2005 Meeting Session Descriptions

Religious Education for Peace and Justice
November 4-6, 2005
Delta Chelsea Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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PLENARIES

I. Religious Education in Faith Communities –
Friday, November 4, 2:00-3:15 p.m.

Religious education practitioners will present particular stories of what and how their several faith communities have engaged the issues of peace and justice in their educational ministry; i.e. events, curriculum, program models, resources, pedagogy. These stories will be told using a variety of methods. Small group process will encourage conversation among forum participants to dialogue about the challenges that were heard from these stories and the ways that religious educators may collaborate and network in responding for the future. The group as a whole will discuss how the forum can become a vital and effective part of REA.

II. Religious Education in Public Life and the Global Community --
Saturday, November 5, 2:45-4:00 p.m.

The Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt is minister of The Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, she is a graduate of Yale University and Drew Theological Seminary. She is a former editor at the New York Times Book Review; author of three books, including her memoir, "Unafraid of the Dark;" and author of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s pamphlet: "The Faith of a Theist: There Must be a God Somewhere." She has served as a member of the UUA’s Committee on Urban Concerns and Ministry and the Task Force for Strategic Options for Beacon Press. She is a board member of Religious Witness for the Earth, a faith-based environmental justice group, and a founder of the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry. She lives in New York City with her husband, Robert, and their two sons, Allen and Daniel.

III. Religious Education in Academic Disciplines and Institutions –
Sunday, November 6, 9:45-11:00 a.m.

Elizabeth Conde'Frazier, author of Many Colored Kingdom and Christian education professor at Claremont School of Theology, will lead a discussion of her work on Participatory Action Research (PAR). Her work in PAR embodies a viable approach to religious education for peace and justice.

 

TASK FORCES AND DENOMINATIONAL MEETINGS
Sunday, November 6, 8:30-9:30

Adult Education:
Jane Regan reganje@bc.edu

Children:
Karen-Marie Yust kmyust@union-psce.edu
The Children Task Force invites participants to share reviews of recently published books on childhood spirituality and children’s ministries, as well as samples of course syllabi that exemplify best efforts to teach about these subjects. Book title suggestions, offers to review particular titles, and notice of intent to present a syllabus should be sent to the task force convener, Karen-Marie Yust, at kmyust@union-psce.edu. Copies of syllabi should be brought to the annual meeting for distribution; copies of book reviews (if formally written) are also appreciated but are not required.

Liturgy and Catechesis:
Ron Anderson ron.anderson@garrett.edu

Asian/Asian North American:
Tito Cruz / Eddie Kwok fcruz@fst.edu
The Task Force on Asian and Asian North American Religious Education is a gathering of REA/APRRE members who are interested in developing and re-imagining the theory and practice of religious education that is grounded in the Asian and Asian North American contexts. It provides a space for collegial support, academic and pastoral reflection, and collaborative work.
Specific strategies may include: a)assessing the resources and needs of each of the institutions represented; b)networking with other academic, professional, and pastoral groups that address Asian and Asian North American issues and concerns; and c)establishing a data base on Asian and Asian North American religious education.

Greening of Religious Education:
Kathleen O’Gorman ogorman@loyno.edu

Ethnography:
Margaret Ann Crain margaretann.crain@garrett.edu
Annotated Bibliography

The Black Experience:
Evelyn Parker eparker@smu.edu

History of Religious Education:
Patty Meyers pmeyers@Pfeiffer.edu
The History Task Force meeting topic is : "Changing Trends in Religious Education." A song from the Broadway musical, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" proclaims that 'everything old is new again.' It is hoped that a presentation of some current trends will invoke discussion and memory sharing of past trends. Have they come and gone? Are they among best practices today? As we engage with memories of past and current trends, perhaps we will predict trends that affect religious educators in the future.

