March 6, 2006
by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE – Christian, Jewish and Muslim experts from around the world will lead discussions on "The Role of Religious Minorities in Pluralistic Societies" at a major conference later this month in New York.

The March 23-26 event at Rutgers Presbyterian Church will help mark the 100th anniversary of the American Waldensian Society. The society was founded in 1906 to link Waldensians in Italy with those who had migrated to Argentina, Uruguay and the United States. The Waldensians are a Protestant religious movement which was founded in France in the 12th century but which is now centered in Italy. It is a partner church of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

The conference will be led by the moderator of the Waldensian Church in Italy, the Rev. Maria Bonafede; the moderator of the Waldensian Church in Argentina and Uruguay, the Rev. Hugo Armand Pilon; and the Rev. Francis Rivers, president of the American Waldensian Society.

Among the keynote speakers include the Rev. Harvey Cox of Harvard University; Paolo Naso of the University of Rome; Alvaro Michelin Salomon and Dario Barolin of Union Seminary in Buenos Aires; Luca Negro, communications officer for the Conference of European Churches in Geneva; Azza Karam, research advisor in the United Nations Regional Bureau for Arab States; and Daniele Daniele Garrone of the Waldensian Seminary in Rome.

PC(USA) leaders will include the Rev. John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago; the Rev. Margaret O. "Peggy" Thomas, former missionary to Iran and former interfaith relations officer in the Worldwide Ministries Division; and the Rev. Heidi Hadsell of Hartford (CT) Theological Seminary and former director of the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland.

The conference will also include workshops on churches in multicultural societies, interfaith dialogue; practices of justice; contemporary spirituality and evangelism; and the challenges of the future.

For more information, contact Cliff Frasier or Lucia Cuocci at the American Waldensian Society by phone at 917-496-7972 or by email at: AWS.centennial@verizon.net.

Presbyterian News Service