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2011-2012 Christian Scholar Series (Draft)

Posted by tom | Sep 1, 2011

A number of people have asked to be kept up-to-date with the growing Christian Scholar Series, stemming from a unique partnership of InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network with Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (EBIC), Elizabethtown Public Library, Hearts & Minds Bookstore, and ministries at various campuses in South Central PA. Below is a draft so that you can mark the dates on your calendar. More specifics will be posted as they're available.

9/22: The Power of Forgiveness: Lessons from the Nickel Mines, The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, is not part of the series. But if you're in the area, please consider joining me for the all day conference and/or the free lectures in the evening. It looks like a special opportunity which shouldn't be missed.

2011-2012 Christian Scholar Series (Draft)

Fall 2011


10/11 Janel Atlas on her book And They Were Still Born. Elizabethtown Public Library and PSU-Hershey.

  • A Gathering for Families Grieving Miscarried and Stillborn Babies (Elizabethtown Public Library, 9:30 am)
  • Finding the Words through Baby Loss, A Reading (Elizabethtown Public Library, Classroom in lower level. 6:30 - 7:30 pm)
    • "When faced with traumatic, devastating loss, many people turn to books for information and comfort. What happens when those books don't exist? Three writers will share their personal narratives of having stillborn babies: Janel Atlas, Angie Yingst and Jenell Williams Paris will read their essays from They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010). Their experiences, while sad, are told with grace, humor, and wisdom, and will provide listeners with hope and a greater understanding of stillbirth and the impact on families enduring such losses.
    • Angie Yingst (who wrote “Mothering Grief” in They Were Still Born) will bring a beautiful traveling journal that bereaved parents from around the world have contributed to. Jenell Williams Paris (who wrote "Just One Family in They Were Still Born) will bring some specialty bereavement, loss, and support cards she has made. Note: the cards are also available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/findthewords.
    • Library event page here.
  • Supporting Families through Pregnancy and Infant Loss: A Parent’s Perspective (12 - 1 pm, PSU-Hershey Christian Medical Society/CMDA)
    • Janel Atlas is a writer, mother, and editor whose second daughter was stillborn at 36 weeks gestation due to a cord accident. Her journey through grief led her to collect the stories of other individuals who have suffered the loss of a baby between 20 weeks gestation and delivery; the resulting book, They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth, was published in late 2010 and was favorably reviewed in The Lancet in April 2011. As part of her work on the medical section of the book, Janel spoke with leading researchers in the field of understanding and preventing stillbirth and neonatal death. She has written extensively about baby loss and frequently speaks to health care professionals about how to support families going through pregnancy and infant loss.
  • Merchandiser Article: Programs to Provide Encouragement (Krista Hurley. 9/28/2011)
  • Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=280746971943868 (includes a group photo of the evening presenters and various resource materials). PSU-Hershey speaking photos are in a larger photo album, but begin with http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150348580018351&set=a.10150283258668351.352148.343966923350.

10/23: Phil Thuma, M.D., Macha Hospital, Zambia. Christian Scholar Series at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church, http://www.etownbic.org/thuma

 

 

10/27: Valerie Weaver-Zercher on her wrestling with and "updating" of Living More with Less (2010).

  • Elizabethtown Public Library, 6:30 pm.
  • Recent InPart article by Valerie: When Thrift is Chic: Living More with Less in a Real Simple World
    • Brief description: When Mennonite home economist Doris Janzen Longacre compiled the More with Less Cookbook and Living More with Less in the 1970s, she probably couldn’t have imagined how stylish simple living would become thirty years later. Celebrities go green, magazines tout shabby chic, and frugality has a new lease on life. But climate change, global inequality, and the plight of the world’s poor remain persistent problems in 2011, and Longacre’s words have more salience now than ever. Valerie Weaver-Zercher, editor of the thirtieth-anniversary edition of Living More with Less, will speak about the legacy of this classic volume about living more simply and lightly on the earth.
  • Valerie Weaver-Zercher is a writer and editor in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Orion, Sojourners, Christian Century, and other venues. She is the Snowden Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College this fall.
  • Merchandiser Article: Programs to Provide Encouragement  (Krista Hurley. 9/28/2011)
  • Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=254977114546405

12/12 Fund Development Breakfast featuring Robert Ives on C.S. Lewis 

  • Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ, 6:30 am.
  • Robert Ives received his Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History at Manchester University, England.  He is retired from the pastorate and from teaching at Messiah College after 30 years. He's given significant attention to reading, studying, and teaching about the life/writing of C.S. Lewis.

Spring 2012 (In Process/Development)

 

2/13-16: Kent Annan, Co-founder of Haiti Partners, on Haiti 

 

2/19: Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois), Christian Scholar Series at EBIC, http://www.etownbic.org/mcknight

 

  • 8:30/11 am Worship Service Sermon: Embracing Grace, A Gospel for All of Us
  • 10:05 am Sharing in the sanctuary (no other adult electives): Blue Parakeet: Why do people understand the Bible so differently?
  • 12:30 pm Lunch: Facing the Challenge of Universalism in the church and the academy
  • Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=245302012152738

3/15 Fund Development Dessert featuring David C. Downing, R.W. Schlosser Professor of English, Elizabethtown College and author of a number of books related to C.S. Lewis (including the 2010 release Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel).

  • Comparing Christian Faith Themes in the Fiction of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. AND the influence of the Inklings upon the writing of Lewis and Tolkien (Working title).
  • Schedule:
    • 6:30 pm Doors Open/Social
    • 7 - 8 pm Program
    • 8 - 8:30 pm Social
  • Location: Acorn Farms
  • Check this out:
    • We'll invite Christian Scholars from the area (some who have spoken previously for us) and health care professionals/students who are part of our work. Why? So the people of God can mix with one-another and share their stories about following Christ in the ordinary and the extraordinary circumstances and relationships in which they find themselves.
    • Books will also be available. . . . hoping for some authors, in addition to David C. Downing to be present, and willing to sign. More information will be posted when it is available.

April: Valerie Weaver-Zercher on Amish Romance Novels

May: Jeff Bach, Director of Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, on What is the Ephrata Cloister all about and why should I visit it? (working title)

Updated 10/27/2011. 11:11 AM

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