TruthBook Religious News Blog

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, award-winning broadcaster Bill Moyers and best-selling author Karen Armstrong will be the Bryan Series speakers during Guilford's "Year of Spirit and Spirituality" in 2005-06.

Armstrong will speak Sept. 27, Tutu Nov. 3 and Moyers March 13 at War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro. Please note the date change for the Moyers event, which was originally scheduled to be held March 14.

Season passes and single-event tickets for the Tutu lecture are sold out. A limited number of single-event tickets for the Armstrong and Moyers lectures are on sale at the Greensboro Coliseum box office, online (www.Tickets.com), by phone (1-888-397-3100) or at selected Lowes Food Stores in the Greensboro area. There is a service charge for all tickets purchased online or by phone.

Guilford student and employee free ticket pickup is Sept. 6 (Armstrong), Oct. 11 (Tutu) and Feb. 21 (Moyers).

Karen Armstrong

Armstrong is a writer, lecturer, broadcaster and author of 12 books. Her best-known book is A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for many months. She teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers in London, England.

Educated at Oxford University, she taught modern literature at the University of London. She was a Catholic nun from 1962-69, and in 1982, she became a freelance writer and broadcaster.

Armstrong's books include Through the Narrow Gate, a best-seller in Britain, The Gospel According to Women, Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, and The Battle for God. Her latest book, published in 2004, is a memoir, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness.

A provocative, original and inclusive thinker on the role of religion in the modern world, since Sept. 11, 2001, she has been a frequent contributor to conferences, panels and throughout the media on both sides of the Atlantic on the subject of Islam. She lives in London.

Desmond Tutu

Tutu, one of the best-known and most-honored people in the world today, is Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, and Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape. As a priest, dean, bishop and archbishop of the Anglican Church in South Africa, he was a leading figure in the struggle against apartheid. For his passionate advocacy of nonviolent change, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

After apartheid ended, he was chosen by South African President Nelson Mandela to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes committed during the apartheid era. He was presented with the highest civilian awards by South Africa and France.

Tutu is the author or editor of numerous books, including Crying in the Wilderness: The Struggle for Justice in South Africa, Hope and Suffering: Sermons and Speeches, The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution and No Future Without Forgiveness.

Tutu was born in the Transvaal area of South Africa. In his late twenties he began to study for the priesthood in the Anglican Church, was ordained in 1960 and did three years of graduate theological study in England. In 1975 he became the first black person to become dean of St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg. In 1976, he became bishop of Lesotho.

In 1984, he became the first black bishop of Johannesburg, and in 1986, he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town, and thus, titular head of the Anglican Church in South Africa. He was archbishop until his retirement in 1996. He has chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission since retirement.

Bill Moyers

Moyers is a reporter and commentator on contemporary American history, a gifted storyteller through words and images who reveals the spiritual, emotional and historical sides of our culture through his award-winning films and best-selling books.

Since 1986, when he and his wife, Judith, established the independent production company Public Affairs Television, Moyers has produced hundreds of hours of programming including Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, Amazing Grace and Genesis. His books include the 1971 best-seller Listening to America and the 2004 book Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times.

Before establishing Public Affairs Television, he served as executive editor of the Bill Moyers Journal on public television, senior news analyst for the CBS Evening News, and chief correspondent for the acclaimed documentary series, CBS Reports. Moyers hosted a PBS news magazine, NOW with Bill Moyers, for three years through December 2004.

A survey of television critics by Television Quarterly, the official journal of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, placed Moyers among the 10 journalists who have had the most significant influence on television news. In 1996, he received the Charles Frankel Prize (now the National Humanities Medal) from the National Endowment for the Humanities "for outstanding contributions to American cultural life." He has received every major journalism award, including the coveted Gold Baton, and more than 30 Emmy Awards.

In addition to broadcasting, Moyers was deputy director of the Peace Corps in the Kennedy Administration and special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson from 1963-67, including two years as White House press secretary. He left the White House in January 1967 to become publisher of Newsday.

A native of Oklahoma, Moyers earned a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and degrees from the University of Edinburgh and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Texas). He is an ordained Baptist minister.

For event information, call 336-316-2308 or visit www.guilford.edu/bryanseries. For information about the Year of Spirit and Spirituality, visit www.guilford.edu/yearspirit.