The 2007 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium
By Dan on Jul 2, 2007
The preliminary program for the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium has just gone to press. Here is an online version. This version will be updated periodically in the weeks between now and the symposium as we continue to add panelists and respondents to some of the sessions.
This year’s symposium will be held 8-11 August at the Salt Lake Sheraton City Centre Hotel, the same hotel as the past several years. We hope you’ll make plans to attend—and participate!
Workshops and other featured sessions and topics this year include:
Writing a Life: Finding the Best Angle, with Phyllis Barber
Meditation for Mormons, with John Kesler
The Desire to Be God: Existential Philosophy and Mormonism, with James McLachlan
Positive Heart-Based Tools for Coherent Living, with Robert A. Rees
Staying in the Church After Becoming Disaffected, with John Dehlin
(Workshops are half-day sessions held Wednesday, 8 August, and require a separate registration.)
This year’s evening plenary sessions are:
Wednesday, 8pm—Smith-Pettit Lecture: The Making of The Mormons, Or My Four Years as a Stranger in the Strange Land of Mormonism, by filmmaker Helen Whitney
Thursday, 8pm—Panel Discussion: Mormonism’s “Mitt Moment”
Friday, 8pm—Pillars of My Faith, by John Kesler and Jana Riess
Saturday, 7pm—Banquet: Joseph Smith Meets Mitt Romney: What Does the Mormon Past Contribute to the Crafting of a Credible Global Vision for the 21st Century? By W. Grant McMurray, former prophet-president of the Community of Christ
Other symposium highlights include (session numbers in brackets):
• The first-ever screening of Richard Dutcher’s very personal new film, Falling (session 125)
• A review panel for The Mormons (131), as well as a screening of “Faith and Doubt,” a never-before-seen act that was cut from the film before it aired (161)
• Multiple sessions on LDS women’s experiences (132, 162, 325, 331, 353, 373)
• Several sessions on Mormons and environmental questions (133, 211, 321)
• Sessions on LDS social activism, BYU protests, and how Latter-day Saints might be peacemakers (163, 171, 174, 232, 272, 362)
• An interview with Darius Gray, former president of the Genesis Group and the person who is heading up a documentary film project, Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons (261)
• Using Humor to Negotiate Mormon Culture and Faith (172)
Live performances at the symposium:
• Stand-up Comedy—Mormon Meets World—by Bengt Washburn (141)
• Mormon Blues and Gospel (273)
• Reading: Mrs. Joe Smith: First Lady of Mormondom, by Kimberly Mellen (332)
• “Love, Lies & Skye: Conversations with God” by Skye Pixton (363)
And there’s much more!
Please look over the symposium program and let us know what catches your eye!
Best,
Dan Wotherspoon
Editor, Sunstone
Looks like a lot of interesting things are going to be spoken about again this year. One thing I like very much is Sunstone’s efforts to include current issues on the program.
As a non-US Mormon, one thing I’m very disappointed in (again) is the lack of topics related to non-US Mormonism. The problem is of course to get presenters and panelists to speak about it, but with all the talk about Mormonism’s globalization, “more members outside the US than inside” etc., one would think that there’d be serious efforts in that direction.
Anyway, good luck with the symposium!
Comment # 1 by Northerner | Jul 3, 2007 | Reply
Northerner,
Thanks for your comments! I agree with you! You’re right about some of the reasons it’s hard to get presenters from outside the US to attend and speak, but you’re also right that we should work harder at making it happen. If you’d like to write me privately, dan@sunstoneonline.com, I’d love to know how to contact you to pick your brain about this a bit. Let’s make sure we have more things next year!
Best,
Dan Wotherspoon
Editor, Sunstone
Comment # 2 by Dan | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Dear Northerner,
I, too, am interested in more non-US Mormon participation in Sunstone Symposiums. My particular interest is in feedback from Ukrainian Mormons, who have experienced the worst of the Soviet system and Gorbachev’s transforming thaw of that vast and awful empire. I don’t know how much exposure Ukrainian Mormon leaders have to Sunstone’s version of glasnost, or even the PBS version, but I doubt that any who were privy to those former repressive days would tolerate the institutional rigors of present day Utah conformity.
I was privileged to visit Kiev in 1988 and participate in their millennial celebration of the Christian conversion of the Russian empire in that fabulously beautiful city. I wrote a poem to capture that experience, which I’d like to set down here. I call it “Liahonagrad“.
Liahonagrad
At first sight
I knew
this is the place,
and all else faded.
More than ancient beauty,
far more than all I’ve seen before:
her verdant flowing gown
with boundless candles blazing
wrapped wide in azure sash
and crowned by golden domes.