Peace and Justice:
Bud Horell horell@fordham.edu

Class Issues:
Susanne Johnson susannej@mail.smu.edu

DENOMINATIONAL MEETINGS
Friday, November 4, 8:30-12:00

Religious Tradition/Denominational Meetings and leaders E-mail these leaders for specific information about your denominational meting

Lutheran:
Norma Cook Everist ncookeverist@wartburgseminary.edu
Pan-Methodist:
Patty Meyers pmeyers@Pfeiffer.edu
Roman Catholic:
Thomas Groome groomet@bc.edu
Presbyterian:
Bill Lord wlord@sympatico.ca
Baptist:
Tom Leuze tleuze@oak.edu
UCC/Disciples:
Sharon Warner swarner@lextheo.edu
Jewish:
Teresa L. Mareschal mareschalt@missouri.edu

RESEARCH INTEREST GROUPS, COLLOQUIA AND WORKSHOPS

Friday, November 4, 4:30-5:45 NEW TIME

1.1 Margaret Ann Crain – Ethnography as a Practice of Peace and Justice: Research Methodologies that Mean Something! An Annotated Bibliography (RW). This session with describe the research methodology called “ethnography” demonstrating how its efforts to faithfully hear and describe the people of God is in fact a practice of peace with justice. As the ethnographer allows the voices of the people to speak through his/her work, those who have been voiceless gain voice. The session will provide an annotated bibliography of resources relating to ethnography provided by the APRRE Task Force on Ethnography.

1.2 Joseph Draper, Theresa O’Keefe, and Sue Singer – Knowing What You’re Doing: The Value of Qualitative Research for Christian Religious Educators (COL) Christian religious educators are increasingly aware of the potential value of qualitative research studies for their work. What are some of the specific ways this value has been manifested in three very different dissertation projects, and what are some of the issues raised by the use of empirical research in Christian religious education?

1.3 Richelle B. White – A Transformative Pedagogy for Peacemaking in the Temple of Hiphop (RIG). A Transformative Pedagogy for Peacemaking in the Temple of Hiphop is an educational resource for African American youth that offers strategies for embodying peace and justice among members of the Hip-Hop generation. Guided by the aesthetics of hip-hop culture, this work is a catalyst in the holistic development of African American youth, by creating new forms of knowledge about peace and justice, through the use of imaginative instructional methods.
and
Joseph Crockett –Studying Religious Practices among African-American Adolescents: An Empirical Study (RIG). The thesis of the study is that psychological and social interactions contribute to understandings of the micro-macro dynamics of religious life in general and of Scripture engagement specifically. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus can assist in understanding this phenomenon.

1.4 W. Alan Smith – Songs of Freedom: The Music of Bob Marley as Transformative Education (RIG). The music of the late reggae artist Bob Marley addresses themes of liberation, justice, and spirituality. Through the platform his status as a major musical figure gave him, Bob Marley used his music as a form of transformative education for poor, oppressed persons from the Caribbean and beyond.
and
Felecia T. Douglass – When All Hope Is Gone, Sad Songs Say So Much: The Importance of Jeremiah’s Laments for Energizing the Oppressed (RIG). The laments of Jeremiah are examined for guidance in teaching religious educators to be prophetic. ‘Prophetic’ educators, according to Walter Brueggemann, both critique the dominant powers and energize the oppressed. The energizing aspect of the prophetic role has been overlooked. The laments of Jeremiah provide such insight.

1.5 Katherine Turpin – Disrupting the Luxury of Despair: Justice and Peace Education in Contexts of Relative Privilege (RIG). With students of relative privilege, teaching for justice and peace in a traditional academic environment can often lead to informed despair rather than increased agency to engage in movements for social change. This paper explores the struggles and creative pedagogical adaptations of an institution attempting to address this dilemma.
and
Roberta Clare – Putting Faith into Action: A Model for the North American Middle Class (RIG). How do adult learners make the connection between ethical thinking and ethical action—between what they believe and how they act? This paper will explore implications for religious education for social justice based on a case study of transformative learning theory, Freirean pedagogy and popular education principles.

