Academic Life ~ Tutu Education Ctr. Opening Conference

Tutu Education Ctr. Opening Conference

Reconciliation at the Roundtable: God's Call in the 21st Century

Planning for an international conference
to open the Desmond Tutu Education Center on 9/11/07
Status as of July 2006

Alongside the planning processes for the learning centers to be programmatically located at the Desmond Tutu Education Center, a separate team has developed a plan for an international conference to open the Tutu Center on 9/11/07, the anniversary of events that have accentuated alienation in today's world.  Entitled Reconciliation at the Roundtable: God's Call in the 21st Century, the conference will be co-sponsored by the international Community of the Cross of Nails (CCN) and its 160 centers around the world.  This partnership will highlight at the outset the DTEC's interface between the seminary and the wider church and global community.  Abp. Tutu has agreed to keynote the event, which will include Sept. 10 and 12. 

The purpose of the conference is to stimulate among Anglicans and other Christians fresh thinking about modes of reconciliation in current conflicts and catalyze creative commitment to local peace and reconciliation efforts in the USA and in diverse parts of the world.  Particular emphases of the conference will be the role of religion in racial, ethnic and international alienation and the church's call to lead in peace and reconciliation work.

The conference planning team, chaired by Sub-Dean Titus Presler, includes Dean Ewing, Theology Prof. Richardson, Spirituality Prof. Linman; Dean Spenser Simrill '79 of Minneapolis Cathedral, who is the point person for CCN's sponsorship, and Paul Strickland, CCN coordinator in Minneapolis; Brenda Husson, rector of St. James Church, Manhattan; educationist and GTS trustee Joyce Mondesire; mission consultant Jane Butterfield; Stuart Hoke of St. Paul's Chapel; John Irvine, Dean of Coventry Cathedral; Ogé Beauvoir of the Tutu Center for Reconciliation and Peace in Haiti; and Dan Vaughan of the Tutu Peace Center in South Africa.
 
Matters addressed by the conference will include: spirituality for reconciliation; mobilizing communities for reconciliation; inter-religious reconciliation; racial and ethnic reconciliation; justice as a prerequisite for reconciliation; reconciliation amid the current turmoil of the Anglican Communion; reconciliation after genocide; ecumenical reconciliation; and the role of the Millennium Development Goals in reconciliation.  Various groups and organizations have strong interest in aspects of these themes. 

Conference brochure (pdf)

Conference Registration Form