Turtle Island Project fights religious intolerance, racism, and other social issues that threaten the future of mankind

Turtle Island Project battles religious imperialism, racism, warns Christians should listen to Native Americans: Tips Founder Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard and Rev. Dr. George Cairns feel strongly that Native Americans can teach Chistians about respecting the environment, tolerance, and respect for one anothere,

First Nations peoples asked to submit topics for Native American roundtables

(Munising, Michigan) - Exploitation of the earth, spiritual terrorism, religious imperialism, and racism are some of the modern day injustices that two pastors will battle with a new Michigan project that promotes respect for Native American culture and the environment.

Two Midwest pastors have started a national debate on a wide variety of social issues that they believe threaten the future of society and the planet.

"The Turtle Island project will combat what I call spiritual terrorism," said project found Rev. Lynn Hubbard of Munising, MI.

"There is a lot of spiritual intolerance of other people's religions - whether that's the indigenous Native American religions here in the United States or Islam or Judaism or what have you," said Rev. Hubbard., pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church along Lake Superior in Munising.

"Anybody can take that attitude towards life - it's my way or the highway - my religion is right - your religion is wrong - and it's that sort of spiritual terrorism that is destroying the world in which we live in," Rev. Hubbard said.

Rev. George Cairns, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, said a "change in religious consciousness is necessary."

"I am deeply concerned that much of humankind and the Earth as we know it will be gone by the end of this century," said Dr. Cairns, a professor of Practical Theology and Spirituality at Chicago Theological Seminary.

"We are in a time now when dramatic changes are happening on this planet and it is a critical time for people of faith - religious people - to act now," said Rev. Cairns, chairman of the Turtle Island Project.

Turtle Island Project warns against religious imperialism, racism, polluting the planet: Religious imperialism, racism against Indigenous Peoples, and exploitation of earth are battled by new Turtle Island Project. Native Americans will set agenda of Sept. 13, 2007 and future roundtables, conferences.

The Turtle Island Project (TIP) will address a wide range of Native American issues including white influence on American Indian heritage and values, said Rev. Hubbard,

The TIP got its name from Natives Americans who first called the North American continent "Turtle Island."

The TIP will hold biannual national and regional conferences and local seminars to discuss environment and American Indian issues. The meetings will be held this fall and next spring and are called the Grand Island Conference and Retreat Program.

Rev. Cairns said it's important to reverse the negative impact man has had on the environment by learning from earth-based religions "and part of that process is to deeply engage our Native American - our First Nations friends - as our teachers."

Each regional conference will be preceded by Native American roundtables, the agendas being determined solely by American Indians who contact the TIP.

"One of the consequences of racism against First Nations people has been the silencing of their voices and the eagerness of Euro-Americans to speak for them - robbing them of their own freedom of speech - that we value so much," Rev. Hubbard said.

"As a result much of the Native American experience has been filtered through the lenses of a foreign culture that - not only doesn't have the right to speak for them but also lacks the ability to speak to the most fundamental realities of native experience."

Dr. Cairns said "many American Indians are still living in oppressive conditions - and having their voices freed can only happen - if they direct the conversation themselves."

"Americans Indians absolutely must have the lead in the kind of discussions they would like to enter into," said Cairns, who taught has taught "centering prayer" for over two decades including at a Native American cultural center and a maximum security prison.

TIP conferences will provide venues for listening to the voices of Native American peoples." Rev. Hubbard said. "It is our belief that the dialogue can contribute to the betterment of both communities and is a conversation that is long overdue."

Rev. Cairns agreed.

"We think that the conversations with native peoples about their relationship to the Earth will help us reconnect with our much earlier roots of consciousness of nature that were part of Euro-western traditions in the past but now have largely been marginalized or even lost," Cairns said.

Rev. Cairns said he hopes the TIP inspires Americans to rediscover "very early dimensions of Earth spirituality that have been integrated into Christianity but later have been lost."

"We started to distance our self from the earth as early as the late Paleolithic times - when we moved from hunter gatherers and later became industrialized and increasingly turned nature into an object for us to consume rather than a subject for us to relate to," Rev. Cairns said. "We are not trying to turn back the clock to the Stone Age - but a change in consciousness must begin if our planet and we are to survive."

The first regional conference is (Thursday-Saturday) September 13-15, 2007 at the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising. The hours are 7-10 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Native American roundtable opens the conference on Thursday, followed by two days of presentations and debate by Rev. Dr. George Cairn, a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. Dr. Cairn will discuss Celtic and Native American spirituality, and post-modern science.

