The Veritas Forum, organized by groups from York’s Christian community, continues today and Thursday at York’s Keele campus.
Wednesday’s events feature two presentations by Christian theologian and author Steven Bouma-Prediger (left), professor of religion at Hope College in Holland, Mich.
Bouma-Prediger’s seminar presentation, which begins at noon in room 218 Norman Bethune College, is titled “Why Care for the Earth?” At 5pm he will speak at the conference plenary session in Lecture Hall A, Vari Hall, on “The Ecological Crisis and the Defilement of Home.”
Bouma-Prediger is the author of four books which consider ecology and religion: The Greening of Theology: The Ecological Models of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Joseph Sittler, and Jurgen Moltmann (OUP, 1995); Assessing the Ark: A Christian Perspective on Non-Human Creatures and the Endangered Species Act (with Virginia Vroblesky(Crossroads, 1997); Evocations of Grace: The Writings of Joseph Sittler on Ecology, Theology, and Ethics (co-edited with Peter Bakken-Eerdmans, 2000); and For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (Baker Academic, 2001).
The evening session will include a performance by Dennis Hassell (right), dramaturge, director, and performer, who will read from his latest script, “The Glory Place”.
Hassell has produced more than 50 professional shows and written 12 produced scripts. He was the founding artistic director of the faith-based Brookstone Performing Arts company and has taught theatre at University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College.
Thursday’s events at Veritas include lectures by Ray Aldred (left), conference speaker, minister and Christian theologian. His talk “The Canadian Aboriginal Contribution to Restorative Justice: The Power of Sentencing Circles” begins at noon in the Senior Common Room, McLaughlin College. The evening session, which begins at 5pm in Lecture Hall A, Computer Science & Engineering, features Aldred speaking on “Unity in Diversity.”
Aldred has served as the director for the First Nations Alliance Churches of Canada for a number of years. He has helped to further the ministry of reconciliation between Aboriginal Peoples and other nationalities who now call Canada their home. He is a contributing editor of Cultural Encounters, the journal of the Multnomah Bible Seminary in Portland, Oregon, and a doctoral candidate in Christian theology from a First Nations perspective. He has written a number of unpublished articles on justice and cultural issues.
This session will begin with a time of worship led by students from the sponsoring Christian student groups at York, which include the Catholic Chaplaincy, the Chinese Christian Fellowship, the Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship, the Korean Christian Fellowship and Leadership, Culture and Christianity.
The purpose of the Veritas forum is to look at issues of interest to the York University community from a Christian perspective (Catholic and Protestant). Michael De Robertis, a professor in York’s Department of Physics & Astronomy and associate dean of York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, spoke at the forum on Wednesday about reconciling science and Christian faith.
Visit the Veritas Forum Web site for more information.