Conversation #2 With Vern Carner
May 28, 2 PM Centennial Complex 3208
This conversation will cover historical events which Vern was involved with that should include
1. The 1990 “Ordination Without Regard for Gender” Conference that immediately preceeded the historic special Southeastern California Conference Consitituency Session on the ordination of women.
2. LLU and University of Redlands collaboration on guest speakers consisting of leaders from the secular political and social world.
3. The work of Everett Dick, including his seminal dissertation on the Millerite movement. Carner spent a significant amount of time with Everett Dick.
4. Adventist Heritage magazine’s founding, and very interesting anecdotes around this event. The leadership of Robert Cleveland in this effort, and the opposition of Neal Wilson are included in this discussion. Some magazines will be on hand.
5. Teaching pastors to preach: Vern was retained by the Southwestern Union to hold seminars on how to preach; Vern benefited from a close association with mentors Edward Heppenstall and William Loveless, and will talk about the importance of preaching education for Adventist pastors.
6. ADRA - Vern and Monte Sahlin were involved in a project which raises the classic issues of the church regarding social responsibility and evangelism.
7. The aborted festschrift for Sakae Kubo, and other stories relating to the great Andrews Seminary teacher.
Vern Carner was a pastor, LLU church history instructor and doctoral student who served during a time of refreshing openness and re-evaluation within Adventism. Church administration had, in the two prior decades, made an effort to re-focus the church’s teaching on the gospel, and encouraged a higher level of academic achievement and educational creativity in its colleges. Loma Linda University was led by brilliant, forward thinking administrators. The University Church had a new senior pastor/change agent, William Loveless. This period was seminal and worthy of sustained examination. Vern Carner was in the middle of all of this, stirring the pot with energy and vision. He will share some of his life and work from these extraordinary times, encouraged by friends and colleagues who participated.
Sabbath May 28 at 2 PM, following an after-class potluck, is “A Conversation With Vern Carner” in the Centennial Complex Room 3208.
Vern Carner is rumored to having helped start the Sabbath School class now known as Sabbath Seminars in the 1970s. Other projects included the extraordinary lecture series in the University Church, “Rise of Adventism” and its published counterpart edited by Edwin Gaustad; The Stature of Christ, a festschrift for Edward Heppenstall which included essays by leading Adventist academics. Ron Numbers dedicates Ellen G. White, Prophetess of Health “to Vern” - which, at the time, was probably the kiss of employment death in Adventism, but today should be considered a great honor. Vern must also be credited for R. A. Billington’s People of the Plains and Mountains, a posthumous festschrift to his mentor at Union College, Everett Dick.
We are joined by members of the Branson Legacy Sabbath School Class.
RSVP to webmaster@sabbathseminars.org to confirm your attendance, and if you wish to join the potluck please note this in your RSVP.
If you wish to bring food to the potluck lunch contact Catherine Lee at clee561@yahoo.com
Sabbath Seminars
Room 3208
Centennial Complex of Loma Linda University Sabbath Morning 10:30-12:30