Wake Forest University School of Divinity

President and Founder of the Center for Urban Ministry, Inc.
Assistant Professor of Urban Ministry
B.A., Wake Forest University
M. Div., Virginia Theological Seminary
D.D., Rhodes College, Memphis and Virginia Theological Seminary

Doug Bailey comes to the School of Divinity following thirty-seven years in Episcopal Parish Ministry. Most recently, and for twenty-three years, he served as Rector of Calvary Church, Memphis, a downtown congregation and Jubilee Center, renowned for its imaginative urban ministry to metropolitan Memphis and the mid-South.

Under Bailey's leadership, Calvary Church significantly rebuilt its congregational life, which had been greatly diminished in the decade following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, and also led the creation of ten different non-profit urban ministries serving the needs of the city. Ordained in his native Diocese of West Virginia where he served several congregations, he has also served as Rector of St. John's Church, Hagerstown, Maryland, Fellow of the College of Preachers at Washington National Cathedral, and St. George's College, Jerusalem, and an appointed member of a three-person team representing the national Episcopal Church's work with the Anglican Province of Brazil.

Bailey received Wake Forest University's 2001 Distinguished Service Award and the 2002 Humanitarian of the Year Award of Memphis NCCJ (National Conference for Community and Justice; formerly National Conference of Christian and Jews). Bailey is married to Carolyn, who serves as administrator of the Center for Urban Ministry, Inc. and they are parents of three children and grandparents of six. Along with a keen interest in helping urban churches shape the souls of cities is his zeal for social justice, family life, and the outdoors. He is an avid grandfather, hiker, reader, and mountain biker. The Center for Urban Ministry, Inc. at the School of Divinity of Wake Forest University produces national ecumenical conferences such as "The City of God for American Cities: Reinventing the Urban Church," held annually at the Cathedral College, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C. At the School of Divinity he teaches courses on "Radical Jesus, Radical Justice," "Urban Ministry by Immersion", urban congregational growth, and serves as Advisor for Episcopal Students. He also serves as a consultant for urban congregations and for theological schools seeking to offer urban ministry studies.

Faculty

Douglass M. Bailey - Email