Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, religion and philosophy at Goshen (Ind.) College, will speak Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 28-29, on the theme, “Embodying Sexual Wholeness in a Broken World.”

Miller will open the series 10 a.m. Wednesday with a university chapel presentation “On Loving Sexuality and Living Faithfully.”

At 6 p.m. that day, he will focus on “Negotiating the Young Adult Sexual Landscape” in Martin Chapel of the seminary building.

A “talk back” will follow at 9 p.m. in the Common Grounds Coffeehouse of the University Commons. Miller will recap his evening talk and speak briefly on pornographic seductions with opportunity for questions and responses.

Miller will continue the series 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Martin Chapel with the topic, “Sexuality in the Ministering Person.” He will conclude with a luncheon talk at noon Thursday in the west dining room of the university cafeteria (Northlawn ground floor) on “Emerging Sexuality Themes: Listening to the EMU Campus Community.”

Miller’s specialty areas at Goshen College include contemporary Christian ethics, religion and politics, religion and sexuality and adoption and childhood issues. He has written four books and speaks frequently in congregations and at conferences on these and other topics. He has co-led Goshen’s SST (Study-Travel Term) semesters with his spouse Ann in Cambodia, Cuba and Costa Rica, China and the Dominican Republic.

He has a BA degree from Franklin (Ind.) College, an MDiv from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, and a PhD from Emory University.

“Keith Graber Miller is uniquely gifted and prepared to guide our campus-wide conversations on sexuality,” said Brian Martin Burkholder, EMU campus pastor. “He brings a wealth of experience engaging the themes and dynamics of sexuality with young adults both in the classroom and as a faculty mentor.”

The series is sponsored by EMU Campus Ministries and is open to the public free of charge.

For more information, call 540-432-4115.

They spoke Aug. 8-9 to about 45 faculty, plus several graduate students, from schools including Kansas’ Bethel and Hesston Colleges, Ohio’s Bluffton University, Indiana’s Goshen College; Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg; Conrad Grebel University in Waterloo, Ont., and Mennonite Education Agency (MEA).

Willard Swartley introduces the faculty conference theme with a keynote address on “The World via the Word.” (Photo by Jim Bishop)

“How the logos creates the world is really unanswerable,” said keynoter Willard Swartley, speaking on “The World via the Word.” Dr. Swartley, professor emeritus of New Testament and former dean at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., was EMU’s 2004 alumnus of the year.

Referencing John 1:1-18, he characterized the creation-vs.-evolution debate as irrelevant, declaring God “the enabler” who makes change possible.

‘God’s Created World’

Speaking, in turn, on “The Word via the World,” Doug Graber Neufeld promised, “My forays into theology will be brief and filled with trepidation.”

Yet, Dr. Neufeld, who chairs EMU’s biology and chemistry departments, sees spiritual challenges in “what we’re doing to God’s created world.”

Having co-taught EMU’s “Green Design” course and served with Mennonite Central Committee in Cambodia, Neufeld recently received a National Science Foundation award for research on drinking water quality. While few minority students are entering scientific fields, he cited positive trends including “citizen science” and “creation care.”

In a roundtable session Mennonite professors reflect on ideas presented in the keynote address for their discipline. (Foreground) Lisa Thimm, Sally Weaver Sommer, Angie Montel, Greta Ann Herin, Jerrel Ross Richer; Background: Bill Eash, Bradley Kauffman, Merrill Krabill, Gerald Mast, Greg Luginbuhl. Photos by Jim Bishop

It was the first annual conference, and first visit to EMU, for Bethel’s Lisa Janzen Scott and Kulsum Kapacee.

“The title got my attention,” said Kapacee, a nursing faculty member originally from Kenya. She hoped to “to learn from what is working” at other schools.

Scott, a teacher-educator, enjoyed linking faces to names of colleagues whose publications she’d read.

Ted Grimsrud, EMU professor of theology and peace studies, often talks with non-EMU colleagues in his disciplines, but appreciated meeting conferees from other fields.

Ecology and Sustainability

Ryan Sensenig, who teaches biology at Goshen, hoped to find ways that “interdisciplinary faculty can work together in ecology and sustainability.”

Delivering one of the conference’s several short presentations, Sensenig, a 1992 EMU graduate, said he wants his teaching to reflect kenosis (receptiveness to God’s will). While he worked in Kenya with grassland ecosystems, Sensenig’s two five-year-olds enjoyed the diversity of plant life.

Back in Kansas, he said they demonstrated kenosis by asking, “Hey, Dad, when can we let our grass grow nice and tall like that?” Sensenig has begun a similar project on the prairie.

