Wainwright serves as the Methodist co-chair of the International Methodist- Roman Catholic Dialogue. His discussion will explore the progress Catholics and Methodists have made since the Second Vatican Council and highlight what issues need to be addressed in the future.

Since 1976, Wainwright has served on numerous ecclesiastic councils including the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, and the Joint Commission between the World Methodist Council and the Roman Catholic Church. In 2004, he gave the opening address at the Roman symposium to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism.

Wainwright has also authored a dozen theologically-centered books, his most famous being the “Doxology: the Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life.”

His most recent contribution, “The Oxford History of Christian Worship,” was edited with Karen Westerfield Tucker and published just this past year.

In 2005, he was awarded the Johannes Quasten Medal by the Catholic University of America for “excellence in theological scholarship.” Wainwright currently teaches at Duke Divinity School, part of Duke University in North Carolina, where he serves as chair of Christian Theology.