Posts Tagged 'Mary Desmond'

Now in fourth year, Cawcroft Fellowship continues support for young ‘Daily’ staff

August 26, 2012·Comments closed

Chautauquan Daily reporter Mary Desmond, who has been responsible for covering the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture Series among other Department of Religion programs, served as the Ernest Cawcroft Journalism Fellow for the 2012 Season. Established in 2009, the Cawcroft Fellowship recognizes a promising young journalist who serves as a reporter on the Daily staff. The fellowship provides for Desmond’s salary, housing and travel expenses during the 2012 Season.

The Cawcroft Fellowship is named after Jamestown attorney and former Daily reporter Ernest Cawcroft, who served as a Chautauqua Institution trustee for 51 years. Chautauquan Stephen S. Anderson created the fellowship in Cawcroft’s memory and is working with the Chautauqua Foundation to establish the fellowship on a permanent basis through the creation of an endowment fund. Cawcroft was elected to the board of trustees at the Institution in January 1917 at the age of 36, and served continuously until his death on Dec. 23, 1967. Among his contributions to Chautauqua are the writing of the Chautauqua Utility District Act and his working for its passage and the obtaining of the governor’s signature.

Interfaith Lecture Recaps

Dean, Robenalt discuss ethical clarity through Watergate case-study

August 24, 2012·Comments closed

“Joan told us that we had to say something religious during this talk, (since we’re speaking on) tapes uncovering wrongdoing and all that: Luke 12:3 ‘Therefore whatever you have said in the dark side shall be heard in the light, and what you whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops,” said James Robenalt, a partner at Thompson Hine LLP, during the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture.

On Thursday, in a continuation of the Week Nine Department of Religion theme, “The Ethics of Presidential Power,” Robenalt spoke with John W. Dean, former counsel to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, to present a lecture titled “The Ethics of Clarity: Waking Up From Wrongdoing.”

Religion

Chautauquan donates 511-year-old Bible for Institution’s book collection

August 23, 2012·Comments closed

The Bible is one of the world’s most read books. People turn through its pages in moments of despair or elation. The holy text is present at baptisms, weddings, funerals and the moments that punctuate life in between.

The Department of Religion of Chautauqua Institution recently received a Bible that has seen many such moments. Earlier this month, Judith Burrows, a retired Episcopal priest, gave a 511-year-old Bible to the institution.

“This wonderful institution was built on a religious foundation. It’s right for it, it’s where it should be,” Burrows said.

Interfaith Lecture Recaps

Barrett traces presidential ethics and values through judicial appointments

August 23, 2012·Comments closed

On Wednesday, John Q. Barrett, a constitutional law and history professor at St. John’s University, continued the Department of Religion’s Week Nine Interfaith Lecture theme, “The Ethics of Presidential Power,” with a lecture titled “Civil Rights and Judicial Appointments: Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and Their Successors.”

In his 2 p.m. lecture, Barrett touched on six main points: the federal court and judicial appointment process; criteria for presidential appointments; judicial appointments during the modern civil rights era — starting with Calvin Coolidge; a case study of Judge A. Leon Higginbotham; an examination of presidential appointments following Kennedy and Johnson; and a discussion of the court’s future progress.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Nash: As with A-bomb drop, presidential decisions full of moral gray areas

August 22, 2012·Comments closed

“The wooden structures were closely packed, quite numerous, you may be aware of housing in Japan, the interior walls made of paper so they burn very, very well. Temperatures in the city reached upwards of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Vehicle frames were melted; canals and ponds were brought to the boiling point. The air contained drops of liquid glass drifting in the wind. Citizens running for their lives spontaneously combusted; many were found charred beyond recognition or dead from heat or suffocation. Over a quarter of a million buildings were destroyed, 16 square miles, almost one-quarter of the city, were laid to complete waste — up to 100,000 people died in that raid,” said Philip Nash, an associate professor of history at Penn State University at the start of his Tuesday Interfaith Lecture.

Nash is the author of The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957–1963.

“What I just described is the conventional bombing raid — B-29 bombers on the night March 9 to 10, 1945 — that was not a description of Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” he said.

