Bethany Theological Seminary announces that the third annual Presidential Forum will take place April 9-10, 2010. The theme for the Forum is When Strangers are Angels: the spiritual and social movement of Brethren, Friends, and Mennonites in a new century. The Forum will bring people from all three historic peace church traditions together to explore what our historical inheritances offer to the 21st century church and world by entertaining such questions as: What have been and are each movements' understandings of the relationship between Christ and culture? How do our understandings of scripture and our spiritual practices address social concerns of today and extend hospitality in a blessed and broken world? The Forum will examine three dimensions of the "stranger": the stranger within ourselves, the strangers or estrangements within our own faith communities or between our faith communities, and the ways we respond to strangers in the wide world around us.

Dr. Martin Marty, distinguished service professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and columnist for The Christian Century, will be the keynote speaker. Other leadership will include representatives from each of the three historic peace churches.

Online registration for the Forum will open in January 2010.