Rev. Cairns said the Celtic people who lived in Ireland and Scotland integrated earlier beliefs into an Earth-based Christianity and "understood God to be a present in all creation."

"The Celts believed God to be constantly recreating the world and they had an intimate relationship with nature," said Rev. Cairns, who lives in Chesterton, Indiana.

While studying for his doctorate in South Dakota, Rev. Hubbard became friends with Lakota people on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian reservations, the latter was the scene of the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, which claimed the lives of many innocent Lakota women and children.

Both reservations are beset by extreme poverty, teen suicide, high infant mortality and other social problems.

The TIP organized the successful August 12, 2007 benefit concert for America's oldest/first American Indian battered women's shelter in Mission, SD that has served the Lakota Rosebud Reservation for nearly 30 years.

Two Upper Peninsula folk groups, White Water and Duo Borealis, held the free concert for the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society at the Custer Lutheran Church in Custer S.D. The WBCWS battles domestic violence, teen suicide and sexual assault.

Figures from the Rosebud reservation alone are shocking: 21 rapes in the past 18 months; over 600 attempted teen suicides and 15 deaths during the past two years - most teenage boys.- triggered a recent "state of emergency" declared by tribal officials

Poverty, depression, a lack of jobs, drugs, alcohol and other social problems are among the reasons behind Rosebud teen suicides.

The concert was one of the first non-political events to ever bring racial healing between whites and Native Americans in Custer - where racism by some whites is generations old, said Dave Melmer, a reporter for the national Indian Country Today newspaper who lives in Custer.

Melmer said the concert was "a courageous effort" and a "big small step in improving race relations."

The TIP hopes to create a profound change in environmental thinking, Rev. Hubbard said.

The planet is facing an environmental crisis that must be repaired or humans will "bring about our own destruction because of the abuse of nature," Dr. Hubbard said.

One of the pillars of the TIP is the creation of a new North American Theology that the pastors hope will encourage religious tolerance and a new respect for nature.

"We are concerned that our current individual and systemic western consciousness is disembodied and ill," Rev. Cairns said. "We have distanced ourselves more and more from nature - nature has become much more of an ‘it' rather than a ‘thou' - it's an object rather than a subject - this is increasingly being sped up by the modern technological world."

Rev. Hubbard said Christians can learn from other religions.

"Christians have been so empowered for so long their religious imperialism is subconscious," Rev. Hubbard said. "To enter into authentic spiritual with other cultures is to become aware of your own limitations."

"Today, in America, God's children have different skin, colors, genders, languages, sexual orientations and theological ideas," Rev. Hubbard said.

Turtle Island Project founder Rev. Lynn Hubbard speaks at Read the Spirit conference - warns Christians to listen to Indigenous: Turtle Island project founder Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard (top right) attends the August 11, 2007 Spirit Scholars conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan for religion writers and clergy from around the Midwest. Guest speaker was well-known author Rev. Grace Imathiu (top left), a United Methodist pastor from Milwaukee, WI. The event was coordinated by Detroit Free Press writer David Crumm (bottom left) who believes it’s important for faith communities to protect the environment and has a new message for spreading the word.

"Those who have had power and control over the church must now scoot over and make room for them in our pews - and maybe, heaven forbid, actually listen to what they have to say, listen to their voices," Rev. Hubbard told a recent gathering of religion writers and scholars during the "Read the Spirit" conference in Ann Arbor. MI.

God has been revealed to all religions and Christians need to "learn that spiritual wisdom is not the sole possession of any one people," Hubbard said. "Wisdom is the recognition of multi-cultural and dialogical nature of the truth - in dialogue with one another we achieve spiritual truth."

Christians should "open our ears and hearts to their testimony, and to the witness of the Love of God in their lives, not just ours," Rev. Hubbard said. "It is the opening of the heart and mind to the genius and insights of others."

North American Theology discussed at Read the Spirit conference: Indigenous peoples to help write new North American Theology with founders of Turtle Island Project who want a fundamental change in the way Christians view the environment and other religions.

During recent elections conservative Catholics and Protestants made "strange bedfellows" as they voted against homosexuality, abortion and showed "their intolerance of other people's religions," Rev. Hubbard said.

Christians who have "benefitted from the power structures of the church have defined what the gospel is to everyone," Rev. Hubbard said. "We have defined that through our own Euro-American vision of who we are, who God is, and our relationship with nature - at the exclusion of everyone else - period."

