Catholic-Orthodox Community Gathering: "That They All May Be One"
Program Title: "That They All May Be One”: Christ’s Prayer We’ve Been Ignoring for 1,000 Years, and the Reuniting of the “East and West Lungs of the Original Church.”
Program Description: This program will explore John 17:20-23, the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and the Nicene Creed, from a historical perspective. The joint pronouncements of the Popes and the Ecumenical Patriarch lead us to discuss a metaphor as we begin to imagine how we could achieve the Lord’s prayer on the night before His Passion.
Sponsored by The Aquinas Center's Catholic-Orthodox Initiative.
Doors open at 6:30pm for Happy Hour. Dinner and the program will begin promptly at 7:00pm. Registration is required.
Catholic-Orthodox Initiative: In 2017, the Aquinas Center began a Catholic-Orthodox Initiative, thanks to an endowment by Solon and Marianna Patterson. This Initiative consists of a series of programs and events promoting greater understanding and cooperation between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Programs and events…
University Event Topic: Religion & Ethics. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Dr. Bill Marianes is the founder and “Chief Evangelist Officer” of Stewardship Calling, a free ministry that inspires and trains churches, clergy, and laity to create the healthy and effective churches using best practices. Bill has been blessed to lead the development of strategic plans for churches, jurisdictions, and ministries that cover over 26% of all Orthodox Christians in America and has delivered training for well over 1,000 churches. His programs and materials are available at … Cost: Free.
Thursday, August 27, 2026, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, Ballroom
2500 Clairmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30329.
Thomas Merton Conference
This program is sponsored by the Aquinas Center, International Thomas Merton Society, and the Kramer Family.
The morning presentation by Paul Pearson is "Thomas Merton: Poet, Monk, Prophet." Thomas Merton is undoubtedly one of the major spiritual writers of the 20th century. This presentation, after tracing Merton’s life from his birth to his entry to the Abbey of Gethsemani, will explore his rise to international prominence in the late forties with the publication of his autobiography. It will then trace his ongoing evolution, from the world-denying monk of the nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties, to the world-embracing monk of the final decade of his life, elucidating three key reasons for Merton’s rise to popularity - his writings on spirituality, on social issues, and on ecumenism and interfaith dialogue.
Fr. Michael Holleran's afternoon presentation is "The Contemplative Journey." What is contemplation and how does it evolve? Learn how the life and teaching of Thomas Merton illustrate this…
University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Paul M. Pearson is Director of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky and Chief of Research for the Merton Legacy Trust. He is Resident Secretary of the International Thomas Merton Society, and served as President for the 10th administration. Paul is a founding member and first secretary of the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He edited Seeking Paradise: Thomas Merton and the Shakers, A Meeting of Angels, Thomas Merton on Christian Contemplation and … Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Contact Name: Tina Guyden. Contact Email: tina.guyden@emory.edu.
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM.
Candler School of Theology
1531 Dickey Drive
Atlanta, GA 30322.
Inculturation and a Pilgrimage of Truth-Telling
This program is offered in person and as a webinar.
In this lecture, Antonio D. Sison explores the ways in which local faith communities of the Global South, for all the postcolonial contradictions of Catholic missionary history, continually re-imagine and re-design liberative and reconciling pathways for themselves as the primary artisans of inculturation. Through a pilgrimage of truth-telling, he proposes a creative analytical approach known as the “Rashomon Effect” to hold divergent voices in creative tension so that a reconciling inculturation becomes a promise and a possibility.
Recommended Parking: Peavine Visitor's Lot, 27 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA 30322.
Online Location: https://emory.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_JCST5XZnSk-f1nVFlpFo4A. University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Building/Room: Candler School of Theology. Speaker/Presenter: Antonio D. Sison, CPPS, is Professor of Systematic Theology and Culture, and the Vatican Council II Chair at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. His latest book is Intercultural Epiphanies: Signs of Reconciling Grace in the Global South (Orbis Books, December 2026). Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Contact Name: Tina Guyden. Contact Email: tina.guyden@emory.edu.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Candler School of Theology
1531 Dickey Drive
Room 252
Atlanta, GA 30322.
