[Oe List ...] [Dialogue] Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland

[Terry Bergdall]

On 17 Jul 2011, at 15:14, Charles or Doris Hahn wrote:
> As I remember our traditional pitch about our EI origins:(something like this)  "There was a resolution at the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches meeting in Evanston stating that there be an Ecumenical Institute in the Western Hemisphere similar to the one the WCC operated at Bossey, Switzerland....

Here is a new twist on the conversation about the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey. Mark Davies is the current Dean of the Petree College of Arts and Sciences at Oklahoma City University (OCU). As most of you know, ICA in the US has a strong collaborative relationship with OCU. Next week we have a group of OCU students arriving for a 3-week intensive course designed by ICA, "Developing Leadership in a Time of Transition," for which they will receive three hour of academic credit from OCU. I will serve as the Adjunct Faculty of record with James Addington and Seva Gandhi playing central roles on the teaching team.

Dean Davies spent a semester at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in the early 1990s. At the time, when he mentioned that was going, he began receiving responses asking about its relationship to the Ecumenical Institute of Chicago -- which surprised him because he was totally unfamiliar "us." In any event, he reports that EI-Bossey has a lively and important mission which can be seen today by viewing their website.

ICA and OCU, via their Oikos Scholars Program, will co=sponsor an event on the OCU campus on September 23-34, 2011. The title of the event is "Caring for Our HOME -- Educating Moral Leaders for Ecological Sustainability." Below is the full agenda and bios of the speakers. The registration cost is only $75 which includes all meals during the two days. Most importantly, it is another key step for ICA becoming a genuine partner with institutes of higher education. As we prepare to celebrate our 50th Anniversary in 2012 of Joseph Mathews accepting his appointment as Dean of the Ecumenical Institute, future work with universities is a crucial strategy for moving into the next fifty years. Dean Davies especially recognizes, and values, the historical engagement and moral commitment of EI-Chicago staff members and is very keen for young students today to work side-by-side with them. He sees it as an special opportunity for students to encounter "living archives" in the most profound sense of the word.

I hope many of you will consider joining us during the long weekend of September 22-25. In a sense, I consider this to be a very practical form of a contemporary "research assembly." Registration information can be found on our website:

http://ica.site-ym.com/events/event_details.asp?id=143984

Below is the Schedule and information about the event:
 
Friday, September 23, 2011
 
7:30 to 8:30 a.m.            
Van transportation from Marriot Courtyard, every fifteen minutes.
 
8:00-9:00 a.m.             
Breakfast in Cafeteria, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center
 
8:00-9:00 am.                        
Registration - Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center (in front of cafeteria)
 
9:15-10:30 a.m.
Opening Plenary, Mary Elizabeth Moore - Watson Lounge, W. Angie Smith Chapel
 
10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Track Session One: Historical Perspectives: Where Have We Been? - Breakout rooms TBA
 
12:15-1:30 p.m.
Lunch in Cafeteria, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center

 
1:30-2:45 p.m.
Plenary, David W. Orr  - Watson Lounge, W. Angie Smith Chapel

 
3:15-5:00 p.m.
Track Session Two: Contemporary Outlook: Where are We?
 
5:00-6:00 p.m. 
Break

 
6:00-7:00 p.m. 
Dinner - Cafeteria, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center 

 
7:00-8:30 p.m.
Concert for Sustainability - Great Hall, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center
 
8:30 -9:30 p.m.
Van transportation to Marriot Courtyard, every fifteen minutes

Saturday, September 24, 2011
 
7:30 to 8:30 a.m.
Van transportation from Marriot Courtyard, every fifteen minutes.
 
8:00-9:00 a.m. 
Breakfast in Cafeteria, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center

 
9:00-10:15 a.m. 
Plenary, Daniel Wallach and Catherine Hart - Watson Lounge, W. Angie Smith Chapel

 
10:30 a.m. - noon
Track Session Three: Hope for the Future: Where are We Going? - Breakout rooms TBA
 
Noon - 1:30 p.m. 
Lunch

 
1:30-3:30 p.m.
Track Presentations - Watson Lounge, W. Angie Smith Chapel

 
3:45-5:00 p.m.
Call for Future Collaborative Work, Mark Davies and Terry Bergdall - Watson Lounge, W. Angie Smith Chapel
 
5:00-6:00 p.m.
break

 
6:00-8:00 p.m.
Banquet and Plenary, Larry Ward - Great Hall, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center

 
8:00-9:30 p.m.
Creative Music, Poetry, Art Jam Session - Great Hall, Tom and Brenda McDaniel Student/Faculty Center
 
8:15 – 9:45 p.m.
Van transportation to Marriot Courtyard, every fifteen minutes
 
Each participant will participate in one of three tracks during the conference:
 
-Track One: Curriculum for Sustainability
-Track Two: Service Learning and Community Engagement for Sustainability
-Track Three: Advocacy for Sustainability
 
Tracks will meet three times during the conference and focus on their respective themes from the following perspectives:
 
-Track Session One: Historical Perspectives: Where Have We Been?
-Track Session Two: Contemporary Outlook: Where are We?
-Track Session Three: Hope for the Future: Where are We Going?

Lodging:
 
Lodging is provided by the Marriott Courtyard at a special conference rate, with transportation between the hotels and the university provided. Reservations by attendees must be received on or before the cut-off date, Friday, September 2, 2011. At the cut-off date, the hotel will review the reservation pick up for the event, release the unreserved rooms for general sale, and determine whether or not it can accept reservations based on a space- and rate-available basis at the Oklahoma City University group rate after this date.
 
