The 2007 SVU Conference was held the weekend of June 8th, 2007 at Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with a central theme devoted to the “Contributions of the Moravian Brethren to America.”
| Program and Abstracts can be downloaded here |
The Conference began with an evening reception followed by a concert “Czech Clarinet” by Budimír Zvolánek accompanied by pianist Martha Schrempel. A selection of old Czech composers highly pertinent to the theme of the Conference was warmly received and wonderfully narrated by Mr. Zvolánek. After the concert, members attended General Assembly meeting.
The meeting was formally opened on Saturday morning by SVU President Dr. Karel Raska.
A welcome note was presented by Dr. James Skalnik of Moravian College. Minister-Counselor of the Czech Embassy, Dr. Jaroslav Kurfürst and Dr. Jaroslav Panek, Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic also greeted participants of the Conference.
Saturday morning sessions included panels on Medicine, Current Issues, and History. In the afternoon panels followed devoted to the Moravian Brethren, Czech Moravian Heritage of Catholics and Protestants in Texas, and Economics.
On Saturday night a well attended banquet was followed by the film “Winton’s Children” introduced by Peter Rafaeli.
On Sunday the Conference concluded with panels on the State of Research of Czech/Slovak History, Language and Folklore, and by a Youth panel. The presentations were a well-balanced with contributions by speakers from North America and Europe.
Most of the abstracts of the presented papers were published in the last issue of ZPRAVY.
The multiple panels were very well attended and presentations were followed by lively discussions. Approximately 100 participants had a good time and most of them expressed satisfaction with the meeting.