1.6 Janet Parachin – Nonviolence in Oklahoma: Uncovering Spiritual and Religious Influences (RIG). Nonviolence is a challenging perspective and practice to maintain, especially when a nonviolent activist lives out this commitment in a context which is not especially supportive. Research into the spiritual and religious roots of nonviolence and interviews with nonviolent social activists in Oklahoma will uncover factors that shape and sustain nonviolent perspective and practice.
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Beth Bruce – Theological Education for Justice Ministry: approaches to Justice Education Learned from the Lives of Social Activists (RIG). This paper summarizes and reflects on a narrative inquiry into the formative aspects of Christian social justice activists’ lives. It notes the usefulness of narrative inquiry as a method and suggests implications of the research for justice-focused academic theological education.

1.7 John Elias – Edward Pace: Pioneer Catholic Philosopher, Psychologist and Religious Educator (RIG). This paper will focus on the educational writings of Edward Pace. In the view of a prominent scholar of his day “his essays may serve in their totality and in their most significant character as a source-book for the Catholic philosophy of education.
and
Ann Morrow Heekin – The Life and Work of Mary Perkins Ryan: The Interplay of Liturgy and Adult Catechesis in Whole Community Education (RIG). Mary Perkins Ryan was a Catholic writer and editor whose influence on Catholic education in North America spanned four decades prior to and following the Second Vatican Council. Most vividly recalled for her classic work, Are Parochial Schools the Answer (1964), Ryan’s involvement in the early liturgical movement and the catechetical renewal it inspired under Vatican II, raised the critical question of whether Catholic schools can be the normative means of religious education in light of the growing recognition that education in the religious way of life must embrace a whole community parish orientation focused on the adult towards participation in the wider secular culture. In addition to her 24 authored and co-authored works addressing the liturgical, theological and catechetical dimensions of education, Ryan’s reform efforts include dialogue with religious educators in the areas of both theory and practice in her role as executive editor of the Living Light (1964-1972) and PACE (1972-1988).

Saturday, November 5, 10:00-11:15

2.1 Michael P. Horan - Justice Education as a Collaborative Effort: Effective Religious Education in the Catholic School (RW). Effective justice education activities flowing from young persons’ involvement in community-based service in a Catholic school context responds to several important facets of education of youth; these activities can demonstrate to the entire school community the holistic and integrated nature of contemporary religious education.

2.2 Harold (Bud) Horell - Teaching Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Furnishing our Spirits for Peace and Justice (COL). The session will provide an opportunity to discuss how modern Catholic Social Teaching can be used as a resource in presenting the social ministry of the church and the call of all Christians to embrace a concern for peace and justice as constitutive of Christian faith.
and
Chuck Melchert – Can There Be Peace, Justice or Religious Education without Truth? (COL). The questions for discussion in this colloquium is: Can there be an educational process in the absence of truth? Do peace or justice require a basis in truth? What happens to the concern for truth and religious education when religions compete, claiming that one is "true" and others are "false"? Are "true" and "false" the only options? What could educators do in this climate?

2.3 Dori Baker – Ride It, Bend It, Walk It: Inviting Youth to Re-Gender Vocation Through Narratives of Popular Culture (RIG). This paper explores an educational practice of engaging select narratives of popular culture that provide imaginative worlds in which young men and women construct gender identity and lives of meaning oriented toward peace and justice. These narratives assist in voicing an alternative “curriculum of vocation” to the one prevalent in consumer-driven U.S. culture.
and
Joyce Ann Mercer – Nature as Teacher: Inviting Youth to Vocational Discernment through Experiences in the Natural World (RIG). This paper explores an educational practice of deep engagement with nature as a way of assisting youth toward lives centered around practices of justice, through interview research on vocation with adolescents at the Youth Theological Initiative (Emory University). Such engagements with nature can constitute an alternative curriculum of vocation for youth amidst the call of consumer culture for young people to live lives that commodify the non-human creation and their own gifts. It looks critically at popular models of youth ministry that engage nature as a backdrop for entertainment and recreation.

