Family physician and author David Hilfiker will present the annual William Stringfellow Lecture in Justice and Peace at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, in Chase Hall Lounge, Chase Hall, 56 Campus Avenue.

The lecture honors the legacy of William Stringfellow, Bates class of 1949, a lawyer and lay theologian prominent in the American peace movement, and coincides with the 2004 William Stringfellow Awards for Justice and Peace, to be presented this year to Bates junior Gregory Rosenthal of Schenectady, N.Y., and the members of the Greene-based Maine Center for Justice, Ecology and Democracy (JED).

Hilfiker’s Stringfellow Lecture follows a talk he will give earlier in the day, Inward Journey, Outward Journey: A Physician’s Story of Accompanying and Being Accompanied by the Poor, at 4:30 p.m. in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall. Part of the series “Spiritual Journeys: Stories of the Soul 2003-04.” Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain, both events are open to the public free of charge. Call 207-786-8272 for more information.

Founder of  the Washington, D.C.-based Joseph House for formerly homeless men living with HIV/AIDS, Hilfiker, gives his Stringfellow presentation, The Triumph of Hope Over Fear, at 6:30 p.m.

“A fear of the poor, of the alien, of the ‘other,’ runs through our nation. It separates us from our own selves as well as from others and leaves us at the mercy of powers we do not fully understand,” Hilfiker says. “Solidarity with the marginalized, on the other hand, is a profound invitation to the spiritual life. It offers us an upside-down view that begins gradually to make sense. It offers us hope.”

A family practitioner who practiced for seven years in a rural Minnesota clinic and 10 years at Community of Hope Health Services, an urban clinic in Washington, D.C., Hilfiker and his family lived for five years at Christ House, a 34-bed medical recovery shelter for homeless men that he helped to found. In 1990, he left Christ House to found Joseph House, where he, as medical and finance director, and his family lived with the home’s residents for three years.

No longer active in medical practice, Hilfiker works toward the creation of a just society through his writing and speaking. In December 2002, he spent three weeks in Iraq and has since written and lectured about the invasion of that country.

The author of Healing the Wounds (Pantheon, 1985) and Not All of Us Are Saints (Hill & Wang, 1994), Hilfiker’s latest book is Urban Justice: How Ghettos Happen (Seven Stories Press, 2002).

JED is a group of activists, organizers, farmers and artists working for social, ecological and economic justice on both local and global scales. Based since fall 2001 at the Clark Mountain Sanctuary in Greene, the group operates a small organic farm and lives in a way that ties political activism to sustainability and ecology. JED-supported projects and organizations during the last two years include Lots to Gardens of Downtown Lewiston, Maine Solidarity Delegation to Brazil 2003, the Many and One Coalition, the Lewiston Time Dollar Network and the Maine Fair Trade Campaign.

Before transferring to Bates College as a sophomore, Gregory Rosenthal spent one year at the California Institute of Art studying music composition and uncovering connections between Taoism and music, sound and listening. At Bates, Rosenthal has continued this exploration with Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Gina Fatone. He will travel to China in fall 2004 to continue this study.

Since arriving at Bates, Rosenthal has learned to practice Buddhist meditation and to renew Judaism in his life. Bates has also introduced Rosenthal to community service, social justice and political activism.  In early March, he designated a tree on the historic quadrangle as “The Tree of Peace” and asked members of the Bates community to leave religious objects or other symbols at its base in remembrance of those who have died in the war in Iraq. A member of the New World Coalition and the Environmental Coalition, Rosenthal performs with the Bates gamelan ensemble, an Indonesian instrumental group, and Northfield, a shape-note singing group.

Given by the Office of the Chaplain at Bates, the William Stringfellow Awards annually recognize the achievement of a Maine citizen and of a Bates College student who have dedicated their lives and work to the promotion of peace and justice.

Like Stringfellow himself, award winners are distinguished by their courageous and sustained commitment to redressing the root causes of violence and social injustice and to engaging and opposing “the powers and principalities of this world,” as Stringfellow described them.

Weber—a teacher and coach first, an activist second—claims that his best work has been accomplished by helping his teenage students to believe in the reality and value of their own stories, whether in the classroom or on the playing field.

In his coaching, Weber aims to ground the physical requirements of competitive distance running in a broader celebration of sports. His activism involves environmental issues and those linked to the cultural debates about sexual orientation. In his essays and poems, he tries to find a hedge against the loss of memory and to speak as he would aloud to a friendly listener.

In 1980, activists, educators and writers Schwoyer and Haughton began a conversation with five other women in the low-income fishing community of Cape Ann, on the North Shore of Massachusetts. That conversation led to the creation of Wellspring House, a center of communal action for social justice. Throughout the past 21 Wellspring House has developed education, shelter and housing, land trusts and job creation for low-income families.

