The Surprising Gift of Fragility in Community

By Brian Smith

L’Arche Forum to feature Duke Divinity School ethics professor Dr. Amy Laura Hall:

“The Surprising Gift of Fragility in Community” is the title of a feature lecture at a public L’Arche Forum at Bader Hall, Victoria University, Toronto, Thursday, October 11th, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. The Forum will include a time for discussion and a prelude of music, dance and drama by L’Arche members. Toronto Star columnist Helen Henderson will emcee the evening. Tickets ($15) available through L’Arche. (Please see contact information below.)

About the lecture, “The Surprising Gift of Fragility in Community:”

What is it like today in North America to live in a family, a community, or a neighborhood obviously marked as vulnerable? What does it mean to have one’s own child, home, or school marked as intractably needy or risky? Without romanticizing either poverty or disability, Duke University Professor Amy Laura Hall will suggest that life and love are often freely given precisely in the midst of overt fragility. Stories that testify in this way are as much gifts to North American society today as they have ever been. Those whose lives appear to be strong, auspicious, and safe are thirsty for people who will witness to a strangely prodigal way of giving love and life.

Professor Amy Laura Hall has thought deeply about these issues and is a lively lecturer. She will direct her presentation to a diverse audience.

The goal of regional and national L’Arche Forums is to foster a public dialogue on issues and values that are central to our lives as Canadians. L’Arche also seeks to encourage a deeper integration of compassion into our Canadian culture

A Ph. D. graduate of Yale University, Professor Hall is the author of two books, Kierkegaard and the Treachery of Love (Cambridge, 2002) and Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction (Eerdmans, 2007), as well as dozens of academic and mainstream articles on ethics, in particular bioethics. Professor Hall is a frequent speaker in academic, secular and religious settings in North America and Europe. She has participated in bioethics projects at the Hastings Centre and the Genetics and Public Policy Centre of Johns Hopkins.

This L’Arche Forum is sponsored by L’Arche Toronto, L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill, L’Arche Ontario, and the L’Arche Foundation. L’Arche has a historic commitment to serving Canadians with intellectual disabilities and to promoting the contributions of people with an intellectual disability to the well being of society. L’Arche also undertakes initiatives to influence the way Canadians think about issues such as care and care giving, the nature of community, and the potential contribution of the weak and vulnerable.

For tickets, please call:

L’Arche Toronto: 416-406-2869 x0; L’Arche Daybreak: 905-884-3454 x233; or L’Arche Canada Foundation: 905-770-7696 x104