UA’s CCBP Co-Sponsors Conference on Faith-Based Groups, Community

Note: Media are invited to cover this conference. For details, contact LeNa’ Powe, communications coordinator, UA Division of Community Affairs, 205/348-4480 or lmpowe@ua.edu.

TUSCALOOSA — The University of Alabama’s Council on Community-Based Partnerships is collaborating with Tuscaloosa-area churches and organizations for a conference on how faith-based groups may improve their communities.

“Achieving Excellence Through Communal Empowerment and Creative Collaboration: A Conference on Faith and the Community” is from Sunday, July 26, to Tuesday, July 28.

The conference will begin with preaching and a mass choir performance at 6 p.m. Sunday in Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church on the Stillman College campus. Speeches and panel discussions will be featured from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday and 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Bryant Conference Center on the UA campus.

The conference is designed to share and discuss effective and creative ways in which the faith community may help individuals, families and communities achieve excellence through faith, spirituality and knowledge.

Speakers on Monday’s schedule include Dr. Tim Lovett, senior pastor of Calvary Baptist Church; Dr. Arloa Sutter, Breakthrough Ministries, Chicago; and Marcus Lundy, Birmingham city councilman and Regions Bank executive.

Tuesday’s speakers include Rev. Dennis R. Taylor, president of the Tuscaloosa Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance; Dr. Abraham Smith, professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University; Judge Agnes Chappell, Birmingham Municipal Court; and Ben Sciacca, executive director, Restoration Academy in Birmingham.

Sponsors of the conference are the Calvary Baptist Church, S.D. Allen Ministry and Missions; Citizens Impacting Community Association; Habitat For Humanity; Love, INC; the Hope Initiative; Project Bethel; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Plum Grove Baptist Church; Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church; the Healing Communities Foundation; First Presbyterian Church; and the UA Council on Community-Based Partnerships.

Cost is $25 per person or $150 for a table of 8. Deadline to register is Friday, July 24. Payment at the door will not be accepted. Attendance is limited to 150.

For  details, go to http://ccbp.ua.edu/faithconference/ or contact LeNa’ Powe, communications coordinator, UA Division of Community Affairs, 205/348-4480 or lmpowe@ua.edu.<