Americans, he said, "stand at the brink of a communications revolution and a fundamental spiritual transformation."

Dr. Cairns said it has "been clear to me for many years that contemporary Christianity is disembodied Christianity - because its been really shaped by culture - more than the institution has shaped culture."

Read the Spirit conference addressed new way for American clergy to spread their message; promotes tolerance for all peoples: Detroit Free Press religion editor David Crumm organized Read the Spirit conference to discuss news ways for wide-ranging multi-cultural ministries to spread the word. The conference was attended by members of several races and religions.

Late Native American activist and author Vine Deloria Jr reminded "the Euro-American community that they have yet to listen to what Native Americans have to say either in terms of the environment or their own struggles as a people, Rev. Hubbard said.

"Native American spirituality is based upon spatial understandings of God while Christianity is based upon temporal understandings of God.

"Spatial metaphors for God have to do with the revelation of the divine life in a particular place - this mountain - at this stream - at this time," Rev. Hubbard said. "While the temporal metaphors for God has to do with the idea of time - that ‘once upon a time there was a great revelation of God' some 2,000 years ago for the Christian religion - and since that time - there have been no new revelations."

Dr. Cairns said "that place is extremely important in Celtic tradition."

Turtle Island Project founders are fathers of new North American Theology that is influenced by earth-based Indigenous religions: The 2007 Read the Spirit conference was held on July 11 in Ann Arbor, Michigan for clergy and religion writers from a wide-range of religions. Founders of the Turtle Island Progect in northern Michigan were invited to explain the new North Amnerican Theology, that promotes respecting nature and each other similar to the beliefs of Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples..

"There is a sacredness to particular places - people relate to them deeply - we have lost much of that in contemporary American culture and we have lost much of that in our religious institutions," Cairns said. "Almost any place can be sacred to an individual depending on who they are and where they are on life's journey."

"One of the places I have found sacred is on the streets of a bad inner city neighborhood talking with homeless folks," Cairns said. "The conversations we've had are very profound - there was an openness and a kind of reciprocal learning that took place in those conversations that I think was sacred."

Read the Spirit conference promotes new North American Theology that promotes respect for Earth using Native American examples: During July 2007 Read the Spirit conference in Michigan, clergy from across the Midwest explained how they communicate with their ministries while respecting other religions.
Rev. Hubbard said the earth was not created to serve man.

"The creation myths of the Hebrew peoples - the very origins of Christianity - was this understanding that human beings are a special creation and that this Earth was created for them," Rev. Hubbard said. "And that's quite a different understanding than what many Native American peoples have."

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Related websites:

Turtle Island Project main website:
http://www.turtleislandproject.org

Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv/

Turtle Island TV (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse

Turtle Island (myspace)
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject

Turtle Island Project websites/Blogs:
http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/

email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net
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Rosebud Tribe official website:
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/

1973 Wounded Knee Incident & the earlier 1890 massacre of 146 Indians by government troops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Incident
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Incident

Pine Ridge Reservation Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Reservation

Pine Ridge shocking photos:
http://www.aaronhuey.com/

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Turtle Island Project: Fall 2007 - Spring 2008 Schedule:

Grand Island Conference and Retreat Program

The Grand Island Conference and Retreat Program seeks to develop new theological resources and spiritual practices that reflect the place we inhabit, the continent of North America called "Turtle Island" by indigenous communities. It is our hope that these resources and practices will help imagine a new North American Theology with the assistance of First Nations peoples.

We seek to encourage mutual understanding and respect between these communities in order to address issues of health and healing, religion and science, practical theology and environmental issues. We shall accomplish this task by sponsoring regional and national conferences, local seminars, and regional retreats centering on these concerns.

This booklet lists the events sponsored by the Grand Island Conference and Retreat Program for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the upcoming year. It is our hope that these events will not only stimulate conversations on the issues, but also help to build ecumenical and interfaith communities.

Seminars will be held at Upfront and Company, 102 East Main Street, Marquette, Michigan.

All conferences, retreats and Native American roundtables will be held at Eden on the Bay, Lutheran Church, 1150 M-28 West, Munising, Michigan.

Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard
Director, Turtle Island Project

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About the Conferences

Grand Island is one of the most beautiful and largest islands in Lake Superior. Inhabited for generations by the Ojibwa peoples, it is today the Grand Island National Recreation Area with a wilderness character.

