Lilian Calles Barger

Barger is the author of “Eve’s Revenge: Women and a Spirituality of the Body” and “Chasing Sophia: Reclaiming the Lost Wisdom of Jesus.” She will focus on material from the latter book in her chapel address.

In 1997, Barger helped create The Damaris Project, a place of dialog where women can talk about spirituality in new and relevant ways. The Damaris Salon has become the vehicle for ongoing conversation.

In this role, she works as a researcher, cultural critic, writer and speaker on the intersection of the teachings of Jesus and contemporary issues. She is considered an expert in feminist spirituality and theology and an astute observer of social trends.

A brown bag lunch discussion with Barger will be held in seminary room 203 at noon on Dec. 4.

Seminary chapels are free and open to the public. For more information, contact seminary campus pastor Kevin Clark, 540-432-4217 or clarkka@emu.edu.

The 18 group members didn’t just observe; they rolled up their sleeves and got involved with the local people in a “Partners in Mission” work group held May 5-22 in Israel/Palestine. Participants from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, led by Dorothy Jean Weaver and Kevin A. Clark of , spent a week in a work project at Nazareth Village, a re-creation of the village of Nazareth as it would have appeared in Jesus’ day and interprets the story of Jesus to visitors. The group had to don 1st century clothes and remove their 21st century garb, including eye-glasses and watches, to pull weeds, fix a roof and move stones.

The work was done using first-century tools. Here, Dorothy Jean Weaver (l.) and Lois Loeser lead a donkey carrying a large bag of weeds that the group dug by hand. The group then spent some time touring and worshipping in Jerusalem before moving on to Bethlehem to work at the International Center of Bethlehem, a ministry of Christmas Lutheran Church.

The , an outreach of Virginia Mennonite Board of Missions in cooperation with Eastern Mennonite Seminary, is designed to give North American Christians a clearer perspective on the everyday life and faith of Palestinian Christians in Israel/Palestine and for participants to bring their stories back to the wider North American church.

Eastern Mennonite Seminary is making plans for a study tour to the Middle East next spring.

Dorothy Jean Weaver, professor of New Testament at EMS, and Kevin A. Clark, a Virginia Mennonite Conference pastor, will host “Places, People and Prayers: A Cross-Cultural Encounter with the Holy Land,” May 4-27, 2005.

The trip will provide “a rich and multi-faceted introduction that has been home