Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 23, 2007|Volume 35, Number 19

Henri Nouwen

Symposium will explore the ministry
of former faculty member and Catholic
priest Henri Nouwen

The life and ministry of Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Catholic priest and one of the most prominent teachers of Christian spirituality, will be explored in a symposium Thursday and Friday, March 1 and 2, at the Yale Divinity School -- one of the places Nouwen taught.

The event, titled "Spirituality in the World Today: The Influence of Henri J.M. Nouwen," will feature a keynote address by Robert K. Massie Jr., former executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), who studied under Nouwen at Yale, as well as an organ and cello concert, panel discussions and a formal dedication of the Nouwen Chapel in the lower level of the Divinity School Library.

Nouwen, who died in 1996, wrote more than three dozen books that have been published in over 20 languages. He was renowned for his passionate public lectures and his celebrations of the Eucharist. He was involved during the 1960s in the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr., and throughout his life was engaged in various American peace and social justice movements. In addition to Yale, he taught pastoral theology at the University of Notre Dame and Harvard University. In 1985, Nouwen joined L'Arche in Trosly, France, the first of over 100 communities founded by Jean Vanier where people with developmental disabilities live with assistants. A year later, he became a pastor at L'Arche Daybreak Community near Toronto, Canada, and spent the remainder of his life there.

The Yale symposium in his honor will open on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect St., with Massie's keynote address on the topic "Immediate Grace: The Urgent Faith of Henri Nouwen." Massie was a close friend of Nouwen for 18 years. As the former executive director of CERES, he headed a national coalition that includes some of the largest institutional investors and environmental groups in the United States. Prior to that, from 1989 to 1996, he taught at Harvard Divinity School, where he ran the Project on Business, Values and the Economy. He is the author of the book "Loosing the Bonds: The United States and South Africa in the Apartheid Years." An ordained Episcopal minister, Massie received his M.Div. in 1982 from the Yale Divinity School and his doctorate in business policy from Harvard Business School in 1989.

A response to Massie's address will be offered by Sue Mosteller (Sisters of Saint Joseph), Nouwen's literary executrix and director of the L'Arche Daybreak Community. A reception will follow at 5:30 p.m.

Later that evening, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a concert in Marquand Chapel featuring cellist Eugene Friesen and organist Paul Halley. Friesen is a member of the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Halley served for 13 years as organist and choir master at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and in July will assume the music directorship of three institutions in Halifax, Nova Scotia: St. George's Anglican church, the Atlantic School of Theology and King's College Chapel.

After the concert, a dessert reception will be held at 9:30 p.m. in the common room.

Friday's events will begin with a panel discussion on "Henri Nouwen and Spirituality in the World Today" at 8:30 a.m. in Niebuhr Hall, 409 Prospect St., followed by a Eucharistic worship service in Marquand Chapel and procession to Nouwen Chapel. A noon lunch will be served, followed by the second panel on "Spirituality of Peacemaking and Pastoral Care."

Harold Attridge, dean of the Yale Divinity School, will give the welcome and opening remarks. Closing remarks will be delivered by Margaret Farley, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics.

All events are free and open to the public, with the exception of the concert. For the concert, current students with I.D.s will be admitted free; the cost for others is $25. Detailed information on symposium events is available online at www.yale.edu/divinity/news/061214_news_nouwen.shtml.

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