The 2014–2015 James Luther Adams Forum on Religion and Society will be held on August 23, 2014, at Gould Farm in Monterey, Massachusetts. The program will begin with a tour at 11:00 a.m., followed by lunch at the nearby Monterey United Church of Christwith produce from the farm, followed by the Forum itself.
Gould Farm is a residential therapeutic community. James Luther Adams shared in its leadership and spent his summers there. The two speakers, Virgil Stucker and Brian Snyder, and the moderator, Steven Smith, knew Adams at the Farm or studied under him and have been leaders at the Farm—and their present callings have been influenced by Adams and the Farm. Virgil Stucker, executive director of CooperRiis Healing Communities, will describe principles from healing communities that can be used to form voluntary associations. Brian Snyder, former executive director of the Farm, is executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture; he will demonstrate how JLA’s commitment to voluntary associations was exhibited in his commitment to Gould Farm and the therapeutic power of return to the land. Steven Smith, a public defender investigator, knew Adams at the Farm as a child; he is the editor of One Hundred Years of Service Through Community: A Gould Farm Reader (2014). His father, Kent, was a longtime executive director of the Farm.