Several Samford folks participated in the annual gathering of the Baptist World Alliance July 21-26 in Prague, Czech Republic. Prague is a beautiful city, full of art and music and outstanding architecture. Photos and reporting by Philip Poole, university relations.
Patricia Hart Terry (right) of the exercise science and sports medicine department was co-facilitator of an affinity group for professional women attending the BWA meetings. (Photo courtesy of Tony Cartledge, Campbell University Divinity School)
Ken Roxburgh (center) of the religion department presented a paper on “The Meaning of Membership in Baptist Churches” for the doctrine and interchurch cooperation commission meeting.
Enjoying a reception on the campus of the International Baptist Theological Seminary are (left to right) Ken Roxburgh, Patricia Hart Terry, Keith Jones, the seminary's rector, and Philip Poole. (Photo courtesy of Bob Terry, The Alabama Baptist)
Standing by the Vltava River, with the historic Charles Bridge and Prague Castle in the background. I had to learn ‘The Moldau’ by Czech composer Smetana for my music appreciation class in college. When I got to Prague, I realized the Vltava is the river on which this composition is based. Miss Proudfit, my professor, would be proud of me for remembering that – 33 years later!
A group of friends, several with Samford ties, enjoy lunch in Prague. The group started out on the restaurant’s patio but a summer thunder shower forced them indoors. Front row (left to right) Lilian Lim, Baptist Theological Seminary in Singapore, who has visited and spoken on Samford’s campus several times; Philip Poole, university relations; Dawson McQuaig, Baptist layman from Jacksonville, Fla., whose granddaughter Ashley is a Samford senior. Back row (left to right) Chris Boltin, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship staff, Atlanta, Ga.; Anita Snell, 1963 Samford graduate who now serves on the CBF staff in Atlanta; Sylvia McQuaig; and Harry Rowland, CBF staff, whose son Harry is a Samford senior.
This is the former Nazi concentration camp at Terezin, about an hour from Prague. More than 35,000 Jews, many of them artists and musicians, died here during World War 2.
A memorial to Jan Palach, the student martyr from the 1969 Czech student riots against the Communist regime. Palach committed suicide by self-immolation in Prague’s Wenceslas Square.
This statue in Prague’s Old Town Square honors 15th century Christian martyr John Hus, whose ideas reflected the teachings of John Wycliffe and helped pave the way for Martin Luther and the Reformation. In 1415, Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic by Catholic church leaders.
The Estates Theatre in Prague, where the opera “Don Giovanni” premiered in 1787, with composer W. A. Mozart conducting. The theatre has been beautifully restored, and a resident company is performing the opera there this summer.
