Participants will learn ways to nurture and protect children in their communities and congregations by presenting outreach ministry models that inspire and inform. The intent is to help new ministries to emerge and existing programs to grow stronger.

Keynote speaker will be Jonathan Kozol, writer of seven award-winning books on disadvantaged children in the U.S., including Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, based on two years of conversations with children, priests, and parents in an impoverished South Bronx neighborhood.

Other speakers and presenters for the event include: Eugene Bowens, president of Interfaith Housing, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia; Michael Bryant, from FreshMinistries, Jacksonville, Florida; the Rev. Colenzo Hubbard, of the Emmanuel Episcopal Center, Memphis, Tennessee; Billy Cribb and Craig Williams, from the Church of the Advent, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Registration is open to persons responsible for and responsive to children and youth, including youth ministries, parents, church-school faculty, child advocates and any concerned adults.

For further information call Kanuga Conferences at 828-692-9136, email info@kanuga.org or visit http://www.kanuga.org.

Note: The following title is available from the Episcopal Book/Resource Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017; 800-334-7626;
http://www.episcopalbookstore.org.

        From the publisher: "Spiritual practices of peacemaking, Michael Battle says, are essential to, crucial for, the mystical process of losing and finding identity in God who constantly invites us toward relationship and community. Any spirituality of nonviolence in the community of peacemaking faces formidable challenges. The obvious obstacle of "just war"-just one corollary of the constant struggle for survival in a world seemingly bent on self-destruction-continues to raise its ugly head. And what of other loud pretenders of Christian "spirituality" who preach the validity of "just war," the at-any-cost survival of the "righteous"? Genuine Christian "spirituality," Battle rightly insists, involves no contradiction between individual and communal fulfillment, but involves instead our participation in the divine bending toward potentiality rather than destruction. Violence, that is, destruction of reality, is in fact the antithesis of Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality, practiced in the midst of a solipsistic and violent world, engenders divine reality that bids the human heart toward peace, genuine wholeness, and toward the "real" world of divine intent.

       Michael Battle has studied at Notre Dame, Princeton, Yale, and Duke (Ph.D. 1995). Since 1999, he has held the position of assistant professor of Spirituality and Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School, and Episcopal priest at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh. In addition to many contributions to books and journals, he is the author of two books on Desmond Tutu, including Reconciliation: The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu and The Wisdom of Desmond Tutu. Desmond Tutu performed several rites of passage for Michael and his family, including his ordination into the Anglican priesthood, the marriage ceremony for Michael and Raquel at the Olympic Village in Atlanta, and the baptism of their daughters, Sage and Bliss.