Jimmy Carter to Speak at UCLA on Conflict Resolution

Former President Jimmy Carter, who last week severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, will speak Wednesday at UCLA on conflict resolution and preventing violence around the world. Carter, who served as the country’s 39th commander in chief from 1977 to 1981, secured his place in history with 1978’s Camp David accords, which ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel. Upon leaving the White House, he became an outspoken human rights activist and founded the Carter Center in Atlanta.

Last week, Carter announced that after 65 years in the denomination, he had “come to the very painful decision that I can no longer be associated with the Southern Baptist Convention” because of the “increasingly rigid creed” pushed by its leadership.

Carter’s appearance will be at 4 p.m. in Royce Hall. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. (310) 794-5081.

EVENTS

A three-day conference next week will examine the need to develop urban ministries to keep pace with the nation’s changing demographic trends. The conference, “Writing the History of the Future: Ministry in the Changing Urban Landscape,” will be sponsored by the Claremont School of Theology and the Los Angeles United Methodist Foundation in association with the Boston University School of Theology.

Speakers expected to participate include Max L. Stackhouse, Stephen Colwell professor of Christian ethics at Princeton University; the Rev. De Forest Soaries, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, N.J.; Melba Padilla Maggay, president of the Institute for Studies of Asian Churches and Culture; and Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. The conference will take place at the Claremont School of Theology on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will move to Wilshire Christian Church in Los Angeles on Thursday. The cost is $100, which includes a reception Tuesday and continental breakfast and lunch Wednesday and Thursday. Those interested in attending should call Connie Kimos at (909) 626-3521, Ext. 1291.

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* Eight archeology scholars from around the world are participating in an eight-week series on “Facts, Artifacts and Bible Stories” at the University of Judaism. The sessions, which are held Mondays at 8 p.m., began last week and continue this Monday, with Eliezer Oren of Ben Gurion University discussing “What Does Archeology Teach About Canaanite Religion?” The cost for all eight sessions is $135. Single admissions to individual seminars are $20. In addition to the Monday session, Oren will teach a special seminar Sunday from 10:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on “The Sinai, the Egyptians and the Exodus.” The cost for that seminar is $48. The University of Judaism is at 15600 Mulholland Drive. (310) 440-1246.

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* The ecumenical group Mobilization for the Human Family is sponsoring a walkathon today, with proceeds going to a transportation fund for welfare-to-work participants. The fund will be used to pay for driving school for those without licenses or for car purchases. The walkathon will begin at 9 a.m. at Lacy Park in San Marino. Lunch will be served at noon, followed by a mentor appreciation event. (213) 387-3367.

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* The C.S. Lewis Foundation of Redlands will present a forum and dinner for Christians in higher education at the Costa Mesa Hilton Hotel on Nov. 11. The theme of the evening will be “The Christian Scholar in the World of Ideas.” The keynote speaker will be James Hunter, chairman of the sociology department at the University of Virginia and director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Hunter will discuss the struggle over the direction of American culture. He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling “The Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America” and the newly released “The Death of Character: Moral Education in a World Without Good or Evil.”

Established in 1986, the foundation seeks to foster a renewal of Christian scholarship and artistic expression in contemporary higher education. Inspired by the life and legacy of Lewis, a Christian writer and educator who died in 1963, the foundation conducts regional faculty forums throughout the U.S. and Canada, has restored Lewis’ home in Oxford, England, to serve as an international study center and sponsors a triennial two-week summer institute in Oxford and Cambridge, the next being in July 2002.

The cost for the Costa Mesa forum is $35 per person or $60 per couple before Tuesday. After Tuesday, the cost is $40 per person, $65 per couple. Graduate students pay $30 per person, $45 per couple. Reservations are required and can be made by calling Jill Fort at (909) 793-0949.

MUSIC

A concert featuring Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem” will be given Thursday, All Souls Day, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mel Catholic Church in Woodland Hills. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake. St. Mel was completely renovated and has purchased a new 65-rank Reuter pipe organ. A donation of $5 is suggested. The church is at 20870 Ventura Blvd. (818) 340-6020.

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