The regular Staley Lectures, an endowed series, will feature two “local” speakers Oct. 8 and 9 on campus, Mennonite pastors Fernando Pérez and Rebeca González.
They will speak at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, in the Administration Building chapel and at 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 9, in Krehbiel Auditorium in Luyken Fine Arts Center. Sunday’s lecture will be livestreamed at https://youtube.com/live/dp1S-nsXXAw
The lectures will be in Spanish with English translation by Linda Shelly, Latin America director for Mennonite Mission Network.
Pérez and González are from Mexico who currently on a special assignment to serve Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA as transition pastors for Iglesia Menonita Casa Betania in Newton.
Pérez and González are also executive coordinators of the Comunidad de Instituciones Teológicas Anabautistas (a group of institutions that provide theological education in an Anabaptist perspective).
The focus of the pair of lectures is “The Responsibility of the Church Facing the Local Context: From a Pastoral Experience,” drawing on pastoral experience in multiple local contexts, including working with asylum seekers and families of disappeared persons.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Known for academic excellence, Bethel ranks at #14 in the Washington Monthly list of “Best Bachelor’s Colleges” and #24 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest,” both for 2022-23. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. For more information, see www.bethelks.edu
