Conscientious Objection & the Seventh-day Adventist Church Symposium

[Stan]

www.shouldifight.org

For the North American Division, and other interested parties.

The PARL Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada is sponsoring a Symposium on Conscientious Objection in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Symposium is planned for November 6 ñ 9, 2008 in Oshawa, Ontario.

Given the militarism of Western Society, it is thought that this type of symposium would be of benefit to assist Adventist young people, in understanding what the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches regarding Conscientious Objection.

Presentations will be on subjects concerning Conscientious Objection - from historical, theological, sociological, and religious perspectives.

When you register, please tell them you read about this here. Thanks

www.shouldifight.ca

[Stan]

Speakers

Allison Bryan

Allison Bryan, is a graduate student at Memorial University in Newfoundland. She is pursuing her Masters Degree in Sociology, studying the co-management of natural resources and how models of consensus building can help mitigate various forms of conflict. She holds a BA from the University of Guelph where she majored in International Development and minored in Philosophy. Most recently, Allison worked for the Canadian national youth organization Katimavik which helps foster youth development and community capacity building. Allison has worked and traveled abroad to such places as Mali, Burkina Faso, India and parts of Western Europe. She has a keen interest in religion and, by God�s grace, her exploration of various belief systems led her to know a personal relationship with God.

Barry W. Bussey

Barry W. Bussey, is a native of Newfoundland, Canada. He has two undergraduate degrees (B.A. in Theology and LL.B. in Law); two master degrees (M.A. in Political Science, and LL.M. in Constitutional Law); and is currently studying for his PhD in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University (Toronto). Barry served as pastor for two churches in Newfoundland. He has been legal advisor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1996. He enjoys doing things out of the ordinary including running as a candidate in the 2000 federal election. His wife says he�s not boring to live with and is always up to something. Barry is the husband of but one wife (of almost 22 years), LaVonna and they have three children, Carmelle (age 19), twin boys Adam, and Seth (age 17). Carmelle wants to be a lawyer like Dad but his boys say, �No way � Dad reads too much!�

Lt(N) Retired Olaf P. Clausen, CD, BGS

Lt(N) Retired Olaf P. Clausen, CD, BGS, is Pastor of the Lethbridge Seventh-day Adventist Church. After graduating from high school, he entered the Canadian Armed Forces Officer Corp as a Naval Officer, with 12 years of distinguished service. He served as an Operations and Weapons Officer with a short stint in Naval Intelligence, concluding his career as a Military Career Counsellor and regional trainer of selection interviewers and recruiters. After giving his life to Christ, he taught a variety of subjects in Academy high school for 10 years, having many opportunities to counsel youth regarding joining any armed service. Pastor Clausen has a passion for Christ that will inspire all to join His army.

Jeff Crocombe

Jeff Crocombe, an Australian currently working as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Theology at Helderberg College in South Africa, teaching principally in the area of church history. I have a BA (Theology) from Avondale College and postgraduate qualifications from Monash University and the University of Queensland. I have a particular history in the history of the Millerite movement and the Seventh-day Adventist Church and am currently completing a PhD on William Miller at the University of Queensland. I blog on SDA history and culture at: http://h0bbes.wordpress.com/ I am married to Ruth and have a one year-old daughter, Araminta. When not working I am likely to be found in the wild looking for birds.

Ginger Hanks Harwood, PhD,

Ginger Hanks Harwood holds Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Sociology with an emphasis on history from California State University system, and a Ph.D. in Theological and Religious studies offered jointly by the University of Denver and the Iliff school of Theology. While finishing her course work at Iliff/DU. She was employed at Denver Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Hospital by the Chaplains Department to serve as a full time chaplain, where part her the assignment was to supervise the clinical ministry experience for students from three local seminaries. In 1990, She left Chaplaincy for university teaching, where she has served since. Currently, she teaches religious studies, ethics, Adventist history and gender and religion at La Sierra University. Her prime areas of research focus around the issues that appeared in the nineteenth century Review and Herald : defining an appropriate relationship of Adventists to the government, to the poor and marginalized, or even oppressed, the role and positions of men and women in church, home and society. She has published several articles on Adventist history.

Ronald Lawson

Ronald Lawson, was born and educated in Australia, where he earned a Ph.D. in sociology and history at the University of Queensland in 1970 and was one of the founders of QUSDAS, the Queensland University Seventh-day Adventist Society, in 1962. After two years post-doctoral study at Columbia University in New York, he joined the City University of New York, first in Hunter College and then, for the past 32 years, in Queens College. He is Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College, CUNY, a rank he has held since 1984. He has published Brisbane in the 1890s: An Australian Urban Society (University of Queensland Press, 1973, 1987) and The Tenant Movement in New York, 1904-1984 (Rutgers University Press, 1986), and dozens of articles. Since 1984 he has been engaged in a massive study of global Seventh-day Adventism, which has taken him to 59 countries where he has interviewed about 3,500 Adventist pastors, administrators, teachers, students, and laity. His three books based on this research are now being prepared for publication. He teaches courses on research methods, religious movements (where his work on Adventism is highlighted), religion and politics, protest movements, and housing and landlord-tenant politics. His article, "Onward Christian Soldiers?: Seventh-day Adventists and the Issue of Military Service." was published in the Review of Religious Research, 37:3, March 1996: 97-122. Ron has been president of the Metro New York Adventist Forum since 1974. Ron has also had a second career as a church musician (organist, choir director, singer), which ahs taken him to church on both Sabbath and Sunday for most of his life.