When booking your reservation, specify the conference room rate listed under Oklahoma City University Ecological Room Block.  Rates for two queen size beds are $95.00/per night (plus tax currently at 13.87%).
 
Mariott Courtyard
1515 NW Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK 73118
Direct phone: (405) 848-0808 or 1(180) 032-1212 x1
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/okcnw-courtyard-oklahoma-city-northwest/
 
 
Speakers: 

Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore, Dean of Boston University School of Theology 

Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore sees her primary work as working with others and contributing her small part toward repair of the world (tikkun olam). Her recent books include Teaching as a Sacramental Act, Ministering with the Earth, and Teaching from the Heart, plus the co-edited volumes Children, Youth, and Spirituality in a Troubling World and Practical Theology and Hermeneutics. She has also written many articles on education, process and feminist theologies, and justice and reconciliation. Mary Elizabeth is married to Allen, and they have five children and eight grandchildren.
 
David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President of Oberlin College and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont. 

Dr. Orr is the recipient of seven Honorary degrees and other awards including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, a Lyndhurst Prize acknowledging "persons of exceptional moral character, vision, and energy,” and the Santa Monica Library "Pioneer Award for contributions to sustainability literature.” He has been a scholar in residence at Ball State University, the University of Washington, James Madison University, and other universities. He has lectured at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has served as a Trustee for many organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), the Aldo Leopold Foundation (www.aldoleopold.org), and the Bioneers (www.bioneers.org). He has been a Trustee and/or advisor to ten foundations. 

His career as a scholar, teacher, writer, speaker, and entrepreneur spans fields as diverse as environment and politics, environmental education, campus greening, green building, ecological design, and climate change. He is the author of seven books and co-editor of three others. His first book, Ecological Literacy (SUNY, 1992), was described as a "true classic” by Garrett Hardin. A second book, Earth in Mind (1994/2004) is praised by people as diverse as biologist E. O. Wilson and writer, poet, and farmer, Wendell Berry. Both are widely read and used in hundreds of colleges and universities. Hope is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr (Island Press, 2010) is a collection of his writings from 1985 to 2010. 

In 1987 he organized studies of energy, water, and materials use on several college campuses that helped to launch the green campus movement. In 1989 Orr organized the first ever conference on the effects of impending climate change on the banking industry. Co-sponsored by then Governor Bill Clinton, the conference featured prominent bankers throughout the mid-South and leading climate scientists including Stephen Schneider and George Woodwell. 

In 1996 he organized the effort to design the first substantially green building on a U.S. college campus. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center was later named by the U.S. Department of Energy as "One of Thirty Milestone Buildings in the 20th Century,” and by The New York Times as the most interesting of a new generation of college and university buildings. The Lewis Center purifies all of its wastewater and is the first college building in the U.S. powered entirely by sunlight. But most important it became a laboratory in sustainability that is training some of the nation’s brightest and most dedicated students for careers in solving environmental problems. The story of that building is told in two books, The Nature of Design (Oxford, 2002) that Fritjof Capra called "brilliant,” and a second, Design on the Edge (MIT, 2006), that architect Sim van der Ryn describes as "powerful and inspiring.” 

Orr’s recent political writings appear in, The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror (Island Press, 2004), and articles such as "The Imminent Demise of the Republican Party” (www.commondreams.org) written in January of 2005. 

In an influential article in the Chronicle of Higher Education 2000, Orr proposed the goal of carbon neutrality for colleges and universities and subsequently organized and funded an effort to define a carbon neutral plan for his own campus at Oberlin. Seven years later hundreds of colleges and universities, including Oberlin, have made that pledge. 

Recent projects include a two year $1.2 million collaborative project to define a 100 days climate action plan for the Obama administration (www.climateactionproject.com ), and a project with prominent legal scholars across the U.S. to define the legal rights of posterity in cases where the actions of the present generation might deprive posterity of "life, liberty, and property.” He is also active in efforts to stop mountaintop removal in Appalachia and develop a new economy based on ecological restoration and wind energy. He is the author of Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford University Press, 2009). His present work is focused on making the City of Oberlin a model of full-spectrum sustainability and replicating that effort through a national network.
 
Daniel Wallach, Executive Director and Founder, Greensburg GreenTown 
Catherine Hart, Program Director, Greensburg GreenTown 

Daniel Wallach (Executive Director and Founder) has been a resident of rural Stafford County (his and Catherine's home is 35 miles northeast of Greensburg) since 2003. Before moving to Kansas he and Catherine founded the Colorado Association of Nonprofit Organizations (name has since changed to Colorado Nonprofit Association). Daniel was also active in the development of the association of nonprofits movement nationally. In 2004 he started a natural and local foods co-op in Pratt that, for two years, served two dozen Pratt and Greensburg families. 

Catherine Hart (Program Director) has had a passion for green living and renewable energy since the 1970s, working during college with Missourians for Safe Energy in her first foray into sustainability. She used to pour through issues of Mother Earth News, longing for the day she lived off-grid in the country. She has a master’s degree in social work, has worked as a counselor and educator, and has designed workshops pertaining to wellness and living life fully. She loves visiting with people about the Green Initiative, and never tires of telling the story of the local decision to rebuild as America's Model Green Community. 

Larry Ward, Director of the Lotus Institute
 
Larry Ward was deeply inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and has spent his life committed to non-violent social change, healing, and transformation on a global level. In his capacity as International Director of the Institute of Cultural Affairs, he served in leadership programs in 35 countries engaged in socio-economic development projects in urban and rural areas. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Organizational Behavior and has worked with multinational and national corporations in organizational development as a consultant and executive coach.