Special Lecture Recaps

White analyzes Christian ethic within Lincoln’s second inaugural address

August 21, 2012·Comments closed

Abraham Lincoln was a Christian president, and he embedded Christian ethics of inclusivity, humility and reconciliation within his speeches, writings and presidency, said Ronald C. White Jr., the author of A. Lincoln: A Biography and Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural. White presented Monday’s 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture in the Hall of Philosophy.

White opened this season’s Week Nine religion lecture theme, “The Ethics of Presidential Power,” with a lecture titled “Abraham Lincoln’s Sermon on the Mount: the Second Inaugural Address.”

White began his lecture with a reading of the 701-word document, which only took Lincoln six minutes to read to an audience of 25,000 to 30,000 people on March 4, 1865. At the time the president delivered the speech, the crowd was full of soldiers who had lost limbs during the Civil War, family members who had lost sons and brothers, White said. The atmosphere was turbulent, and already there were threats of Lincoln’s assassination or abduction. Nearby rooftops were strewn with sharpshooters, White said.

Interfaith Lecture Recaps

Waskow dialogues on radically renewing, transforming the world

August 19, 2012·Comments closed

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is a radical, a pioneer; he has been one for a long time and has no intention of giving up anytime soon.

On Friday, Waskow sat down for an intimate conversation with the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell in the Hall of Philosophy for the final lecture on the Week Eight theme, “Radicalism: Burden or Blessing?”

In a discussion titled “Radicals, Radishes and the Spiritual Root of Social Action,” the two touched on the fight of the radical, Waskow’s work with the Jewish renewal movement, the inspiration behind his interfaith action and the new radical movement both Waskow and Campbell belong to: the U.S. Council of Elders.

Religion

O’Sullivan to lead Mystic Heart in Zen Buddhist tradition

August 18, 2012·Comments closed

Michael O’Sullivan stumbled into Zen Buddhism through a sprained ankle. While he was in a New York City emergency room having his twisted joint tended to, a doctor discovered that O’Sullivan had high blood pressure. When the doctor left the room to write a prescription, the attending nurse turned to O’Sullivan and said “Don’t take the medicine, learn how to meditate.”

O’Sullivan will lead the Mystic Heart Program during Week Nine. He will lead the daily morning meditation sessions and the semiweekly afternoon seminars on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He said it will be his fourth time facilitating the Mystic Heart Program.

Interfaith Lecture Previews

Clayton calls on Chautauquans to find their radical voices

August 17, 2012·Comments closed

Philip Clayton, provost of Claremont Lincoln University and dean of Claremont School of Theology came to the Chautauqua Institution to convert Chautauquans into radicals.

“I’m going to encourage you to be radical, to find your own radical voice. Everything I say has the goal of helping you to find the form of radical optimism that you have to offer,” Clayton said Thursday in the Hall of Philosophy.

During Week Eight’s fourth Interfaith Lecture on the theme “Radicalism: Burden or Blessing?,” Clayton discussed the two main facets of modern day religious radicalism in a lecture titled “Suicide Bombers and Barefoot Prophets: The Faces of Radical Religion in the Early 21st Century.”

Interfaith Lecture Recaps

Chane discusses a radical Jesus, radicalism in Christianity

August 16, 2012·Comments closed

“Was Jesus a radical?” Bishop John Bryson Chane asked the Hall of Philosophy audience during the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture.

On Wednesday, Chane continued Week Eight’s theme of “Radicalism: Burden or Blessing?” with a lecture titled “Radicalism… A Passion for The Possible in the 21st Century.” The title comes from the title of a book written by William Sloane Coffin, a Christian theologian, Chane said. In his lecture, Chane discussed the meaning of the word “radical,” whether Jesus was a radical, and whether the Christian church of today is or is not a radical church.

Chane was consecrated the eighth Bishop of Washington and was CEO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation. He is also an active participant and proponent of interfaith dialogue and a graduate of Yale Divinity School. Before attending Yale, Chane was a student at Boston University where he was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society.