More than ancient peace
so oft reduced these thousand years
by eastern hordes
and western swords
yet bustling now with
crowds of faces smiling.
It was the quiet awe
that crept into–then swept–my soul
as standing rooted there
I saw those grey-green hills,
the primal three reborn,
who will not–must not–die.
Enlightened lovely one,
when I’m with you
and sing my song,
I know you hear my home.
And I will know yours better
when I come again
and yet again
and many times again . . .
Kiev
May 88
Comment # 3 by Eugene Kovalenko | Jul 5, 2007 | Reply
Dan, I’m curious about that spiffy attendance statistics graphic on the site now. It’s encouraging to see your numbers up for attendance at the symposium. I had a couple of questions– are those numbers only for SLC, or is that all the symposia added together? And, what about the years before 1986, or so, when that graphic starts? And what year was the statement about not listening to “alternative voices”?
Also, the top 100 downloads– there’s a number listed by each, and if I remember right the top one is only 60. Is that really the amount for the most downloaded episode of all? And, I did email the webmaster about this– I tried two downloads from that list and neither file would work.
Comment # 4 by Paula | Jul 14, 2007 | Reply
Hi Paula,
I didn’t even know those things were online, so thanks for pointing them out to me. I had to ask William, who put that up, most of your questions. Answers: Those stats are for SLC plus regionals for those years. SLC has been averaging 800-900ish the last few years, and we vary in number of regional symposiums between two and five per year, and the regionals vary from average attendances of about 40 (Dallas) up to 150ish (Southern California). We don’t have easy access to the data for before ‘86. We came on board in 2000 and 2001 and much of Sunstone’s early data was never put into a database. The alternate voices statement came in 1991.
I think 60 is about right for top downloads. The files have only been online for about a year or so. William says he has your query about things that aren’t working and will investigate and reply to you soon.
Best,
Dan
Comment # 5 by Dan | Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the info Dan.I haven’t gone back and tried to download any of the session since i sent the message. I’m surprised that the session from last summer, For Better, For Worse , For Apostacy wasnn’t downloaded more, given all the discussion I’ve heard about it. I just wondered how current attendance compares with the olden days before about 1985. I attended a few then, but had to quit because Sunstone almost always conflicted with the first week of school at the place I taught. So you did have a lot higher attendance last year, overall. Great!
Comment # 6 by Paula | Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Wish I knew more about the numbers for pre-85 symposiums, too. I know the very earliest symposiums were shorter events, so my guess is perhaps they were quite crowded but ultimately drew fewer people overall. I’ll be seeing founders and early editors Scott Kenney, Peggy Stack, and Allen Roberts in the next couple of weeks. I’ll see what they say.
I think the For Better, For Worse download will have “legs.” This is one of those issues that hit in so many homes, my guess is folks will continually find it and other sessions like it for many years to come.
Early pre-registration for this year is going strong! Hope we’ll see you!
Dan
Comment # 7 by Dan | Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Well, I’m pre-registered. And will be there Friday and Saturday, I think. I’m looking forward to it.
Comment # 8 by Paula | Jul 19, 2007 | Reply
hey guys here’s a link for you if you want to know more about the dutcher screening:
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/230225/
it sounds like it will be good!
Comment # 9 by Amy | Jul 27, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the link, Amy. I have seen the film, and it is very well done and quite powerful. As I’ve tried to convey in the writeup about the session (see below), this film is NOT at all like Dutcher’s previous films. It is very violent, with very rough language, etc. Where it is similar to his other films is in its honesty and fearlessness about looking directly at spiritual life, and, in this case, the consequences of a turn away from one’s spiritual roots.
Write up from the Sunstone program:
We hope we’ll see many of you at this private, pre-release screening for Sunstone symposium attendees!
Dan Wotherspoon
Comment # 10 by Dan | Jul 27, 2007 | Reply
I’d have loved to go, but as of last week, the nearest hotel with any vacancies for any price at all was in Provo. It says on the web site that there will be a Sunstone in Boston this year. I’ll definitely be attending that.
Comment # 11 by DKL | Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
I want to come so bad. I just got my Sunstone and it looks really interesting. Also I could come and heckle Kaimi, Russell, and Lisa.
I can’t drive, I’m too sick. But I have enough frequent flier miles, but I think my uncle might be dying so I might need them.
You guys have a blast. It looks ten times more interesting than Women’s Week at BYU. Honestly, I’m not sucking up. Maybe next year. . .
Comment # 12 by annegb | Aug 5, 2007 | Reply