Creatively Sharing: Mystery of God
A GOOD N.E.W.S. EVENT!
Morning Keynote: Nancy Bird
Sharing The God of Creation in the Midst of Chaos
Morning Workshop Choices
- Matthew's Jesus. (Fr. Mark Kaminski) Cycle A Readings will begin with the new liturgical year at the end of the month. Participants in this workshop will be introduced to Jesus as Matthew knows him.
- Experiencing God through the Senses (Nancy Bird) Bring your faith formation lessons to life by finding ways for students to experience their faith through their senses.
- Old Testament Stories Told through the Jesse Tree (Lisa Spooner) Lisa will creatively share the family story of Jesus as the Jesse Tree comes alive in her presentation. With Advent just around the corner, participants will leave with knowledge of the Old Testament as it comes into fulfillment with the birth of Christ.
Afternoon Presentation: Fr. George Coyne, SJ
An Awakening to Faith: We are made of Stardust!
Does our scientific knowledge of the evolving universe and of our coming to be in it stand in conflict with religious faith in a Creator God? The universe is 13.8 billion years old and it contains about 10,000 billion billion stars. As these stars live and die they provide the chemicals necessary for the evolution of life. Did life come about by chance or by necessity? There is a third element, the "fertility" of the universe. I will present in broad strokes what I think is the best of our scientific understanding of the universe, and then I will ask the question: Did God do it? In my attempt to answer this question I shall discuss how important it is to respect the richness of both religious faith and of scientific research.
Coyne, born January 19, 1933, in Baltimore, Maryland, entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1951 upon his graduation from Loyola High School Blakefield, Towson, Mayland. He completed his bachelor's degree in mathematics and his licentiate in philosophy at Fordham University, New York City, in 1958 and obtained a doctorate in astronomy from Georgetown University in 1962. After several decades on the faculty at the University of Arizona (UA), Coyne became Director of the Vatican Observatory (VO) in 1978. He served in that office during the 28 years of the papacy of John Paul II and retired in August 2006. He remained on the staff of the VO as Director Emeritus and as President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. In 2012 he retired from the Vatican Observatory and assumed the McDevitt Chair in Religious Philosophy at Le Moyne College of the Jesuits in Syracuse, New York.