W.L. Lyons Brown Library 

Thomas Merton Center

Bellarmine University

Bearing Witness to the Light:
Merton's Challenge to a Fragmented World

Speakers

Kate Campbell .

Kate Campbell, is originally from Sledge, Mississippi, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, Kate's formative years were forged by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's and those indelible experiences continue to inform her music. Kate has performed at some of the most prestigious festivals at home and abroad including the Cambridge Folk Festival and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. For The Living Of These Days, Kate's eleventh includes a new Civil Rights Memorial Song as well as "Prayer of Thomas Merton," which Kate set to music. Further information about Kate can be found on her web site - katecampbell.com

James Conner, OCSO.

James Conner, OCSO, is a monk of Gethsemani Abbey, was a student of Merton and acted as chaplain to the Benedictine Community of Osage Monastery, Oklahoma. He worked with Merton as under-master for novices. For five years, in the late nineties her served as Abbot of Assumption Abbey in Missouri. He was 4th President of the ITMS and had written on Thomas Merton in Cistercian Studies, The Merton Annual, and in the volume Thomas Merton Monk: A Monastic Tribute.

Rachel Fell McDermott.

Rachel Fell McDermott, Associate Professor and Chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department at Barnard College where she specializes in South Asia, especially India.

Herbert Mason.

Herbert Mason, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of History and Religious Thought at Boston University where he teaches in the field of Arabic and Islamic Studies. For a number of years he corresponded with Thomas Merton.

Judith Simmer-Brown.

Judith Simmer-Brown, a Professor at Naropa University and a prominent Buddhist scholar. She is on the Board of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and a member of the Lilly Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter.

Donald Grayston.

Donald Grayston, now retired from teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, will deliver the presidential address.