2.4 Helen Blier – Webbing the Common Good: Virtual Environment, Incarnated Community, and Education for the Reign of God (RIG). What does it mean to educate – and educate those who will educate – for the common good? And what does it mean to educate for the incarnation of God’s reign in a virtual environment? This paper will explore the results of an experiment in ‘hybrid’ pedagogy – using a combination of online and in-person contact – to teach for commitment to the common good. The working thesis of this paper is that the hybrid format provided an elegant medium for investigating the topic as well as forming the students in the habitus necessary for effective ministry and education.
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[CANCELED] Mary Hess – Developing Empathy and Agency in a Mass Mediated World (RIG). Deep empathy is at the heart of Christian faith, but media cultures tend to support -- at best -- sympathetic responses rather than empathetic ones. In an era of globalized media empires which foster patterns of agency through consumption, religious educators need to retrieve and invent faith practices which deliberately attend to the development of empathic agency, and in so doing facilitate sustainable efforts on behalf of peace and justice.

2.5 Judith Brady – Justice for the Poor in a Land of Plenty: A Place at the Table (RIG). This paper examines poverty in the United States of America as an issue of social justice. It provides a resource for enlarging the American Dream of justice for all by providing a framework for creating a table (that is, a social forum) of Christian fellowship, social decision-making, and partnership. Educating for justice will be explored using the insights of Letty M. Russell, Thomas H. Groome, and Gabriel Moran.
and
Paulette E. Isaac and Teresa Mareschal – Social Justice Education among Women within the Reform Jewish Temple and the African American Church (RIG). In many instances, religious institutions have served as the conduit for social justice and change. Advocacy has included a variety of learning opportunities.

2.6 Lynn Bridgers – Disenfranchised Experience: Religious Education’s Null Curriculum on Trauma and Disability (RIG). When religious education liberation models that focus on the political, the visible and the social are applied universally, experience that is not visible in the social sphere becomes disenfranchised. Through trauma and disability, this paper argues for more diverse evaluation of experience and response to different types of experience in religious education.
and
Boyung Lee – Teaching Justice and Living Peace: Body, Sexuality and Religious Education in Asian-American Communities (RIG). This paper examines sex and sexuality and religious education for justice and peace in Asian-American contexts. A focus is the Confucian notion of the body, one that has greatly influenced the formation of sexuality of Asian-Americans including Christians. The paper demystifies the body as a pedagogical strategy for justice and peace in Asian-American churches.

2.7 Claire Bischoff and Mary Elizabeth Moore – Cultivating a Spirit for Peace and Justice: Teaching through Oral History (RIG). Teaching through oral history methods inspires a spirit of peace and justice, advances knowledge of peace and justice in action, and develops skills that prepare people for future action. This paper presents a case study in oral history—a course taught by the presenters utilizing oral history as a primary teaching methodology. We analyze the case in relation to religious education literature focused on justice, peace, and ecological well being, then draw conclusions for religious education theory and practice.
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Anabel Proffitt – The Role of Wonder in Educating for Peace and Justice (RIG). Educating for peace and justice requires attention not only to the content of what is taught, but the process by which it is taught. The teacher must allow her wonder to help shape the learning environment, to find the creative tension between the safety of dependable and affirming presence and the challenge of contingency--what if things were not as they seem? The teacher must not only model this in his own way of being with students, but must think of how to structure the learning process so that the learners’ wonder also becomes part of the process.

Saturday, November 5, 1:15-2:30

3.1 Kathleen O’Gorman – A Methodology for Infusing Natural World Perspectives and Sensitivities into Religious Education Curricula (RW). The Workshop will offer participants a rationale as well as strategies, resources, and models for integrating Natural World perspectives and voices into existing Religious Education curricula across the lifespan. Special attention will be given to expanding and extending our appreciation and concern for peace and justice issues beyond the human to include all Creation.

