The Spirit of Peace Conference Schedule (subject to change)

Conference Schedule (subject to change)

Location: All sessions will be held in the Ashland University Dauch College of Business

Friday, March 20, 7pm

Inter-Religious Dialogue Panel  

Room 115    

• Semiha Topal, Program Manager for the Tuohy Center for Interreligious Understanding at John Carroll University
• Ellen Posman, Chair of the Department of Religion, Baldwin Wallace University
• Heidi Eddy, Adjunct professor of Religion, Ashland University
• Craig Hovey (moderator), Professor of Religion, Ashland University

 

Saturday, March 21

8:00am – Registration opens, Coffee & light breakfast

8:45am – Welcome remarks (room 115)

9:00am – 10:30am: Session 1

A (Room 104)
Bill Warters Michigan Alternatives to Violence Project; Wayne State University (retired)	“20th Century Roots and Branches of Nonviolence Theory”
Semiha Topal John Carroll University	“Bridgebuilding and Religious Pluralism: Fostering Interreligious Understanding in a Divided World”
B (Room 105)
Brian Collins Ohio University	“Hindu and Buddhist Attitudes toward Sacrificial Violence”
Derek Kubilus First United Methodist Church	“Garden Variety Politics: The Subversive Witness of the Old Testament”

 

10:45am – 12:15pm: Session 2 

A (Room 104)
John Crowley-Buck John Carroll University	“Spiritual Resilience for Nonviolence Civil Resistance: An Ignatian Approach”
Connie Kassor Cuyahoga Community College	“The Sharp Edge of Compassion: Buddhist Perspectives on Anger and Peace”

B (Room 105)
Heidi Eddy Ashland University	“Inner Peace, Outer Peace: The Transformative Power of Compassion”
Nicole Kaufman Ohio University	“Listening, Witness, Creation: Women Leading Religious Experiences from Jail to the Execution Chamber”
C (Room 115)
Kailey Bradley Marian University	“Holding Loss, Cultivating Peace: Spiritual Support as a Foundation for Community Healing”
Danielle Ravitzki Independent Scholar	“Family, Forgiveness, and Justice:  Challenging the Moral Obligation to Forgive in Families”

 

12:15pm – 1:15pm: Lunch, Room 115

1:30pm – 2:30pm: Panel Discussion, Room 115

Ohio Council of Churches P.L.A.N. (Pastors & Laity Advancing Nonviolence) How Might We Assess Ecosystem Wide Flourishing in a Context of Global Dialogue? Featuring Jason Bricker-Thompson (Executive Director, Compassionate Communicate Center of Ohio), Tom Carlisi (P.L.A.N. Training Team Leader, OCC), Fred Goff (Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer), and Amariah McIntosh (Associate Director & Director of Public Policy, OCC)

 

3:00pm – 4:30pm: Session 3

A (Room 104)
Ohio Council of Churches P.L.A.N. (Pastors & Laity Advancing Nonviolence)	“Experiential practice and developing an Action Plan for Outreach and Implementation of OCC P.L.A.N. in participants’ communities”
Jayne Wilcox Ashland Theological Seminary	Shalom-Making: The Primary Vocation of the Church
B (Room 105)
Elaine Stratton Hild Corpus monodicum, Uni Würzburg	“Peace at the End: Deathbed Practices in Historic Europe”
Katherine Brown Ashland University	“The Spiritual Foundation and Legacy of Lorenzetti’s Allegories of Good and Bad Government Fresco Cycle in Siena, 1338”

 

Remembering Dr. Robert Suggs

The founding members of the Ashland Center for Nonviolence note with sadness the passing of former AU provost Dr. Robert Suggs. He was provost in the early years of the 21st century. He was soft-spoken, but forthright. He was guided by deep spirituality.

Photo source

Dr. Suggs supported the local weekly vigil protesting the US government’s threat to invade Iraq in the winter of 2002-03. He sometimes joined the vigil that convened every Monday at the corner of Claremont and College Avenues and King Road. He also provided funds so that eloquent voices for peace—guest speakers of the caliber of Arun Gandhi, Yolanda King, and Jim Wallis—could be invited to campus in the years immediately after the invasion of Iraq and the war that followed. Those speakers drew large audiences that encouraged the former vigil participants, led by Dr. John Stratton, to establish a permanent organization that became the Ashland Center for Nonviolence.

Dr. Suggs retired to Florida with his wife Mary, where they were active in the Faith Covenant Church of Saint Petersburg. He is survived by his wife, four children, and their families. The Ashland Center for Nonviolence acknowledges the generous moral and material support provided by Dr. Suggs in its earliest formation.