Remember!!!

• There is still time to register for the Denver!!
• Hotel space is still available but is booking quickly, so make your reservations soon!!
• The meeting begins at 1:30 on Friday, November 5.

Contextual Pedagogies: Teaching Context as Religious Text
November 5-7, 2004
Brown Palace-Comfort Inn complex in downtown Denver, Colorado
A joint meeting of the Religious Education Association (REA) and APRRE

Religious education has been understood as a profession standing at a fork in the road facing “faithfulness to the ancient and honorable paths of the fathers” on the one hand, and the knowledge required for contemporary religious living on the other. Faith communities and the world demand accountability for both an authentic and usable knowledge -- knowledge to help persons understand and respond to spiritual experiences. Much of the debate at APRRE and REA over the past years has centered on which road to take. Educators with a pastoral focus may downplay the ancient text and those with an academic focus may believe that the present context is not their major concern.

In teaching, the text is typically understood as a book containing the gathered wisdom of a scholar, or a community, that a teacher uses to help students enlighten their experience. The context, on the other hand, can refer to the setting or times in which a particular text was produced. Context can also mean the present reality: the places from which students come -- the influences of community surroundings, racial background, family structure; and places to which they will go -- faith communities and neighborhoods in conflict, atomized societies, pluralistic worlds. Here teachers help students both gain and use the knowledge that no “text” may yet contain.

Perhaps, the challenge of our theme can be captured in the wit and wisdom of Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Relating text and context calls us to teaching practices that, in David Tracy’s words, engage a “mutual critical correlation between an interpretation” of the religious experience and the contemporary situation. This means reading the texts with a commitment to the poor and marginalized in their contexts, teaching -- context as religious text.

The issues of text and context, while not phrased in these words, have been the focus for REA and APRRE in past discussions of “theory and practice.” In Denver we can take a next step with a critical study of religious educators’ teaching practices (contextual pedagogy) connecting students’ learning to the contexts of life and also connecting the realities of present life to a reinterpretation of the texts. Our aim is a more dynamic teaching in religious education promoting its enhancement to benefit communities of faith and the broader public.

Questions and comments about the theme and offers to assist in the design the meeting may be directed to President-Elect, Bob O’Gorman e-mail: rogorma@luc.edu

Program Chairperson Bob O’Gorman and committee members are planning, for the opening plenary, a multi-sensory immersion into the 2004 APRRE-REA Meeting Contextual Pedagogies: Teaching Context as Religious Text – the context of the cosmos, the school, the culture and the liturgy. Participants will move into the opening session through the four image stations, followed by a process of welcome and reflective interaction on the images. The opening plenary will conclude with an introduction to the conference theme and the weekend.

Plenary II, on Saturday, will be lead by Malcolm Warford, Research Professor and Director of the Lexington Seminar sponsored by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., Lexington Theological Seminary. Dr. Warford is the editor of Practical Wisdom: Teaching and Learning For the Church's Ministries, forthcoming Fall 2004. The plenary presentation will focus on stories illustrating the kinds of contextual concerns that face seminaries and many other institutions in our society.

The final plenary, on Sunday, will be lead by Terence Copley, Professor of Religious Education, University of Exeter, the United Kingdom. Dr. Copley has written 35 books and numerous articles for school children teachers, professionals and researchers in Religious Education. His latest book, Indoctrination, Education and God: the Struggle for the Mind is due to appear in early 2005. For eight years Professor Copley has directed the Biblos Project, a research project into teaching biblical narrative in the classroom, including the multi-faith classroom. According to Dr. Copley, in the UK schools all students from ages 5 to 16 study religious education on a world-religions base (usually Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism). Included in their programs are selections of biblical narrative. A minority of young people are introduced to biblical narrative in faith communities (churches, synagogues etc). While inappropriate to make recommendations for North America from the UK context, Dr. Copley says we can identify key questions of help to religious educators in North American faith communities, in academia, and in public contexts in addressing their own situation at the ‘fork in the road.’

An on-line version of the annual meeting registration form is available on the website at http://old.religiouseducation.net/meeting/2004/2004_reg.htm However, it will still need to be mailed with a check. Brief descriptions of the presentations are included in this issue of REACH and on the website (http://old.religiouseducation.net/meeting/2004/2004_sessions.htm) to help you select your top four choices in each time block.

Registration for APRRE or REA members: U.S. $115
International $110
Emeritus/Emerita $75
Full-Time Student $75

Registration for non-members: $165

Registration fees are in U. S. Dollars. The meeting registration fee includes Proceedings (conference papers) on CD-ROM, conference fees, reception drink, and Friday banquet, 2004-2005 dues must be paid by Oct. 15 to register at member rates.

