Assumption College announces the refounding
of its Ecumenical Institute. The Institute, originally established
in 1968 by Rev. Ernest Fortin, A.A.,
and Rev. Oscar Remick and long headed by Dr. Wayne Rollins, will
be directed by Dr. Marc A. LePain of the College's Theology Department.
The Institute's main concern is the basic
issue confronting all believers in our day, namely the relation
of faith to the modern world. It is particularly
sensitive to the fact that, in many instances, the real problems
which believers face today lie deeper than the issues that have
traditionally divided
them.
The Institute will provide a forum for
reflection and discussion of questions of common interest to Christians
of all churches and to people of other
faiths as well. It will seek to clarify the differences that divide
Christians as well as the common principles that unite them.
Among members of the Institute's advisory
board are the Most Rev. George Rueger, Auxiliary Bishop of Worcester,
and the Rev. Paul Kennedy,
pastor emeritus of Trinity Lutheran Church in Worcester.
The Institute will organize the College's
annual Emmanuel d'Alzon Lecture, Rabbi Joseph Klein Lecture in
Judaic Affairs, and Bishop Bernard
Flanagan Ecumenical Lecture. It will also offer a week-long summer
institute in late June of each year and occasional programs intended
to provide
continuing education for both clergy and laity of the Worcester
area. In all its endeavors, the Institute will seek to bring the
best contemporary
scholarship to bear on the life of the Church in our time.
This coming summer, from June 25 to 30
the Institute will sponsor a week-long reflection providing an
ecumenical and contemporary perspective
on "Saint Augustine: Pastor at the Dawn of a New Millennium".
The occasion will also mark the 150th anniversary of the founding
of the
Augustinians of the Assumption who sponsor the College.
This fall, Pierre Manent, Professor at
the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
Paris, will give the d'Alzon Lecture on Thursday, October
14. Manent, one of France's leading political philosophers, is
the author of several books, including the recently translated
The City of Man. He will
speak on "Pascal and the Paradoxes of Christian Rationalism."
On Monday, November 22, the Bishop Flanagan
Ecumenical Lecture will be given
by Rev. George Tavard, A.A., a theological expert at the Second
Vatican Council and member of several international ecumenical
dialogues. His
topic will be "Toward the Third Millennium: Recent Ecumenical
Achievements."
In the spring, on Thursday, March 23,
2000, Rabbi Eric Yoffie will give the Rabbi Joseph Klein Lecture.
He will speak about "Good News, Bad
News: Extraordinary Achievements and Current Tensions in Catholic-Jewish
Relations." Rabbi Yoffie is a native of Worcester and the
president of
the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
The lectures are all scheduled to take
place at 7:00 p.m. in La Maison Française on the College
campus. They are open to the public at no charge.
Further information on the summer institute set for next June
will be announced at later date.