Nearly 450 participants gathered to celebrate their faith at Wheat Ridge Ministries' "Living Well" National Symposium on Health and Hope, October 13-15, 2005, in Denver, Colorado.  The event was a major part of the 100th Anniversary celebration of Wheat Ridge.

Three keynote speakers addressed the different facets of the "Living Well" theme.  The Rev. Dr. Martin E. Marty, retired Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Modern Christianity, Divinity School, University of Chicago, focused on the Biblical foundations of health and healing.  Dr. Ellen L. Idler, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, addressed congregations as centers of health and hope.  The Rev. Dr. Leslie D. Braxton, Pastor of New Beginning Christian Fellowship Church, Renton, Washington, closed the Symposium with an encouraging look at how attendees can share health and hope in their local communities and throughout the world.

Daily celebrations were led by the Drawing Water Team - The Rev. Dr. Herb Brokering, The Rev. Dr. Reed Lessing, The Rev. Heidi Neumark and The Rev. John Nunes.  Through songs, litanies and homilies, the team helped participants focus on Baptism in the Lord, the source of health and hope.  Daily "water bearers," from Bethlehem, New Orleans and children from Denver, helped to emphasize our "hurts" as well as our "hoorays" through our daily lives in the Lord.

The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, Pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem, Palestine, and Director of the International Center of Bethlehem, brought greetings from the birthplace of Jesus and delivered the keynote address at the banquet. 

Four "supersectional" speakers highlighted a total of 39 sectional offerings at the Symposium - Dr. Gary Gunderson, Director of the Interfaith Health Program, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta; Dr. James O. Hill, professor of pediatrics and medicine, Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado, Denver; Dr. Kristine M. Gebbie, Elizabeth Standish Gill associate professor of nursing, director of the Center for Health Policy and director of the Doctor of Nursing Science program, Columbia University School of Nursing, New York; and Dr. David H. Olson, professor emeritus, Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, St. Paul.