wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 2870

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (283
notes).

Note 283 by UMNS on Aug. 26, 1997 at 16:51 Eastern (3623 characters).

TEXT: Struggle for Democracy Studied
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally                    471(10-30-71B){283}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470

Fall lineup announced for Gandhi-Hamer-King Center
for Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal in Denver

                 by United Methodist News Service

     Civil Rights leader C.T. Vivian, known for leading non-
violent student sit-ins, Freedom Rides and voter registration
campaigns, and long-time Louisville, Ky., activist Anne Braden,
who worked closely with the late Martin Luther King and the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, are among speakers
scheduled this fall for the Gandhi-Hamer-King Center for Study of
Religion and Democratic Renewal in Denver.
     The center, which opened last spring at United Methodist-
related Iliff School of Theology in Denver, focuses on the
relationship between religion and the struggle for democracy.
     Others in the fall lineup include Bernice Johnson Reagon,
founder and artistic director of the widely-known African-American
female quintet, "Sweet Honey in the Rock"; Alice and Staughton
Lynd, major white allies of the King-led southern Non-Violent
Freedom Movement; and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, leader of the
Birmingham-based African American Freedom Movement and co-founder
of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
      Director of the center is Sudarshan Kapur who has taught
religion and social change at Iliff, the University of Colorado,
and the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo. The work of the center,
funded in part by the Lilly Endowment Inc., includes research,
teaching, dialogue, reflection and publication, according to
Kapur.
     The center takes a "deeply personal" approach to
understanding the connections between religion and social change,
according to Vincent Harding, Iliff professor of religion and
social transformation who helped develop the project.
     The center brings to the campus and the Denver area
individuals who give witness to religion's in the struggles for
democracy both in the United States and abroad.   
     While the center makes use of significant academic resources
at Iliff, the University of Denver and Naropa Institute, Kapur
said it moves beyond traditional academic resources.
     "The center connects the experiences of religiously-grounded
social movements and their leaders with men, women and young
people beyond the academy who are working for the expansion of
democracy," Kapur said.
     Harding and Kapur engage veterans of religiously-grounded
movements of non-violent change in interview-conversations. 
     "By listening to the personal stories of veterans of the
Southern Freedom Movement and pro-democracy movements in other
parts of the world, people are reminded -- or learn for the first
time -- that religion is not just for carrying on programs,"
explained Harding.  "Audiences of all ages begin to glimpse how
important religion has been in the struggle for freedom."
     The center is videotaping each interview to provide a lasting
oral history resource accessible not only to students but also to
the wider community, especially youth groups, teachers and church
educators.
     "Through the taping we hope to capture, preserve and share a
sacred history of the struggle for freedom," Harding said.  "This
history can provide a crucial understanding for the creative
meanings of democracy in the 21st century."
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