News Archives - 1997

The ways in which limited global resources and a growing world population tug and pull on each other will be explored at the 15th Annual Augsburg Seminar in Applied Ethics April 3-4.

The 1997 Ethics Seminar theme is "Limited Resources and Population Growth: Making the Hard Choices." The keynote speakers will be Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and Professor James Martin-Schramm of Luther College, an expert on Christian ethics as they relate to population, consumption and eco-justice.

Wolford will speak on Thursday, April 3, 7:30 p.m. The title of her lecture is "As I Have Changed, I Have Changed the World Around Me." Martin-Schramm will deliver a convocation address on Friday, April 4, at 10:00 a.m., titled "Population Perils: Exploding Myths and Diffusing 'Bombs.'" Both events will be held in Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center at Augsburg College, 22nd and Riverside Avenue South, Minneapolis.

Kathryn Wolford has been president of Lutheran World Relief (LWR) since 1993, but had been with LWR's Latin American program since 1991. Before joining LWR she served as the first Caribbean regional representative of the National Council of Churches of the U.S.A./Church World Service, based in the Dominican Republic, and served as an electoral observer in Nicaragua and Haiti. She also worked in rural development in the Dominican Republic for Church World Service.

James Martin-Schramm teaches ethics at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he is a member of the faculty. He served as a delegate to the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and was a panelist at the third preparatory meeting for that conference. Martin-Schramm has published several articles and essays in the field of population ethics; his book, "Population Perils and Ecumenical Response" will be published by the World Council of Churches in 1997.

The Annual Augsburg Seminar in Applied Ethics is funded by the Batalden Applied Ethics Fund, established by Abner and Martha Batalden, Paul and LaVonne Batalden, and Stephen and Sandra Batalden. The fund brings national and international authorities in the field of ethics to Augsburg to lecture and to discuss questions of applied ethics within spiritual and practical dimensions.

For more information on the 1997 Augsburg Seminar in Applied Ethics, contact the Public Relations and Communication Office, Augsburg College, Campus Box 145, 2211 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454, phone (612) 330-1180, or send e-mail to meyer@augsburg.edu.