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2018 Speakers

Cheryl Bear  

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Singer/Songwriter, Speaker; Founding faculty at NAIITS, Assoc. Professor at Regent, Adjunct at Acadia Div

BA (PLBC), MDiv (Regent College), DMin (King's University, LA)

 

Cheryl Bear is well known as an important and respected voice on behalf of Canada’s Indigenous peoples, with a passion for better understanding our relationship with and responsibility towards “the Land.” From the Nadleh Whut'en First Nation community (Bear Clan) in northern British Columbia, she is a multi-award winning singer/songwriter who shares stories of Indigenous life — the joy, sorrow, faith, & journey. 

 

An inspiring speaker and teacher, Cheryl has also spent time teaching and learning in over 600 different Indigenous communities across North America, sharing songs of healing and reconnection. She has guest-lectured at universities, colleges, and schools in Canada, the US, Russia, and Brazil, and is a founding board member of NAIITS (North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies - Cdn campuses @ Tyndale & Acadia). In addition to her work in educational institutions, Cheryl has held workshops to raise awareness and understanding of Indigenous issues for businesses, government departments, and churches. 

 

Cheryl has released three albums: Cheryl Bear, The Good Road, and A’ BA. These albums have received three Indigenous People’s Choice music awards, two Covenant Awards and a Native American Music Award. She is also, with Tim Huff, co-author of The Honour Drum - a book for children and adults alike, and from which comes the main title of this year's conference.

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For a fuller introduction to Cheryl please read this interview. 

Photo: k jeffrey johnson

Loren Wilkinson

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Professor Emeritus, Interdisciplinary Studies & Philosophy

BA (Wheaton), MA (Johns Hopkins), MA (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), PhD (Syracuse)

 

Loren Wilkinson joined the Regent College faculty in 1981. Previously he was an Associate Professor in the Dept of English at Seattle Pacific (1972–1977) and a Fellow at the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship (1977–1978).

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Loren’s teaching interests include Christianity and the Arts, the Christian Imagination, philosophy, environmental ethics, and earthkeeping/stewardship. He has written many scholarly and popular articles developing a Christian environmental ethic and exploring the human relationship to the natural world in its environmental, aesthetic, scientific, and religious dimensions, and is considered not only an important pioneer but a continuing voice of influence in these discussions. (He and his wife Mary Ruth developed and taught their first ‘environmental studies’ program at Seattle Pacific in 1974; Loren was a leading voice at the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship's ‘Stewardship of Creation’ project in the 80’s; the couple directed residential environment programs for Calvin in the 70’s & 80’s; since the 80’s they have further developed these into courses at Regent; since the 2000’s they have contributed to the development of ‘The Center for Environmental Leadership’ in Belize and New Zealand.) Perhaps even more notably, Loren & Mary Ruth have mentored and inspired innumerable leaders and founders of environmentally- and community-oriented endeavours around the globe, both in urban and rural environments.

 

The Wilkinsons' books include Earthkeeping: Christian Stewardship of Natural Resources and Caring for Creation in Your Own Backyard – early texts in Canada’s environmental-care discussion. Loren is currently working on Circles and the Cross: A Trinitarian Response to Some Contemporary Movements, a book which ties together his passion for science, environmental stewardship, literature and the arts, philosophy, culture, community, and more. Every summer since the 1980s, the Wilkinsons, who live on Galiano Island, have been taking students on an eight-day voyage in open rowing/sailing boats in the Gulf Islands as part of their Technology, Wilderness, and Creation course. It will be our privilege to also have Mary Ruth – likewise a Regent professor – at this conference, contributing to both the conversation and general community engagement.

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Follow this link for an introduction to Loren’s recent documentary, Making Peace With Creation.

Photo: Et Cetera

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