'Pre-emptive Peacemaking' topic of conference here Sept. 19-20
Every Church a Peace Church, a national peace advocacy organization, will host its 2008 Twin Cities conference, "Pre-Emptive Peacemaking: Just Peace vs. Just War," Sept. 19-20 at the University of St. Thomas.
The conference is co-sponsored by the St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies Program and UST Students for Justice and Peace.
The conference opens with the performance of "Cirque de Guerre," a comedic, satirical play about the mayhem of war, told in a series of vignettes, from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, in O'Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium. A question-and-answer session follows the performance.
Sessions in O'Shaughnessy Educational Center on Saturday, Sept. 20, will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., beginning with a keynote address, "Just Peacemaking: The New Paradigm for the Ethics of Peace and War," by Dr. Glen Harold Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. Stassen's 2003 book, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press), was chosen one of Christianity Today's Books of the Year.
Topics of one-hour breakout sessions (conference attendees choose two) include:
- The nonviolence of Jesus
- What is the ECAPC movement and how can we be part of it?
- How does the arts community speak peace?
- Just peacemaking: A better answer for terrorism and the nuclear threat
- University of St. Thomas Students for Justice and Peace
- What about international law and policing?
A closing plenary panel will include remarks by St. Thomas faculty members Dr. Jack Nelson- Pallmeyer, Justice and Peace Studies Program, and Dr. Gerald Schlabach, Theology Department, and Twin Cities justice and peace activists Bill Berneking and Katherine Wojtan. Joan Haan, vice chair of the national ECAPC board of directors, will moderate the discussion.
The public is invited. For conference information and registration online, visit www.ecapc.org. Conference fees will be waived for St. Thomas students, faculty and staff, but UST attendees should pre-register to assist conference planners. Early registration is encouraged.
For additional information or questions, contact Rod Olsen, (651) 228-7224, Haan or Schlabach.