Schwoyer and Haughton will explain how their conversations have led to real solutions and real change both in the community of Cape Ann and in their own spiritual and political lives.

The JED collective, a community of Maine activists in their 20s collaborating with older and younger friends, considers how those working for social transformation sustain themselves over the long haul. Finding inspiration from author Marge Piercy’s words “strong is what we make each other,” JED members live and work at the JED Convergence Center, a cooperative organic farm and community organizing center dedicated to creative social change.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series is Kathleen Sands, associate professor of religious studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston. Sands will discuss How I Lost My Faith and Found My Hope at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in Skelton Lounge of Chase Hall, 56 Campus Avenue.

The Spiritual Journey series presents a variety of perspectives and traditions as individuals tell the stories of their spiritual awakenings and development. “Guest speakers explore how they experience the holy in their ordinary lives,” says Chaplain Kerry Maloney, “and discuss how their perspectives, disciplines or traditions have shaped their experiences of the sacred.” Each speaker will lead the audience in a brief encounter with a spiritual practice that has been important in forming his or her own spirit.

“In a world that is incontrovertibly in shambles, does religious faith make any difference?” asks Dubinsky. “Why bother believing in, let alone praying to, a divinity when things don’t seem to get better?” In this presentation, Dubinsky will share her own spiritual journey through these questions and will explore the Jewish concept of “tikkun olam,” the repair of the world, as a personal and religious practice. Believing that the shards around and within us are “holy fragments,” she pieces together a faith that endures and helps to transform the brokenness of the world.

Before joining Bet Ha’am as its spiritual leader in 2000, Dubinsky served as associate director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Pacific Southwest Council, in Los Angeles from 1996-99. She also served as associate rabbi at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco from 1992-96. Dubinsky received her ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion – the academic, spiritual and professional development center for Reform Judaism – and a bachelor of arts in French language and literature from Boston University.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series is Amy Schmidt, a resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., who will discuss The Transforming Power of Awareness: A Buddhist’s Journey at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in Skelton Lounge. Call 207-786-8272 for more information.

“How can we face the suffering we all inevitably experience as a resource for spiritual growth?” Tousley asks. “How might our own personal suffering be used as a resource for political and social change?” Tousley will explore these and other questions as he tells and sings the story of his own journey of suffering, from his experience in a home torn apart by religious division, through his work in a locked ward of a state psychiatric hospital and an urban shelter for the homeless, to his own recovery from cancer.

Tousley has traveled widely as a folk singer and storyteller throughout the United States, England and Ireland. He has recorded five albums of original music, including his recent CD, Open the Gates. Assessing his standing as a folk artist, The Boston Globe wrote, “Tousley’s ability to begin his political writing deep within his own experience represents the genre at its best.”

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series are John McClendon III and John McClendon II, who will discuss African American Mysticism: A Father and Son’s Spiritual Journey with Contemporary Mystic Howard Thurman at 4:30 p.m., Monday, Jan. 21, in Skelton Lounge. Call 207-786-8272 for more information.

After immersing herself in written material about domestic violence and interviewing survivors of abusive relationships for a research paper, Nauman Greif used fabric to create a message of healing and hope for others. Her talk will feature the role of a quilt/folding screen in the journey of an introverted artist who moved from the seclusion of a workshop and studio to speaking publicly before large audiences.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series will be Qamar-ul Huda, assistant professor of Islamic studies and comparative theology, Boston College, who will discuss Spiritual Liberation: A Sufi View at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 19, in Skelton Lounge of Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave.

Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain at Bates, the Spiritual Journeys lecture series features speakers from a variety of traditions who tell the stories of their spiritual awakening and development. Speakers are invited to explore how they experience a sense of the holy in their everyday lives, how their perspectives and disciplines have shaped that sacred experience and how they understand religion as a resource or an obstacle to the life of the soul. Speakers may also address the political and social consequences of their spirituality.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series will be The Greenfire Community, a women’s spirituality center in Tenants Harbor, discussing Creating a Life in Community for Justice, for Work, for the Inner Life at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, in Skeleton Lounge of Chase Hall, 56 Campus Ave.

Spalding will discuss what to do when you can’t find a religious or spiritual home, and what to do when the available religious options don’t seem to fit.

Sponsored by the Office of the Chaplain at Bates, the Spiritual Journeys lecture series features speakers from a variety of traditions who tell the stories of their spiritual awakening and development. Speakers are invited to explore how they experience a sense of the holy in their everyday lives, how their perspectives and disciplines have shaped that sacred experience and how they understand religion as a resource or an obstacle to the life of the soul. Speakers may also address the political and social consequences of their spirituality.

Next in the Spiritual Journeys series, Delle McCormick, from the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development, will discuss A Feminist Lesbian Minister’s Journey Among the Poor in Mexico from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, in Skelton Lounge, Chase Hall.