The 2011 Rodney and Lorna Sawatsky Visiting Scholar Lecture with Professor Donald Kraybill

The 2006 shooting of ten girls in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, shocked the world. It was horrific, senseless, and random. Professor Donald Kraybill has studied this heartbreaking event and is co-author of the award-winning, best-selling Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. Kraybill will visit Conrad Grebel University College on Friday, February 11 at 7:30pm to give the 2011 Sawatsky Lecture. In his address, entitled “Forgiveness in the Face of Tragedy: Amish Grace at Nickel Mines”,hewill tell the tragic story, describe the unique features of Amish forgiveness, and explore the meaning and relevance of Christian forgiveness in a contentious world.

Donald B. Kraybill is Distinguished College Professor and Senior Fellow in the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania. Nationally recognized for his scholarship on Anabaptist groups, Professor Kraybill’s research and commentary is featured in magazines, newspapers, and on radio and television programs across the United States and in many other countries. He frequently speaks on topics related to his research.

Kraybill has received numerous awards including the National Religious Book Award for The Upside Down Kingdom. He has authored or co-authored numerous books on Amish life including his flagship work, The Riddle of Amish Culture. Kraybill’s most recent books are The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World (co-authored with Nolt and Weaver-Zercher) and a Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites.  

The Sawatsky Visiting Scholar is awarded to renowned scholars, practitioners and performers whose expertise in their field represents the wide range of interests of the Conrad Grebel community. Dr. Rodney Sawatsky joined the faculty of Conrad Grebel in 1974, teaching History, Religious Studies, Mennonite Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies.  This lectureship honours the leadership and contributions of Rod and his wife Lorna, to Conrad Grebel, the University of Waterloo, the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada, and the Kitchener-Waterloo community during his years as professor, Academic Dean and President of the college. After leaving Conrad Grebel he was President of Messiah College in Pennsylvania for ten years. He died on November 27, 2004 of brain cancer.

2011 Sawatsky Lecture featuring Dr. Donald Kraybill
Forgiveness in the Face of Tragedy: Amish Grace at Nickel Mines
Friday, February 11, 2011
7:30 pm
Admission is free
Conrad Grebel Great Hall, Academic Building
140 Westmount Rd. N,  Waterloo ON

For more information, email infocguc@uwaterloo.ca or call at519 885-0220 x24264.