Michael Battle Brings Concept Of ‘Ubuntu’ To Church

— The Very Rev. Michael Battle, canon theologian of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, will speak at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville later this month.

Battle will be the keynote speaker for the upcoming Arkansas Diocesan Convention hosted by St. Paul’s on Feb. 19-20. He also will present a public lecture at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 and lead the church adult forum series at 10 a.m. Feb. 21.

Battle is a close colleague of South African archbishop and Nobel Prize laureate Desmond Tutu. He has helped interpret Tutu’s theology and spirituality in the U.S.

Part of that spirituality is the concept of “Ubuntu: I in You andYou in Me.” Battle published a book by the same name last year. The Episcopal Church selected the book to set the theme for its General Convention last summer.

“Ubuntu is an appeal especially directed at Western culture to look beyond our individual selves to the essential interrelatedness of all life,” said the Rev. Lowell Grisham, rector of St. Paul’s.

Battle is rector of the Church of Our Saviour in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. A well-known writer, speaker and retreat leader, his ministry covers the globe and focuses on Christian nonviolence, human spirituality, and African Church studies.

His Saturday evening talk is sponsored by the McMichael Lecture Series at St. Paul’s.

GO & DO MICHAEL BATTLE LECTURE

Dates: Feb. 20-21

Venue: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,

224 N. East Ave., Fayetteville

Evening talk: 7 p.m. Feb. 20;

appetizers and sweets at 6 p.m.

Topic: “Ubuntu - A Spirituality of

Reconciliation”

Forum talk: 10 a.m. Feb. 21. Topic:

“Why God Made You Gloriously

Different!”

Cost: No charge. Child care

provided.

Information: 442-7373,

www.stpaulsfay.org,

www.michaelbattle.com SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

Religion, Pages 10 on 02/06/2010

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