3.2 Roseanne McDougall –Teaching the Christian Tradition and Global History: An Interdisciplinary Journey Towards Religious Literacy (COL). Portrays goals and methodology through which first year university students develop the art and skills of rhetoric (reading, thinking, writing, speaking) in their work with primary sources dating from the Reformation to the present. Emphases are upon developing student literacy, and utilizing critical thinking skills to probe relationships between religious and historical perspectives on the recent past.
and
G. Alan Overstreet – Identifying Expectations in Ministry Education (COL). This study compares the expectations for ministry education as expressed by Christian Ministry majors (current and those graduated within the past 5 years) of Anderson University’s Department of Religious Studies. These expectations are also compared with those of search committees within congregations of the university’s sponsoring church in the hopes of making explicit expectations which need clarification if communication about them is to proceed constructively. Actual and potential contributions of this undergraduate program in ministry education are considered.

3.3 Zoe Bennett – Ecumenical Theological Education as a Practice of Peace (RIG). This presentation explores how in practice ecumenical theological education may be a ‘practice of peace’, from the perspective of pedagogical processes and also of the theological commitments which underlie our choice of pedagogical processes.
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Robert Postlethwaite – Giving Primacy to the Sacred: Some Implications for Teaching (RIG). This paper envisions the features of a pedagogy based on the sacred. Drawing on experience teaching within my faith community and at two universities, and literature from several faith-based communities: the Baha’i Faith, Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism, a sacred-pedagogy is portrayed; one that is relational, caring, loving, compassionate, process-oriented, and somewhat improvisational.

3.4 Peter Gilmour – Is Your Religion Too Small? (RIG). Diana Eck in her book, A New Religious America documents the significant growth of non-Christian religious and spiritual traditions in the United States. Yet many members of various Christian denominations have little or no religious education to help them deal with this phenomenon. Just as J. B. Phillips outlined an agenda for understanding among Christian denominations nearly a half century ago, the time ripe for an inter-faith agenda that will promote understanding among all religious and spiritual traditions.
and
Gabriel Moran – Fundamentalist, Originalist or Conservative (RIG). Religious differences are not well described as liberal vs. conservative. The better choice is between being superficially conservative in a way that is constricting and being deeply conservative in a way that is liberating. Examples are drawn from non-violence, sexual morality, ecumenism.

3.5 Gerdien Bertram-Troost, Simone de Roos and Siebren Miedema – Religious Identity Development of Adolescents in Secondary Schools: Empirical Findings (RIG). Against the background of some theoretical notions on religious identity development, the first results of an empirical study on religious identity development of adolescents and the way Dutch Christian schools for secondary education may effect this development, will be presented.
and
Terence Copley – Religious Education Versus the Injustice of Secular Indoctrination? (RIG). Religious education in the west is sometimes viewed with suspicion as potentially indoctrinatory, yet the possibility of secular indoctrination is rarely challenged. This paper places the spotlight on secular indoctrination, including how it can happen within the context of teaching religion, using England and New Zealand as case studies.

3.6 Doug Blomberg – Why Existential Intelligence Doesn’t Quite Make the Grade (RIG). For Howard Gardner, multiple intelligences theory has no entailments for education, yet he rests his hopes on educators adopting his “new definition of human nature.” The paper investigates the presuppositions obscuring the self-referential incoherence in the theory and concludes that, on its own terms, the exclusion of intelligences with normative characteristics is illegitimate.
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Wayne Cavalier – Reversing the Foundations: Emmanuel Levinas and Christian Religious Education Practice (RIG). Describing a dis-integrative experience of a service project carried out in relation to the Christian religious education process, the paper identifies the root of the concern to integrate service projects into the CRE curriculum, primarily from a Roman Catholic perspective. The concern is traced to the evolution of Catholic social teaching and its culmination in the incarnational and missional understanding of faith evident in the teachings of Vatican II.

3.7 Norma Cook Everist – Civil Religion’s Effect on Education for Peace and Justice (RIG). Civil religions, along side of specific faith communities, shape attitudes and actions. American civil religion, with its presumption of entitlement to global dominance, presents a particular problem. What is the formative nature and role of civil religion internationally in our common search for justice and peace?
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Rebecca Davis – Religious Education and the Construction of Civic Life: Contemporary Lessons from Reconstructionists (RIG). The covenantal identity as expressed in the theological summary of the Torah is one whose prime directive is to love and obey God, serve neighbor and purse justice not only in personal and religious life but in civic life as well. This paper will explore the relationship between religious education and the construction of civic life. It will argue that Christian Educators committed to the work of justice will find kindred spirits in the work of the Progressive Educators and the Reconstructionists.

