Thomas Merton Elderhostels

"Week with Thomas Merton" Elderhostel

The Spring 2009 "Week with Thomas Merton" Elderhostel will be held from Sunday 1st March, 2009 until Friday 6th March, 2009. For further details contact Linda Bailey on (502) 452 8161 or by e-mail: lbailey@bellarmine.edu or visit the Elderhostel website. The Fall 2009 Merton Elderhostel will be held from Sunday 11th October, 2009 until Friday 16th October, 2009.

Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University

Free and Open to the Public

Jointly sponsored with Interfaith Paths to Peace

John Dear, S.J. is a Jesuit priest, pastor, peace activist, organizer, lecturer, retreat leader, and the author/editor of 20 books on peace and justice, including Living Peace, published by Doubleday in 2001, and Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings, published by Orbis in 2002. In 2008 he published his autobiography, A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World, and Put Down Your Sword.

From 1998 until December 2000, he served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the United States. He has also worked in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and community centers around the country; traveled in war zones around the world, including most recently Iraq and Palestine; lived in El Salvador, Guatemala and Northern Ireland; been arrested over 75 times in acts of civil disobedience; and spent nearly a year in prison for a Plowshares disarmament action. He currently lives in New Mexico where he is the pastor of churches in Cimarron, Springer, Maxwell, Eagle Nest, Tinaja, Reyado, and Paolo Blanco.

Barbara Holmes

Frazier Hall, Bellarmine University

Free and Open to the Public

Her education also includes a B.A. in sociology from the University of Connecticut, an M.S. in education from Southern Connecticut University, a J.D. from Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University with bar admissions in Georgia in 1984 and Florida in 1991, and a Ph.D. in Religion (Ethics) from Vanderbilt University. In addition to numerous papers and articles, Dr. Holmes has penned four books: Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, Race and the Cosmos: An Invitation to View the World Differently, A Private Woman in Public Spaces: Barbara Jordan's Speeches on Ethics, Public Religion and Law, and Liberation and the Cosmos: A Conversation with the Elders (Fortress, November 2008).

Cralle Theater, Bellarmine University

Free and Open to the Public

Jim Douglass is known for his theological writing and his activism in the area of non-violent resistance to war and especially nuclear arms. He was a friend of Daniel Berrigan and Dorothy Day. He served as a theological advisor on conscientious objection and nuclear war at the Second Vatican Council, and first met Merton while a professor at Bellarmine College. He is the author of Resistance and Contemplation: The Way of Liberation, The Nonviolent Coming of God, and JFK and the Unspeakable (Orbis 2008).
 

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Financial assistance is needed to assist with funding these special events at the Thomas Merton Center. If you would be interested in assisting with funding, or becoming a major sponsor for one of these events please contact:
Dr Paul Pearson on (502) 452 8177 or by e-mail: pmpearson@bellarmine.edu