Rev. Minnema will report on his month long stay in Columbia where he was accompanying various Presbyterians who are advocates for some of the six million displaced persons who lost their lands, their livelihood and their culture to the long years of violence and greed that have created a most unjust situation there. The question is how one persists in pressing for justice when it appears that the powerful hold all the cards.

Steve Minnema received a BA from University of Michigan and MDiv from Harvard and a Doctor of Ministry from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. After serving for over 40 years as a Presbyterian minister, he is retired and living in La Crosse with his wife, Dr. Deborah Buffton, who teaches history at UW-L and is a member of the UU Fellowship of La Crosse. He has written a book about his ministry called A Small Good Story and Other Tales of a Pastor/Weaver at Work. His papers have included studies in John Calvin, Menno Simons and Lucius Aeneas Seneca. He has taught a number of courses in religious studies and ethics at Viterbo University. Last fall he taught a course on “The Ethical Life of the Consumer.”