In keeping with such a tranquil and beautiful place, Grand Island Conferences are planned so that all participants will have the opportunity to experience its beauty and power.

The conferences are unique in that they are planned to not only stimulate the intellect, but also provide the aesthetic and spiritual understandings usually associated with a retreat setting.

We will not only be participating in stimulating theological conversations on topics of great importance, but we shall also partake of the beauty of the lake, the island, and the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

We will be taking boat cruises along Lake Superior, hiking in the park and listening to lectures on the parks natural and cultural history.

All of this will take place in and around the community of Munising, Michigan, one of the most beautiful natural settings on Lake Superior.

All Seminars will be held at Upfront and Company, 102 E. Main St, Marquette, Michigan

Conferences and Retreats will be held at Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church, 1150 M-28 West, Munising, MI.

For complete information on the events, please visit our website: turtleislandproject.org

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*** A Native American roundtable will be held at 7 pm (ET) on the Thursday prior to each regional conference - and at others times TBA.
The agenda of the roundtables will be set completely by First Nations peoples.

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Regional Conference - Fall 2007

Ecology Series

September 13-15, 2007

Celtic Spirituality, Ecology, and Participative Consciousness
Recreating an Ancient Wisdom Tradition of Relationship

Rev. Dr. George Cairn
Chicago Theological Seminary

Thursday, Sept 13 (Native American Roundtable)
7 - 10 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 14
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 15
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

At this conference, we will examine the integration of Paleolithic Consciousness, Celtic Spirituality, Contemporary Spirituality, and Psychology.

We will be examining ideas and meditating in ways that lead to experiencing the world as not separate from ourselves—no inside, no outside, all in relationship.

We will be reading a selection of works by Calvin Luther Martin, J. Phillip Newell, and Gregory Bateson.

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Native American Theology -- Seminar Series

In the Spirit of the Earth - Ecology and Liberation

Tuesdays - November 6, November 13, November 20, and November 27

7 - 10 p.m.

A seminar examining the ecological crisis and the contribution of Native American theology toward a solution.

In this seminar, we will be reading a selection of works from Leonardo Boff, Vine Deloria, Jr., George Tinker and Steve Charleston.

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Regional Ecumenical Retreat - Fall 2007

Quest for Harmony: The Contemplation of Nature in the Christian tradition

Friday, November 9
9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

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Local Seminar Offerings - Fall 2007

Health and Healing -- Evening Discussion Series

Tuesdays - October 23 and October 30
7 - 10 p.m.

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine

Two evenings of exploration into the works of Dr. Robert Moore, Jungian Analyst, and one of the founders of the men's movement in the United States.

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Local Seminar Offerings - Winter 2007 - 2008

Religion and Science -- Evening Discussion Series

Tuesday, December 4
7 - 10 p.m.

Life is a Miracle: Reflections on the Work of Wendell Berry

An evening of conversation on the poet and author who has proven time and again a writer of brilliant moral imagination.

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Religion and Science -- Seminar Series

In the Absence of the Sacred: Science as Myth and Religion

Tuesdays - March 4, March 11, March 18, March 25
7 - 10 p.m.

A seminar on the current state of the relationship between science and religion.

In this seminar, we will read selected works from Ian G. Barbour, Wendell Berry, Joseph Campbell, David Leeming, and Ursula Goodenough.

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An Ecumenical Retreat - Spring 2008

The Pipe and Christ: Native American Spiritualities and Christianity

Friday, March 28
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

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Local Seminar Offerings - Spring 2008

Health and Healing - Evening Discussion Series

Tuesday, April 22
7 - 10 p.m.

The Healing Circle: Spirituality and Sexual Healing - The Role of Spirituality in the Therapeutic Process.

An evening of reflection on the role of ritual process in the healing of juvenile sex offenders.

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Religion and Science - Seminar Series

The Flight of the Wild Gander

Tuesdays - May 20, May 27, June 3, June 10
7 - 10 p.m.

A Series of Conversations on the Nature of Mytho-Poetic Language, Fundamentalism, and the Decline of Christianity.

We will be reading selected works from Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, David Leeming, Calvin Luther Martin.

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Regional Conference - Spring 2008

Religion and Science Series:

Thursday, Friday, Saturday
May 29 - 31, 2008

The Sacred Depths of Nature - The Politics of Religion and Science

Dr. Richard Busse
Indiana University Northwest

Thursday, May 29 (Native American Roundtable)
7 - 10 p.m.

