The 2015 Lake Junaluska Peace Conference takes place at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center from Nov. 12-15, with an early registration deadline of Tuesday, Sept. 1.
“This year’s conference, ‘Longing for Peace/Exploring the Heart of God,’ will feature three keynote speakers and focus on the spiritual roots and foundations that support the search for peace in the three Abrahamic faith traditions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity,” reads an event release. “Special music will be provided by The Yuval Ron Ensemble.”
Keynote speakers include: Rabia Terri Harris, founder of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, Stony Point, New York; Rabbi Or Rose, founding director of the Center for Global Judaism at Hebrew College; Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London; and Yuval Ron, internationally renowned World Music artist, composer, educator, peace activist and record producer.
Registration is $120 before Sept. 1 and $145 after Sept. 1. Students may attend for $60. Visit lakejunaluska.com/peace or call 454-6682 for more information or to register.
Here is the full release from organizers:
Lake Junaluska, NC: Division, racism, violence. They shake our world and make us long for peace. But why does it seem so unattainable and how do people of faith find it?
An international panel of speakers will address the issue of peace at the 2015 Lake Junaluska Peace Conference, Nov. 12-15 at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, Lake Junaluska, N.C. This year’s conference, “Longing for Peace/Exploring the Heart of God,” will feature three keynote speakers and focus on the spiritual roots and foundations that support the search for peace in the three Abrahamic faith traditions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Special music will be provided by The Yuval Ron Ensemble.
The keynote speakers are:
⦁ Rabia Terri Harris, founder of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, Stony Point, New York. Harris is an essayist, editor and peace activist. She is a columnist and contributing editor at Fellowship, the magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1994, Harris founded the Muslim Peace Fellowship, the first organization specifically devoted to the theory and practice of authentically Islamic active nonviolence. She serves as director of the Muslim Peace Fellowship and Resident Elder at Dar Anwaras-Salam, the Muslim component of the Community of Living Traditions, a tripartite Abrahamic residential peace community in Stony Point, New York. She is also among the organizers of a new venture in Islamic pastoral care, the Muslim Chaplains Association.
⦁ Rabbi Or Rose, founding director of the Center for Global Judaism at Hebrew College, Newton Centre, Mass. Rose is a leading writer and social activist. Rose is also co-director of the Center for Interreligious and Community Leadership Education, a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School. Rose is the former associate dean and director of informal education at the Rabbinical School, where he still teaches. He is co-editor of “Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections” and “My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth and Transformation.
⦁ Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Wells served as dean of Duke University Chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School from 2005 to 2012. He has served as a parish priest for 15 years – 10 of those in urban priority areas. Wells is also visiting professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College, London, and a non-residential theological canon at Chichester Cathedral. He has published 20 books, including works on Christian social ethics and collections of sermons.
⦁ Yuval Ron, internationally renowned World Music artist, composer, educator, peace activist and record producer. Ron graduated Cum Laude as a film scoring major at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He enjoys researching various ethnic musical traditions and spiritual paths worldwide. He has composed the songs and score for the Oscar winning film West Bank Story in 2007, was the featured artist in the Gala Concert for the Dalai Lama’s initiative Seeds of Compassion in the Seattle Opera Hall in 2008, and has collaborated with the Sufi leader Pir Zia Inayat Khan since 2006. The internationally renowned music and dance group, The Yuval Ron Ensemble, has been actively involved in creating musical bridges between people of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths.
The conference will also include additional sessions, workshops and a panel discussion with the three speakers that will be moderated by Rabbi Phil Bentley of Hendersonville. Space is limited and early registration is recommended. Registration is $120 before Sept. 1 and $145 after Sept. 1. Students may attend for $60. Register at www.lakejunaluska.com/peace or by calling 828.454.6682.
The Peace Conference will also offer live streaming of the three keynote speakers, establish several international sites for small groups to gather and watch portions of the Peace Conference, and issue an invitation to various faith groups, peace fellowships and individuals to join Peace Conference participants leading up to and during the Peace Conference in prayers for world peace and in a renewed emphasis on prayer, meditation and contemplation.
“With the Peace Conference, we feel the importance of joining hands with various segments of the faith communities around the world to advance the work of reconciliation and peace by learning peace making and contemplative practices from the Abrahamic traditions,” said Garland Young, a retired Methodist minister and chair of the coordinating committee for the Peace Conference. “The Peace Conference is always made up of leaders of different faiths, a directive established by the late Wright Spears, whom we call the “grandfather of the Peace Conference,” because he was the one who first brought the idea of a peace conference to his fellow ministers during the time of the Iraqi War.”
Charlene Kammerer, retired bishop of The United Methodist Church, said the 2015 Peace Conference offers a place where leaders of various religions can give witness to alternatives to the division, violence and racism that’s shaking our world today. “In our faith traditions, we all recognize that a relationship with God provides the foundation to become peacemakers in our hurting world and sources of hope,” Kammerer said.
The Lake Junaluska Peace Conference is an ongoing response to God’s call to peacemaking and reconciliation. Affirming the community of Abrahamic faiths, the Peace Conference seeks to work in partnership with Christians, Jews, Muslims, and members of other religious traditions to advance the work of reconciliation and peace.
Visit lakejunaluska.com/peace” www.lakejunaluska.com/peace for more information.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.