Gordon in the News: last updated 10/19/2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2009
MEDIA CONTACT
Jo Kadlecek
Office of College Communications
978.867.4752
[email protected]
WENHAM, MA–There will be a field trip to a recycling plant, a cleanup of a local river, a debate on cloth vs. environmentally friendly diapers, and a panel discussion on alternative medicine. And these are only parts of a bigger picture.
To emphasize Gordon College’s ongoing commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and increasing its care for the environment, several events have been planned that coincide with the national celebration of Earth Day on April 22. All events are open to the public.
On Thursday, April 16, at 4:30 p.m. in Jenks 237, Yale University Professor Paul Anastas will present a lecture titled “Green Chemistry, Current Status and Future Challenges.” For the past six years Gordon’s Chemistry Department has hosted nationally recognized guest lecturers in the field of green chemistry.
On Thursday, April 23, an annual student-run symposium will highlight the theme Creation Care: The Challenges and Opportunities of the Ecological Crisis. Each year the symposium enables Gordon students and faculty to discuss contemporary issues outside the classroom across campus. This educational experience--sponsored by the Center for Christian Studies--is almost exclusively student-initiated, reflecting a reversal of the usual faculty and student roles. Topics for this year’s Creation Care symposium include a range of related issues: materialism and grassroots organizing, to the politics of global warming and flower power. Cleanups on the Ipswich River and field trips are planned throughout the day as well.
On Saturday, April 25, Gordon’s Advocates for Sustainable Futures (ASF), a student club, will partner with Christ Church in Hamilton, North Shore Community Church and Care of Creation USA, to sponsor a day-long workshop on creation care with author Ed Brown. ASF—which recently organized a lunch for representatives from Renewal Network, a national student-led creation care movement active at Christian colleges as part of its Green Awakening Tour—will help host the community seminar. Brown, a graduate of both Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, is the author of Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation. The workshop will offer practical help for churches and individuals to begin making creation-friendly lifestyle changes and will also present ethical responses to environmental issues. Eighty students are expected to attend the seminar, which will be held at Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham, 149 Asbury Street, South Hamilton, Massachusetts.
Even after the Earth Day events end, students, staff and faculty at Gordon College will continue working year round to care for the environment. Organic gardens are being planted on campus now, numerous award-winning innovations have already been implemented across campus to reduce Gordon’s carbon footprint, and next September, students from Advocates for Sustainable Futures will work again with Trails and Sails annual regional event to host nature walks.
For ticket and registration information on the Our Father’s World seminar, please visit http://www.careofcreation.org or call Care of Creation at 608.233.7048.
For other information on Gordon College, please call 978.867.4752.