Bluffton art professor Gregg Luginbuhl expresses Creation themes through images of mushrooms; masks; the dorsal fin of a fish becoming a headdress. Comparing God’s work to human-made art, he said, “God’s creation is dynamic. My art is static, although it sometimes gains life.”

Vi Dutcher, professor and chair of EMU’s language and literature department, described grappling for words to convey empathy. “I have never shared with my students the excruciating nature of writing,” she admitted during audience questioning.

Dr. Dutcher recently submitted a children’s book for publication, titled “The Red Pop Beads” and based on her childhood reactions to the loss of a sister.

The conference included “table group” discussions as well as musical entertainment: “Anabaptist Bestiary Project,” by Bluffton’s Trevor Bechtel. In the project, modeled on the Medieval bestiary tradition, Bechtel saims to celebrate God’s creation by exploring the ways in which God’s creatures reveal God’s will.

EMU President Loren Swartzendruber cited today’s campus challenges as increased parental involvement, declining biblical literacy, and society’s de-valuing the life of the mind. He told attendees that in the 1970s, while he was an admissions counselor at then-EMC, someone suggested that all faculty be ordained. Impractical as that may be, Swartzendruber said, teachers do as important work as pastors.

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer from Harrisonburg.

G. Irvin (“G.I.”) Lehman, professor emeritus of Old Testament at EMU.

That was one of many tributes paid to G. Irvin (“G.I.”) Lehman at a recognition and retirement dinner held in his honor May 1, 1980 at EMU.

Dr. Lehman died Monday, Aug. 27, at Oak Lea Nursing Home in Harrisonburg, Va. He was 92.

Lehman, a professor emeritus of Old Testament at EMU, taught at the former Eastern Mennonite School, 1940-41, and rejoined the EMU Bible and religion department in 1952, teaching Old Testament courses there until 1976. In 1965, he was also named to the Eastern Mennonite Seminary faculty and later taught there full time until retirement.

“G. Irvin was famous for delivering many pithy one-liners in class, one of which was, ‘He (or she!) who throws mud always loses ground.’ Great advice for future pastors!” said EMU President Loren Swartzendruber.

“Dr. Lehman was one of my favorite college profs,” said Jim Bishop, public information officer at EMU. “He brought what I perceived as dusty Old Testament text and characters to life even as he brightened that dingy basement classroom where he held forth in the old administration building.

“I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Before you act, consider first your motives and the consequences,'” Bishop added.

A native of Lancaster, Pa., Lehman was a 1935 graduate of Eastern Mennonite School. He completed his undergraduate studies at Elizabethtown (PA) College and earned a BD degree at Eastern Baptist Seminary, an STM from Hartford Theological Foundation and MA and PhD degrees from New York University.

Lehman began his educational career as a teacher in the Pennsylvania public school system in 1935. His extensive service overseas included directing a medical relief unit in Nazareth, Ethiopia; and teaching English at American University, Beirut, Lebanon; and at Anatolia College, Salonika, Greece.

He led numerous study tours and seminars in the Middle East over the years and lectured widely on his experiences there.

Lehman served on an editorial committee in the preparation of the “New International Bible,” a modern English translation sponsored by the New York International Bible Society.

He was a member of many national and and international learned societies and served as president of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew.

Locally, he served many years as chairman or a board member of the Harrisonburg Salvation Army. He was a member of Park View Mennonite Church.

He was proceeded in death by his wives, Edith Vanderploeg Lehman and Verna Yeager Lehman. Surviving are three sons, George Nathan, Peter Daniel and Timothy Joseph Lehman; a daughter, Eunice L. Kerbs; two sisters and four grandchildren.

Funeral services were held Sept. 1 at Park View Mennonite Church, with burial in Weavers Church cemetery west of Harrisonburg.

Memorial contributions may be sent to Mennonite Central Committee, PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501.

An 草莓社区 music department faculty member will give an organ recital 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, at Park View Mennonite Church, N. College Ave. in Harrisonburg.

John W. Fast, an assistant professor of music at EMU, will play works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, Felix Mendelssohn, Alexandre Guilmant, Dan Locklair, Robert Hobby and James Woodman.

Fast, who joined the EMU faculty in 1975, received his undergraduate bachelor’s degree from Bethel College, N. Newton, Kan., and a master’s in music degree from Indiana University. He is the organist at Park View Mennnonite Church and a frequent accompanist for the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival and the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir.

The two-manual Dyer organ with 20 ranks of pipes was installed in the Park View church sanctuary in early 1996.

The recital is open to everyone at no admission charge.