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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 7, 2007
CONTACT Aubrey Streit, (785) 227-3311, ext. 8274
SWEDISH EXPERT ON INTERFAITH DIALOGUE ARRIVES FOR RESIDENCY AT BETHANY
LINDSBORG, Kan.—The Rev. Dr. Hans Ucko, an internationally known Swedish theologian and expert in interfaith issues, will be in residence at Bethany College this fall as Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies.
Ucko is program executive for Inter-religious Relations and Dialogue at the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.
He arrives on campus Sept. 13. During his residency, he will teach, give public lectures and participate in the cultural life of Bethany and the Lindsborg community. On Oct. 2, Ucko will lecture at 7:30 p.m. at Lindquist Hall on the Bethany College campus. Later in the semester he will lead a public forum on interfaith dialogue.
“Such a person is very important in a world that is evidently pluralistic, and in a campus community that’s quite diverse,” said Ron MacLennan, professor of religion at the college. “It’s inherent in our Lutheran heritage and an essential part of our college’s mission to engage in conversations. With Rev. Ucko, students will be able to see a model of how one might relate to persons of other religions.”
Ucko recently engaged in dialogue with Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal representatives and theologians at a conference in Toulouse, France about the creation of an ethical code of conversion.
The August conference was part of an ongoing three-year study project on religious conversion jointly undertaken by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and the World Council of Churches.
The Pearson Distinguished Professor of Swedish Studies program is endowed by Gerald L. "Bud" Pearson of Okoboji, Iowa, a former member of the board of directors and longtime friend of Bethany College. Under the program, each year a key figure in Swedish culture, arts or scholarship assumes the professorship at Bethany College. The purpose is to discover ways in which contemporary Swedish culture and experience can illuminate and strengthen life in the United States.
Nine prominent Swedish citizens have taken residence for a semester each at Bethany College since 1999. The Pearson Professors are art curator and historian Dr. Beate Sydhoff, journalist Dr. Arne Ruth, poet and novelist Ylva Eggehorn, theologian Dr. Krister Stendahl and anthropologist Dr. Brita Stendahl, environmentalist Jimmie Sjoblom, the late Eskil Hemberg, the Rev. Dr. Kjell Ove Nilsson and international opera star Håkan Hagegård.
Ucko was born in Sweden in 1946 and graduated from Lund University. Following his ordination as a minister for the Church of Sweden in 1971, he studied Jewish-Christian relations in Jerusalem at both the Swedish Theological Institute and the David Hartman Institute. In 2000, he received his doctorate in theology at the Senate of Serampore College, Calcutta, India, where he wrote his thesis on the concepts of “people and people of God,” as integral to the Jewish tradition and to the Minjung and Dalit theologies in Korea and in India, respectively.
From 1971 to 1981, Ucko worked in parishes as a curate in Helsingborb and Burlov, Sweden, as well as in the Swedish Sofia Parish, Paris, France. From 1981 he lived in Uppsala, Sweden, where he worked with the Church of Sweden as executive secretary for Jewish-Christian relations and then East Asian relations. He was hired by the World Council of Churches in 1989.
Currently, Ucko is a board member of the European Buddhist-Christian Dialogue; an international consultant to the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford, England; and an official observer of the International Council of Christians and Jews. He is the editor of Current Dialogue, a biannual publication of the World Council of Churches Office on Inter-religious Relations and Dialogue.
He has authored and edited several books, including Worlds of Memory and Wisdom: Encounters of Jews and African Christians and Common Roots, New Horizons: Learning About Christian Faith from Dialogue with Jews. He has also written numerous articles and papers covering issues such as interfaith dialogue, missiology and liturgy in English, French, Swedish, German, Danish, Czech, Dutch and Italian.
Ucko is married to Agneta Ucko, general secretary to the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children with the Arigatou Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland. They have three children.
Bethany College, established by Swedish Lutheran immigrants in 1881, is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The mission of Bethany College is to nurture and challenge individuals in their search for truth and meaning as they lead lives of faith, learning and service. Bethany College is on the Web at www.bethanylb.edu.
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