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Speakers’ Highlights Leadership Dialogue: Creation Care and Climate Stewardship November 15, 2009 Wes Aardahl serves as senior pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Bismarck. He holds degrees from Dickinson State College, Luther Seminary, and Claremont Graduate School. Wes has served congregations in suburban Chicago and rural Montana as well as Bismarck. He has done extensive theological work in the doctrine of creation as it applies to the arts as well as nature. Steve Brick is Non-Resident Senior Fellow for Climate and Energy at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Steve has worked for 30 years in the field of energy and the environment, previously serving as associate director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, director of external relations and environmental affairs for the National Energy Group of the utility PG&E, science and policy coordinator for the Clean Air Task Force, and vice president of an energy consulting company. He has a B.A. and an M.S. in energy analysis and policy from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Stephen J. DeCanio is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara and was Senior Staff Economist at President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers from 1986 to 1987. Professor DeCanio’s research focuses on global environmental protection. He has written about both the contributions and misuse of economics to debates over long-run policy problems such as climate change and stratospheric ozone layer protection. Professor DeCanio has written extensively on corporate organization and behavior as it pertains to the adoption of energy-efficient technologies. His most recent book, Economic Models of Climate Change: A Critique (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003) discusses some of the limitations of conventional general equilibrium models when applied to climate policy. He has been a member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Economic Options Panel, which reviewed the economic aspects of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and served as Co-Chair of the Montreal Protocol’s Agricultural Economics Task Force of the Technical and Economics Assessment Panel. He participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and was a recipient of the Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2007. In 1996 he received a Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award, and in 2007 a “Best of the Best” Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Deborah L. Kiesey was elected bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in 2004 and has served the UMC Dakotas Conference ever since. The first female bishop for the Dakotas Conference, she holds jurisdiction over 40,000 United Methodists belonging to nearly 300 congregations in North Dakota and South Dakota. In 2008, Bishop Kiesey was elected President of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), one of the four international general program boards of The United Methodist Church. The GBCS’ Economic and Environmental Justice Program calls church and society into a greater faithfulness to the biblical vision of wholeness and justice for all of God’s creation with a focus on global warming and energy. Bishop Kiesey received her BA, with a double major in Religion and Piano, from Morningside College, IA, and a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology, MA. Stephen W. Minnema is the new Interim Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of the Northern Plains (PC(USA)), effective June 1, 2009. Prior to that, Steve was a pastor for nine years in Madison, WI. In fact he has pastored in the PC(USA) for nearly 35 years since his graduation from the Harvard Divinity School in 1975 (which followed upon a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and was followed by a Doctor of Divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (UMC).) Steve has four children, five grandchildren and two more grandkids on the way. He loves to weave, read, write and play basketball. He has always tried to live and work (theologically) at the intersection of the church and public life. He has served actively in several state Councils of Churches. Mark Narum grew up on a dairy/beef and small grain farm at Douglas, ND. He graduated from Garrison High School, Minot State University and Wartburg Theological Seminary. He spent almost 15 years working as a television news reporter at KXMC – TV in Minot. Mark became a member of GIFTS program (Growing In Faith To Serve) while a member at Saron Lutheran Church, rural Minot. Through this lay ministry program, Mark discerned God’s call to the ordained ministry. Mark was ordained on June 13, 1999. He was called to serve Prairie Lutheran Parish of Stanley. In June of 2008, he was elected Bishop of the Western ND Synod of the ELCA. Mark continues to be involved in television work through “Thoughts of a Prairie Pastor” which airs on KXMC and KXMD television during the Sunday evening news. One of Mark’s passions is to help people dream about mission and ministry while discerning what God might be up to through their lives. Mark is husband to Jan, dad to Chris 22, Brandon 17 and Tyler 15. The Narum family continues to live in Stanley. William E. (“Bill”) Rindy, Fargo, North Dakota, graduated from Mayville State University in 1984. Bill taught Math and Physics and coached in Carrington, ND. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Luther Seminary in 1992. He has served as pastor of Shiloh Lutheran Church, Elmore, MN, Trinity Lutheran Church, Lisbon, ND, and most recently as Administrative Pastor at First Lutheran Church in Fargo, ND. He has been serving as bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod since July 2008. Bill and his wife, Louise, a nurse with Hospice, have two daughters, Brianna and Kristina. Wade Schemmel, born in 1945 to dairy farmers in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, graduated with a BS in Education from Lakeland College. Following a short stint as a band director in the Kehl School system, Wade attended United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities, where he received a Master of Divinity degree upon graduation in 1971. A doctoral degree from McCormick Seminary in Chicago would be added during the next ten years. Wade and his wife, Peg, have been in pastoral ministry since 1970, serving churches in Minneapolis, MN, Springfield, SD, Prescott, WI, New Bremen, OH, and St. Paul, MN. In 2002, Wade left the parish ministry and became the Conference Minister for the Northern Plains Conference of the United Church of Christ. During that time, Wade has been active in a number of issues including the plight of the homeless, civil rights for the native population and the GLBT community, global warming, and health care reform. The Schemmels currently live in Bismarck. Paul Schuster is the pastor of St Mark’s Catholic Church in Bottineau and St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Westhope. He also teaches World Religion for the Continuing Education division of UND. Originally from Willow City, Fr. Schuster completed a B.A. in philosophy-humanities from North Dakota State University in 1988 and did graduate work in philosophy and theology at The Catholic University of America. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) in 1993. Paul is President of the Prairie Climate Stewardship Network. John Taylor has over 30 years experience in economic justice, adult education and employment, from his early days with the International Christian Workers Movement, through his continuing work as an adult educator and director with Erie Neighborhood House in Chicago. John and his wife Meg, a public school teacher, have raised a family in Chicago and have been steadily involved in faith-based social justice work. |
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Faith Links Denominational Statements on Creation Care and Climate Change/Global Warming Economics of Climate Change Links Stephen J. DeCanio Brief: Economics is Not the Right Language for Addressing Climate Change |
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