Douglas Morgan, PhD

Douglas Morgan, PhD, is professor of history and political studies at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he has served since 1994. He is author of Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Impact of a Major Apocalyptic Movement (University of Tennessee Press, 2001), and editor of The Peacemaking Remnant, a collection of essays and historical documents published by the Adventist Peace Fellowship in 2005. A graduate of Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, he earned a Ph.D. in the history of Christianity at the University of Chicago in 1992, studying under Martin E. Marty. He is a co-founder of the Adventist Peace Fellowship and serves as secretary of the Sabbath in Africa Study Group, headed by Charles E. Bradford.

Ronald E. Osborn

Ronald E. Osborn, is the Bannerman Fellow of the Politics and International Relations Program at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. He is a PhD candidate in Politics and International Relations at University of Southern California. His received his MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2005. An MA in Liberal Arts from the Graduate Institute of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 2002. His BA in History and BA in English from Atlantic Union College, Lancaster, Massachusetts, was received in 1999. He has had a number of writings published in a number of periodicals including: Spectrum Magazine, Journal of Law and Religion, and Review of International Studies (forthcoming, 2009).

Karen R. Scott

Karen R. Scott, was born in California but grew up in British Columbia, Canada. She graduated from Walla Walla College (B.Sc.) and from the University of British Columbia (LL.B.), after which she practiced law for about eight years. She argued a religious liberty case before the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court decided unanimously in her client's favor and the case continues as the precedent in Canada for work-place religious and disability accommodation. While in Canada, Karen served on the North American Division's Women';s Commission, was Director of Women's Ministries in Canada and was the founder of and much beloved Director of Women's Ministries for the British Columbia Conference. In 1995 she returned to California serving as the liaison between the Pacific Union Conference and the California Legislature where she monitored religious liberty and private education legislation. In 1997 she became a member of the State Bar of California. Later she was In House Counsel for Educational Media Foundation, the parent corporation of the K-LOVE and Air 1 Radio networks. Currently she is the Chaplain at Wheatland Retirement Village in Walla Walla, Washington and she is a Trustee of the Center for Liberty of Conscience, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public on the Biblical and historical basis of liberty of conscience. Karen co-produced Roger Williams: Freedom's Forgotten Hero, a documentary on the life of Roger Williams, Founder of Rhode Island. The film aired on a PBS station as part of the 2003 Fourth of July celebrations. Karen regularly speaks at teachers's conventions, women's ministry retreats, churches, lawyers' associations, atheist groups, high schools, colleges and other functions and events.

Lincoln E. Steed

Lincoln E. Steed, is the editor of Liberty magazine, a 200,000 circulation religious liberty journal which is distributed to political leaders, judiciary, lawyers and other thought leaders in North America and, through the International Religious liberty Association, to a larger international audience. Begun 100 years ago by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the magazine argues for the rights of faith and practice for all. He came to the job with extensive periodical and book editing experience. At Pacific Press, Review and Herald, and Signs Publishing in Australia he was book editor, house editor for Sabbath School quarterlies, textbook editor and editor of Listen and Winner magazines. The editing of the temperance journals gave him considerable experience in working with government contacts and educators from most major denominations. He has long maintained that our religious liberties and our good relationship with society at large are inextricably entwined. Lincoln was born in Australia and began his education in his homeland of Australia, continuing his studies at Columbia Union College, Takoma Park, Maryland, and gaining a postgraduate degree at Andrews University. He is the author of the book "The Last Mountain" and numerous periodical articles. He has traveled extensively promoting temperance and religious liberty issues: recent trips have been to Laos, Mynamar, Combodia, Sri Lanka and Ambon, Indonesia, scene of violent religious conflict. While Associate Director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the North American Division of the General Conference, he lives in Hagerstown, MD, with his wife Rosa Delia and two children, Christopher and Kristen.

Joel Willett

Joel Willett, served as a military police officer in the U.S. Army for almost four years from 2002 -2006. He became a committed Seventh-day Adventist during this time and subsequently struggled with conscientious objection. He has presented at numerous evangelistic series and the Lord opened the door for him to leave the Army and serve as a missionary at the Adventist seminary in Zaoksky, Russia. His passion for international relations was piqued during this time and God provided him an opportunity to live out his faith in the world of diplomacy. He just returned from a summer in the Law Enforcement Section of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He is a candidate for an M.A. in Diplomacy and National Security at the University of Kentucky. Just 24 years old and he was born and raised in Louisville, Ky. He has been involved in youth ministry for two churches in the Louisville area over the past 3 years.