Tuesday, March 7, 2006
2005-2006/045
Theologian visits U. of I. March 17 to discuss “The
response of churches to the environmental crisis”
URBANA—Peter Bakken, Coordinator for Public Policy at the Wisconsin Council of Churches, will give a lecture entitled, "The Response of the Churches to the Environmental Crisis," on Friday, March 17, at noon in Lucy Ellis Lounge, 1080 Foreign Languages Building, 707 S. Mathews Ave., on the U. of I. campus.
The lecture is free, and the public is invited to attend.
In his talk Bakken will propose a model for congregational engagement with environmental (and other) issues based on what he calls "sense of place." He will use his home congregation in Madison, Wis., as a prototype of his model.
Bakken received a Ph. D. in theology from the University of Chicago. He was a member of the task force that produced the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America social statement, "Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice.” This social statement was adopted by a more than two-thirds majority vote as a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the third Churchwide Assembly on Aug. 28, 1993, at Kansas City, Missouri.
From 1991 to 2005 he was Coordinator of Outreach and Research Fellow at the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies in Mancelona, Mich. The mission of Au Sable Institute is the integration of knowledge of the Creation with biblical principles to bring the Christian community and the general public to a better understanding of the Creator and the stewardship of God's Creation.
Bakken’s publications include “Ecology, Justice and Christian Faith: A Guide to the Literature” (co-compiled with J. Ronald Engel and Joan Gibb Engel; Greenwood Press, 1995) and “Evocations of Grace: Writings on Ecology, Theology and Ethics by Joseph Sittler” (co-edited with Steven Bouma-Prediger, Eerdmans, 2000). He also contributed to “Ethics for a Small Planet: A Communications Handbook on the Ethical and Theological Reasons for Protecting Biodiversity” (The Biodiversity Project, 2002) and “Finding the Center of the World” (Ice Cube Press, 2003).
He serves on the boards of the Biodiversity Project, the Lutheran Office for Public Policy in Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign.
Bakken’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Center for Advanced Study; Red Bison; the U. of I. School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics; The Environmental Council; Human Dimensions of Environmental Sciences; University Place Christian Church; Channing-Murray Foundation; Students for Environmental Concerns; Environmental Ethics Discussion Group; Envirovet Program in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health; the U. of I. Department of History; Interfaith Alliance of Champaign-Urbana; and the Community United Church of Christ.
Background: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America social statement, "Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice.” http://www.elca.org/socialstatements/environment/
Background: Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies: http://www.ausable.org/au.main.cfm
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