Participation, Dignity, Elections: A Virtual Catholic Theological Conference
Catholic teaching does not baptize any particular model of democracy. For decades, however, Catholic teaching has embraced democratic governance as the best way of institutionalizing the core values at the heart of Catholic teaching: human dignity, religious freedom, shared public life, and the participation of all in the civic sphere.
This Catholic embrace of democratic governance leads the Church to encourage citizens to participate fully in electoral processes, speak out for fair and transparent elections, and call people to respect electoral outcomes.
This webinar brings responsible voices of Catholic ecclesial leaders and scholars to bear on the upcoming US elections. By understanding the current moment within a worldwide context and offering practical tools for promoting fair elections, the webinar will empower Catholic leaders—homilists, liturgical ministers, teachers, as well as bishops, priests, religious, and deacons—to speak faithfully and prayerfully into the polarization surrounding the…
Online Location: https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/participation-dignity-elections/. University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Featuring / Con la participación de:Archbishop John C. Wester of the Diocese of Santa Fe, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio "Ambo" Siongco David, Bishop of Kalookan, Philippines,
Former President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, Dr. Maria J. Stephan of Horizons Project, Dr. Michael Murphy, Director of Loyola's Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, Dr. Antonio Eduardo Alons, Director of Catholic Studies, Candler School of Theology, Dr. Byron D. Wratee, Villanova University, Dr.… Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Registration / R.S.V.P. link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JLDe1x_cK_O-oWQtQkvRFB1p31YgHspwAQ1-f_azw-c/viewform?ts=6a6b8d8b&edit_requested=true. Contact Name: Drew Denton. Contact Email: ddenton@archatl.com.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM.
Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Work
Catholic Social Teaching holds that the human being is the purpose of work, which challenges many preconceptions about work in our contemporary culture. While we can and should seek out work that is good for us, Catholic social teaching's inclusive definition of work offers hope for challenging work injustice and finding paths toward rest and leisure in our lives.
Dinner will be provided for those who register. Please email aquinasemory@gmail.com with any dietary restrictions.
University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Building/Room: Off Campus. Speaker/Presenter: Dr. Kate Ward is an associate professor at Marquette University. A theological ethicist, her scholarship is in the areas of economic ethics, virtue ethics, and Catholic Social Thought. Her newest book, Making a Life: Catholic Social Teaching and the Meaning of Work, was released in February and asks reader to reconsider the understanding of the purpose of work, who it serves, and how it can nourish human flourishing. Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Contact Name: Tina Guyden. Contact Email: tina.guyden@emory.edu.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Basilica of the Sacred Heart
353 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308.
Catholic-Orthodox Community Gathering: Gospel, Cosmos, and Theological Imagination
Program Title: Gospel, Cosmos, and Theological Imagination
Program Description: Across languages and geographical regions, early Christians employed interlocking concepts from the disciplines of meteorology, geography, music, mathematics, and astronomy in order to articulate the coherence of a fourfold Gospel, with itself and with the rest of the world. Thinkers from across the Christian tradition conceptualized a divinely ordained correspondence between fourfold Gospel and quadriform cosmos. This ancient bibliographic cosmology invites continued ecclesial reflection on the role of metaphor, imagination, and the physical cosmos in theological hermeneutics.
Sponsored by The Aquinas Center's Catholic-Orthodox Initiative.
Doors open at 6:30pm for Happy Hour. Dinner and the program will begin promptly at 7:00pm. Registration is required.