Friday, May 30
10 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 31
10 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Models for interpreting the relationship between religion and science will be discussed by reviewing the history of First Amendment science/religion litigation and by discussing the theological impact of these decisions, all for the purpose of gaining insight into the interplay of religion, culture, and politics.

Background Text: Edward Larson's "Summer for the Gods: The Scope's Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion."

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National Conference - Summer 2008

Native American Theology Series

Place and Time of Conference to be announced

A conference on the premiere Native American Theologian of our times, George E. "Tink" Tinker. Mr. Tinker is Professor of Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado and is an enrolled member of the Osage Nation. Among his many publications are Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide (Fortress Press, 1993) and Native American Theology (co-authored, 2001).

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For More Information

Turtle Island Project
P.O. Box 360
Munising, Michigan
46982

Email:
Whitehorse006@aol.com

Call 906-387-5616
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Seminars will be held at Upfront and Company, 102 East Main Street, Marquette, Michigan.

All conferences, retreats and Native American roundtables will be held at Eden on the Bay, Lutheran Church, 1150 M-28 West, Munising, Michigan.

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Bios:

Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard
Rev. Hubbard is founder/director of the Turtle Island Project in Munising, MI
He is the pastor at Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising

In addition to graduating from Valparaiso University and holding advanced degrees from the Lutheran School of Theology and Chicago Theological Seminary, Lynn has studied at the Pedagogishe Hochschule in Reutlingen, German, the Religious Studies Department at the University of Indiana, and the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. For many years he worked as the Associate Dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago.

He has served a number of churches throughout the Chicago area, and lived on the island of St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, pastoring two Afro-Caribbean Lutheran congregations. He has had extensive experience in both the inter faith and ecumenical communities, and served as the Director of Development for the Parliament of World's Religious.

Most recently, in working in his capacity as spiritual director for Juvenile sex offenders, he has given national and international conference presentations on "Creating Ritual Process for Juvenile Sex Offenders from a Cross Cultural Perspective".

He is currently the minister of Eden on the Bay, Lutheran Church in Munising Michigan. He travels regularly to the Lakota Sioux reservations in South Dakota, where he helps prepare graduate theological students in cross-cultural ministerial training. He has been honored by members of the Sicangu tribe of the Lakota people in being asked to serve as a fire keeper for their Sundance ceremonies.

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George F. Cairns, M.Div., Ph.D.

Rev. Cairns is chairman of the board of the Turtle Island Project in Munising, MI

George is a semi-retired minister, professor of practical and spiritual theology at Chicago Theological Seminary, and is a clinical psychologist. George helped found the Parliament of the World's religions and with Wayne Teasdale wrote/edited a book about this process.
His current work concerns Celtic spirituality, centering prayer, and their integration into a theology of practical action for healing, justice, and peace.

He has practiced and taught Centering Prayer since 1986. He has taught centering prayer in several unusual settings including a Native American cultural center and a maximum security prison. He has published papers on this work.

George and his wife Nancy have taught an early and little known Christian practice known as "jubilation." This form of sung praise produces a whole chord of sound by an individual. When practiced in community, sounds appear which no one is making.

He is a former member of the Forge Guild, an international group which encourages spiritual teachers from different religious traditions to explore one another's practices and Spiritual Directors International. He and Nancy are associates/members of two covenantal Christian communities: The Iona Community based in Scotland, and; the Shalom Community based in Chicago.
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Turtle Island Project founder/Director:

Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard
Eden on the Bay Evangelical Lutheran Church
PO Box 360
1150 M-28
West Munising, MI.
49862

wk: 906-387-2520
cell: 906.202.0590
hm: 906-387-5616
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personal email:
Whitehorse006@aol.com
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Rev. Dr. George Cairns, TIP board chairman
1-219-3959347
Professor of Practical Theology and Spirituality at Chicago Theological Seminary
lives in Chesterton, Indiana
ordained minister in the United Church of Christ
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fyi - The first regional conference is (Thursday-Saturday) September 13-15, 2007 at the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising. The hours are 7-10 p.m. Thursday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday.

The Native American roundtable opens the conference on Thursday, followed by two days of presentations and debate by Rev. Dr. George Cairn, a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. Dr. Cairn will discuss Celtic and Native American spirituality, and post-modern science.
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Summary of Turtle Island Project & TV sites:

Turtle Island Project main website:
http://www.turtleislandproject.org

Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv/

Turtle Island TV (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse

Turtle Island (myspace)
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject

Turtle Island Project websites/Blogs:
http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/

email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net