Next Moon Lecture: Fr. Greg Boyle
St. Mark's United Methodist Church is proud to announce the upcoming Moon Lecture Series for 2010-2011. Tickets may be purchased here.
Coming on September 11 will be Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., the founder of LA's Homeboy Industries. Bringing rival gang members together to work in harmony under one umbrella, Homeboy Industries is recognized as the largest gang intervention program in the county, and has become a national model. As Executive Director of Homeboy Industries and an acknowledged expert on gangs and intervention approaches, Fr. Boyle is a nationally renowned speaker. He has given commencement addresses at several prestigious universities, as well as spoken at conferences for teachers, social workers, criminal justice workers and others about the importance of adult attention, guidance and unconditional love in preventing youth from joining gangs. Fr. Greg and several “homies” were featured speakers at the White House Conference on Youth in 2005 at the personal invitation of Mrs. George Bush. Fr. Greg is also a consultant to youth service and governmental agencies, policy-makers and employers. http://www.homeboy-industries.org/father-greg.php
On October 22, 2010, St. Mark's welcomes activist/author and Jesuit priest Father John Dear, S.J. John Dear is an internationally known voice for peace and non-violence. He is the author of 25 books, including his autobiography, A Persistent Peace. In 2008, John was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He has serves as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest inerfaith peace organization in the United statrs. He co-founded Pax Christi New Mexico, and works on a non-violent campaign to disarm Los Alamos. Father John's peacework has taken him to El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Middle East, Columbia, Northern Ireland, and the Philipines. He has been arrested over seventy-five times in acts of non-violent civil disobedience for peace, and has organized hundreds of demonstrations against war and nuclear weapons at military bases around the country, as well as worked with Mother Theresa and others to stop the death penalty. http://www.fatherjohndear.org/
Friday, November 26, 2010, our guest speaker will be Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the Executive Director of the Nyaka School for Aids Orphans in Uganda. He is a man who has put the walk into talk about helping his fellow human beings. His book, The Price of Stones, is a detailed account of one man's quest to make a difference in the country of his birth. He has appeared on 60 Minutes, and in Time Magazine. http://www.thepriceofstones.com/index.html
Saturday, January 22, 2011, we are honored to bring Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, to St. Mark's. Arun Gandhi spent a significant amount of his childhood with his famous grandfather, and weaves colorful anecdotes of his time with the Mahatma and a powerful message of peace and non-violence. Arun is the author of several books. The first, A Patch of White (1949), is about life in prejudiced South Africa; then, he wrote two books on poverty and politics in India; followed by a compilation of M.K. Gandhi's Wit & Wisdom. He also edited a book of essays on World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality? And, more recently, wrote The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, the Wife of Mahatma Gandhi, jointly with his late wife Sunanda. Arun shares these lessons all around the world. For the past five years, he has participated in the Renaissance Weekend deliberations with President Clinton and other well-respected Rhodes Scholars. This past year, some of his engagements included speaking at the Chicago Children’s Museum and the Women’s Justice Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also delivered talks at the Young President’s Organization in Mexico, the Trade Union Leaders’ Meeting in Milan, Italy, as well as the Peace and Justice Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Sometimes, his journeys take him even further. Arun has spoken in Croatia, France, Ireland, Holland, Lithuania, Nicaragua, China, Scotland and Japan.
Coming to St. Mark's on Friday, February 11, 2011, will be Brian D. McLaren. Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and is among the most innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists. His public speaking covers a broad range of topics including postmodern thought and culture, Biblical studies, evangelism, leadership, global mission, spiritual formation, worship, pastoral survival and burnout, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice. McLaren's first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, has been recognized as a primary portal into the current conversation about postmodern ministry. His 2004 release, A Generous Orthodoxy, is a personal confession and has been called a "manifesto" of the emerging church conversation. The conclusion to the A New Kind of Christian trilogy was released in 2005, entitled The Last Word and the Word After That. He is one of five co-authors of Church in the Emerging Culture. He is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs. He has appeared on many broadcasts including Larry King Live, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and Nightline. His work has also been covered in Time (where he was listed as one of American's 25 most influential evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington Post, and many other print media. http://www.brianmclaren.net/
On Wednesday, March 16, 2011, the Moon Lecture Series will conclude with Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, the real life Sister of Dead Man Walking fame. An autobiographical account of her relationship with convicted murderer Elmo Sonnier and other inmates on death row served as the basis for the feature film and opera Dead Man Walking. In the film, she was portrayed by Susan Sarandon, who won an Academy Award. Sister Helen Prejean has since ministered to many other inmates on death row and witnessed several more executions. She served as National Chairperson of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1993 to 1995. The organization Witness to Innocence, composed of innocent death row survivors who were convicted for crimes they did not commit, started under Sister Helen's own Moratorium Campaign. In 1998, Prejean was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award. It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations. Prejean now bases her work at the Death Penalty Discourse Network in New Orleans and spends her time giving talks across the United States and around the world. http://www.prejean.org/
Tickets are now available to be purchased here for the entire series for $125, or individual lectures for $25 each.
All lectures are at 7:30pm and are offered by open seating in the Sanctuary at St. Mark's United Methodist Church.