Catholic-Orthodox Initiative: In 2017, the Aquinas Center began a Catholic-Orthodox Initiative, thanks to an endowment by Solon and Marianna Patterson. This Initiative…
University Event Topic: Religion & Ethics. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Jeremiah Coogan is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. He is a historian of religion, textuality, and enslavement in the Roman Mediterranean, with a focus on the New Testament and early Christianity. He is author of the award-winning monograph Eusebius the Evangelist: Rewriting the Fourfold Gospel in Late Antiquity (Oxford 2023) and co-editor of Writing, Enslavement, and Power in the Roman Mediterranean, 100 BCE–300 CE… Cost: Free.
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
Transfiguration Catholic Church
1815 Blackwell Road
Marietta, GA 30066.
Orando y Cantando la Alegria del Sẽnor with Santiago Fernández
En esta sesión, Santiago expondrá la importancia del canto en la Santa Misa y en nuestra jornada de fe, y hablará también de cómo se puede incorporar el canto a la oración personal. Nuestra vida en si es una oración y una alabanza al Señor, entonces juntos hablaremos de la importancia de vivir la verdadera alegría que viene de Dios, orando y cantando. El Papa Francisco nos dice: “No rezar es cerrar la puerta al Señor, para que no pueda hacer nada. En cambio, la oración es abrir la puerta al Señor para que venga.” Vengan a aprender, gozar, orar y cantar. ¡Juntos alegrémonos en el Señor!
Ubicación:
Cena: 6:30 - 7:30pm
Charla: 7:30 - 9:00pm.
University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Santiago Fernández es un conocido compositor, director de música litúrgica y ministro pastoral católico de origen hispano, radicado en Estados Unidos. Con más de 35 años de experiencia, ha publicado su música a través de OCP (Oregon Catholic Press), destacándose por sus cantos litúrgicos y bilingües utilizados en comunidades hispanas. Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Registration / R.S.V.P. link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZomFSiR956jLIdmYyj63C0ghPVnhS2SpVVk6a9A1zdM/edit. Contact Name: Tina Guyden. Contact Email: tina.guyden@emory.edu.
Friday, October 23, 2026, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM.
St. Patrick Catholic Church
2140 Beaver Ruin Road
Norcross, GA 30071.
Catholic-Orthodox Prayer Service
Sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta, the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Aquinas Center's Catholic-Orthodox Initiative.
Reception to follow prayer service.
Catholic-Orthodox Initiative: In 2017, the Aquinas Center began a Catholic-Orthodox Initiative, thanks to an endowment by Solon and Marianna Patterson. This Initiative consists of a series of programs and events promoting greater understanding and cooperation between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Programs and events focus on a greater understanding of the commonality of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. This initiative’s programming includes an annual Orthodox lecture, and events that build community rooted in our shared history.
University Event Topic: Religion & Ethics. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Cost: Free.
Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM.
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation
2500 Clairmont Road
Atlanta, GA 30329.
The Stranger and Strange Hope
The stranger is a figure of both fascination and terror. Often portrayed in religious traditions as someone sacred who must be welcomed, the stranger also is depicted as someone dangerous who must be guarded against, expelled, or even eradicated. Debates around immigration, race, and nationalism throw this ambivalence into stark relief, as co-religionists find themselves lined up on opposing sides. To reconcile these tensions, it is necessary to recognize the ambiguity inherent in the experience of otherness and offer a framework for navigating it. To that end, this lecture explores a Catholic comparative theology that centers the mystery of hope in the encounter with the stranger.
Lunch will be provided for those who register for the in-person program. Please email aquinasemory@gmail.com with any dietary restrictions. Recommended Parking: Peavine Visitor's Lot, 27 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA 30322.
University Event Topic: Theology. Department / Organization: Aquinas Center. Speaker/Presenter: Tracy Sayuki Tiemeier is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. She specializes in comparative theology, interreligious dialogue, Asian/Asian American theology, and Hindu-Christian Studies, with a focus on gender, race, and liberation. Event Open To: All (Public). Cost: Free. Contact Name: Tina Guyden. Contact Email: tina.guyden@emory.edu.
Thursday, November 12, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM.
Candler School of Theology
Room 102
1531 Dickey Drive
Atlanta, GA 303322.