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SPEAKERS AND PREACHERS
Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño
Four years ago, Bishop Minerva Carcaño became the first Hispanic woman to be elected to the episcopacy of The United Methodist Church. A native of Edinburg, Texas, Bishop Carcaño spent her early years of life aspiring to make a difference in the lives of persons who faced poverty and discrimination. She has served congregations in Texas, New Mexico, and California and in 1986 she became the first Hispanic woman to be appointed a United Methodist district superintendent, serving in that capacity in West Texas and New Mexico and later in Portland, Oregon. Carcaño also was the director of the Mexican American Program at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Not forgetting her roots and early hopes, her ministry has always involved work with the poor, with farm workers, immigrants, and refugees, even as she encourages congregations to work ecumenically and to be active in community organizing.
Carcaño’s latest work is I Believe in Jesus, a Spiritual growth study for the United Methodist Women’s School of Christian Mission.
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Leanne Hadley
Rev. Dr. Leanne Ciampa Hadley is an Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and a specialist in the area of Children's Spirituality. She is President and Founder of First Steps Spirituality Center. In December 2007, she received her Doctor of Ministry in the area of spirituality and children and teens from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Reverend Hadley has published several books, DVD's and videos through Abingdon Press, Group Publishing and privately through First Steps.
Through listening to and learning from children and teens over the course of 25 years, Rev. Hadley has developed amazingly effective healing methods that set First Steps apart. Her hands-on approach and one-on-one time with children make her ministry one that is "hands-on" rather than just a "study of." The First Steps Spirituality Center is dedicated to providing spiritual care and healing to children and teens who are experiencing pain from death, loss, divorce, low self-esteem, or hurt of any kind. They believe that children have been blessed by God with an innate spirituality and light which they can identify and use to heal their pain. Reverend Hadley will bring Focus 2009 a message of spiritual formation of children through the lens of Psalm 139.
Please visit the First Steps website and enjoy the "pray"ground!
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Renita Weems
Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems is a bible scholar and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Church who possesses scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts, and the role of spirituality in everyday lives. Dr. Weems, formerly a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt Univeristy and former Visiting Professor at Spelman College, has been celebrated by Ebony Magazine as one of America's top 15 preachers.
Dr. Weems is the author of several widely acclaimed books, a popular radio and television personality, regularly providing expert commentary on religion. She shares her gifts as a speaker, preacher, and workshop leader on wide ranging topics, and will bring a biblical message to Focus 2009 on the care of our most vulnerable children through the lens of Psalm 139.
Dr. Weems has written about the waxing and waning of faith all believers endure on the spiritual journey. Her 1999 book Listening for God: A Minister's Journey through Silence and Doubt (Simon & Schuster) won the Religious Communicators' Council's prestigious 1999 Wilbur Award for excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and her Master and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey.
Please visit her blog at www.somethingwithin.com/blog/
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Jim Ritchie
Rev. Dr. James H. Ritchie, Jr., a clergy member of the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, is under extension ministry appointment to Ritchie Faith Span Ministries, providing leadership, resources, consultation, and training in the area of multigenerational ministries.
He developed the Created by God sexuality education resources for preteens and their parents (Abingdon). He is the author of Always in Rehearsal: The Practice of Worship and the Presence of Children (Discipleship Resources) and his music has appeared for over two decades in curriculum, choral, and worship resources including The United Methodist Book of Worship, The United Methodist Hymnal Music Supplement, The Faith We Sing, and VBS units such as "Peter Rock: A Drama of Faith," "Beneath the Storytelling Tree: Parables Jesus Told," and "Club Can-Do: Kids Called to Care."
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native received his B.A. from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio; M.Div. from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio; and Ed.D. in religious education from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He regularly teaches on the subjects of children and worship, music and education, curriculum, and human sexuality education for children, and writes for and about the preteen/middle school audience.
Following a 2000 study tour, "Hope for the Children of Africa," Dr. Ritchie served as a mission ambassador throughout Western Pennsylvania, doing presentations on children and children’s missions in Angola, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Dr. Ritchie will bring Focus 2009 a message of the importance of children’s presence through the lens of Psalm 139.
Please visit his website at www.rfsministries.com/index.html
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Pre-Conference Seminar Speaker
Dr. David Elkind
Dr. David Elkind, renowned child psychologist and author of The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon, has devoted his career to understanding the changing American family, and answering the questions, "What has happened to the family in the last few decades? How are these changes affecting our children?"
Dr. Elkind, Professor of Child Study at Tufts University, shows us the very real difference between the mind of a preschool child and that of a school-age child. He makes it clear how much children can learn when they are presented with appropriate challenges. He describes how miseducation ignores these developmentally appropriate practices, attempting to teach the wrong things at the wrong time. And finally, he shows how early miseducation can cause permanent damage to a child’s self-confidence, the loss of the positive attitude a child needs for learning, and affect the development of natural gifts and potential talents.
Also the author of All Grown Up and No Place to Go, Miseducation, and most recently The Power of Play, Dr. Elkind’s research has been in the areas of perceptual, cognitive and social development. He is the past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and has hosted the Lifetime Television series, Kids These Days.
Dr. Elkind will present a day-long pre-conference seminar at Focus 2009 that looks at the church’s role in the formation of our youngest children.
For more information on Dr. Elkind, please visit: www.apbspeakers.com.
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