Saturday, November 5, 4:15-5:30

4.1 Thomas Leuze – The Collective Pastorate of the Confessing Church: A Model for Ministerial Preparation (RIG). Following the closure of the Confessing Church’s seminary at Finkenwalde, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued theological education in a “collective pastorate” where several students lived in a parsonage and shared responsibilities for several parishes. This approach will be compared to several non-traditional ministerial preparation models.

4.2 Alan Lai – Burying Anti-Jewish Christian Practices as Peace Building: A Challenge for Asian Churches (RIG). This article will challenge the mindset that Asian Christians have nothing to do with the Holocaust, and thus no need to engage dialogue with Jews. Many Asian Christians are unaware that the classical Christian self-identity they inherited from missionaries was built upon the problematic theological lens call anti-Judaism. As Asian churches are rapidly growing around the world, they are significant factors in peace building through examining religious teachings and practices.
and
Donald Miller and Russell Haitch – “Watu Wa Amani”: Learning Peace in Africa (RIG). This paper and short film discuss issues raised by the Watu Wa Amani (People of Peace) conference held in Nairobi in 2004. These issues include the role of story-telling in learning peace in Africa, the role of Westerners in the peace process, and the role of “spirit” in moving from violence to non-violence to peace with justice.

4.3 Leona English – A Utilization Focused Evaluation of a Lay Ministry Education Program (RIG). This paper reports on a completed qualitative study of a 3-year lay ministry education program. Using a utilization-focused evaluation framework (Patton, 1997), data were collected mainly through interviews. Data confirm learning and faith formation but also raise issues with purpose, direction and transfer of learning.
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Catherine P. Zeph – Teaching for Facilitation: Exploring Successful Learning (RIG). In this session, the power of transformative learning will be explored through the experiences of adults who attend a five-day facilitator certification workshop for a graduate ministry extension program.

4.4 Jorge Diez -- Educating the Multicultural Adult Latino Community in the United States: An Augmentative Pedagogy (RIG). This paper specifically utilizes an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that includes multicultural and adult educational theory, Latino history, a textual and documentary analysis, and the review of current literature in the field of religious education.
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Robert J. Parmach – Creative Tension as Links of Meaning: Investigating Religious Literacy Justly (RIG). In this paper, I argue that the field of Religious Education must seek creative tensions in religious literacy to accomplish the much needed work of linking meaning to doing justice.

4.5 Dent C. Davis – Dialogue of the Soul: The Phenomenon of Intrapersonal Peace and the Adult Experience of Protestant Religious Education (RIG). The results of this year long qualitative study of church participants’ experiences of spirit and their relationship to participant perceptions of peace suggest the importance of spirituality as an intrapersonal dialogical process extending the conceptual framework for understanding peacemaking while identifying important pedagogical implications for the practice of adult education in parish settings.
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Alison Le Cornu – Theological Reflection and Christian Formation (RIG). Literature considering Theological Reflection continues to lament the absence of a clear ‘outcome’ resulting from the process (Woodward and Pattison, 2000). This paper demonstrates a link between TR and Christian growth through a study of the process of internalisation.

4.6 Philip Franco – The Traditional Italian Festa: A Theology of Communion and Catechesis (RIG). A look at the manner in which the traditional Italian Feast is used to educate young persons and incorporate them into the Christian Community.
and
Karen Scialabba – The Educational Mission of Catholic Publishing (RIG). The Educational Mission of Catholic Publishing is a phenomenological study that relies on in-depth interviews with editors to consider the educational mission of Catholic publishing and examine some of the contexts in which the educational mission and its corresponding business concerns “cross-pollinate.” Based on the countless discussion in which the author of this study participated in as an editor, this study sheds light on how Catholic editors articulate, defend, and argue for an educational mission that most suitably meets the contours of our times.