme of the yearlong course is understanding how individuals are shaped by histories, structures, systems, practices, and memories. She aims to create a \u201cdisruptive,\u201d yet caring, environment to help students become better ministers, leaders, and caregivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am inspired every day by people who allow the spirit to shake their assumptions, trajectories, and long-held orientations,\u201d said Caine-Conley. \u201cIt takes so much courage to allow the spirit to truly move us in new directions.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Caine-Conley will share her story at 91短视频 TenTalks, held on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 1:30 p.m. in Martin Chapel during Homecoming 2025. For a full schedule of Homecoming events and activities, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/homecoming\/\"><strong>emu.edu\/homecoming<\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the third and final profile about the recipients of 91短视频\u2019s 2025 Alumni Awards. For more information about the annual awards and a full list of past winners, visit\u00a0emu.edu\/alumni\/awards. <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Alumni Awards: Bridge-builder Brittany Caine-Conley MDiv &#8217;14\u00a0selected for Outstanding Young Alum Award<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":59628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,17562,264,60,265],"tags":[5753,18145,18544,18546,13723,5902,18545],"feature":[17427,17426,17241,17422],"class_list":["post-59624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-digest","category-graduate-programs","category-homecoming","category-seminary","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-awards","tag-brittany-caine-conley","tag-congregate-charlottesville","tag-eastern-mennonite-seminary","tag-ems","tag-outstanding-young-alum","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature","feature-news-landing-page-main-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Alumni Awards: Bridge-builder Brittany Caine-Conley MDiv &#039;14\u00a0selected for Outstanding Young Alum Award - 91短视频 News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumni Awards: Bridge-builder Brittany Caine-Conley MDiv &#039;14\u00a0selected for Outstanding Young Alum Award - 91短视频 News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the third and final profile about the recipients of 91短视频\u2019s 2025 Alumni Awards. For more information about the annual awards and a full list of past winners, visit\u00a0emu.edu\/alumni\/awards.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"91短视频 News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T11:55:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2025\/10\/03152414\/91短视频-75-1024x683.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@91短视频_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@91短视频_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Cornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/alumni-awards-bridge-builder-brittany-caine-conley-mdiv-14-receives-outstanding-young-alum-award\/\",\"name\":\"Alumni Awards: Bridge-builder Brittany Caine-Conley MDiv '14\u00a0selected for Outstanding Young Alum Award - 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