The first meeting of the Religious Education Association took place in Chicago in 1903, largely under the inspiration of University of Chicago president William Rainey Harper. John Dewey and George Albert Coe were other prominent participants in those early days. The Religious Education journal emerged in 1906, primarily publishing papers presented at REA conferences. To mark this centennial year in the life of the REA and the field it has helped to define, the fall 2003 issue of the journal will be entirely comprised of papers reflecting on the past 100 years of the REA and the field of religious education, and challenges and possibilities for the future.

The centennial meeting of the REA will take place in Chicago, November 7-9, 2003, together with the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education. These two organizations have long shared commitments to religious education and shared in the support of this journal. REA and APRRE meet jointly biennially. While the journal is formally owned by REA, the summer issue is regularly dedicated to papers from the previous year's APRRE meeting and is funded by APRRE. Many of us belong to both organizations. During this centennial year of the REA, work will continue on a proposal for a more formal relationship between the REA and APRRE, perhaps a merger. It is fitting and encouraging that as we celebrate what some might term the modern birth of our field, that we may also anticipate celebrating the rebirth through reorganization of these two important religious education organizations.

There are notable changes in the journal. The "Insights from Scholarship," and "Insights from Practice" sections are no longer in use. Our desire is, and has been to publish papers that give scholarly attention to practices of religious education. Good papers that do this will be published without regard to the author's primary location, constituency, or methodology. Related to this, there are no longer Associate Editors designated for each section of the journal. Rather, a small Editorial Board has been appointed to share in the editorial oversight and policy related work of the journal. The names of these persons appear on the inside front cover.

I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Bert Roebben, of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, as our new Review Editor, and the expansion of the Reviews (formerly Critique) section. Peter Gilmour has filled the role of book review editor faithfully for many years as Associate Editor for the Critique section. We are grateful to Peter for this service and look forward to his continued leadership as Publications Chair of the REA. Together with the appointment of a new Review Editor and a new section title, we are expanding the word limit for reviews from 500 to 1500 words and looking forward to the possibility of occasionally publishing longer review essays of about 3500 words. Bert's email address is H.H.M.Roebben@uvt.nl for persons interested in writing reviews of books or other relevant materials.

Comments or questions regarding these changes, procedures for submissions, or other matters related to the journal may be directed to me at tbrelsf@emory.edu.