Optional Fees:
Women’s or Men’s Luncheon: $20 (Students $15)
Spiral bound hardcopy of Proceedings in place of CD-ROM $15
Late registration fee Postmarked after Oct. 15 $10

Brown Palace-Comfort Inn Complex
Downtown Denver

Hotel guestrooms are now subject to availability and the hotel's prevailing room rates. Make your reservations soon!!

The Brown Palace-Comfort Inn complex will offer meeting registrants the best of everything! Sessions will take place in the elegant and historic Brown Palace Hotel. The Brown Palace has earned a four-diamond award from AAA and “best business hotel” by Fortune Magazine. Within its long history (and with guests like Eisenhower, Churchill and the Spice Girls) there are also many fascinating stories to discover. Our guest rooms will be in the Comfort Inn, which is across the street from the Brown Palace and connected by a second story walkway. The guest rooms are very nice and have great views of the city and the mountains. By using the Comfort Inn we will have access to great facilities at an affordable cost.

The Brown Palace-Comfort Inn complex is one block from the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall and within walking distance of the Colorado Convention Center, the State Capitol building, the Denver Mint, and historical Larimer Square. Denver's Botanical Gardens, Six Flags-Elitch Gardens Amusement Park, the Children's Museum, the Denver Zoo, Ocean Journey Aquarium, and the Museum of Natural History are within 10 minutes of the hotel. Coors' Field (Colorado Rockies), Pepsi Center (Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets), and Invesco Stadium (Denver Broncos) are each a five-minute drive. Everything is a fairly easy walk or a short public transit trip.

The guest room rate at the Comfort Inn is $99 per night and this includes a nice continental breakfast. A small block of rooms is also available in the Brown Palace at $139 per night, including continental breakfast. The reservation cut-off date will be October 15, 2004. Following this cut off date, guestrooms are subject to availability and the hotel's prevailing room rates.

You may find out more about the hotels on the web:
Brown Palace www.brownpalace.com
Comfort Inn Downtown Denver www.choicehotels.com/ires/hotel/CO057

Information about Denver, points of interest and current weather are available on the website at http://old.religiouseducation.net/meeting/2004/2004_area.htm

If you are looking for a roommate to reduce your hotel expenses, send your name and email address to Lawanda Smith (lfsmith@lsua.edu).

Most of the meeting papers are now available in their complete form on the REA/APRRE website. As others arrive they will also be posted. You will need your username and password (the old ones will work until new ones are distributed Oct. 15) plus Adobe Acrobat Reader to access the papers. Registrants are asked to read papers prior to the meeting so that authors have more flexibility in their methodologies for sessions and so that sessions may be more interactive. Coming prepared makes it possible for sessions to model the types of pedagogy (or if you prefer andragogy) that REA/APRRE members desire. Registrants will also receive the Proceedings, which contains copies of all papers, on CD-ROM unless purchasing a hardcopy at registration. Confirmation of session assignments will begin via email by October 22.

A tribute to APRRE (as a companion piece to the tribute to REA which we did last year in Chicago)

Presentations by
Clarence Snelling
Tom Groome
Leona English
Evelyn Parker

Gender: Susan Willhauck will convene the task force, which will have a panel discussion on "Whatever happened to inclusive language?" A variety of perspectives will be represented to address questions like "Is it important? Is it still being taught in the seminary? Is it only a white feminist concern?” The discussion will concern the role of inclusive language in the discipline of religious education.

Ethnography: Participants in this task force will
• Share ideas for using ethnographic assignments in our classes. Participants should bring a syllabus that includes an ethnographic assignment to share with the group and any policy or procedure statements that their school uses for such assignments.
• Share teaching evaluation tools or techniques that draw on ethnography. How does an ethnographic disposition help us to evaluate and plan as teachers?
Margaret Ann Crain will convene the task force.

Liturgy and Catechesis Task Force: In light of the success of the format of our task force session with David Hogue last year, Ron Anderson has asked Debra Dean Murphy to lead a conversation about her new book: Teaching That Transforms: Worship As the Heart of Christian Education, Brazos Press, 2004, ISBN: 1587430673
Children: The children task force APRRE/REA will meet to review recently published books in our interest area and discuss how these new studies and resources are shaping our research and teaching. Continuing and new members are invited to come prepared to comment critically on a recently published book. Peer reviews of new books written by task force members are especially desirable. Please send titles of books you would like to have reviewed or plan to review for the discussion to the children task force convener, Karen-Marie Yust (kmyust@cts.edu), for forwarding to the rest of the group.

History of Religious Education: Ronnie Prevost
Adult Education: Jane Regan
Asian/Asian North American: Mai Anh Tran and Tito Cruz
Peace and Justice: Bud Horell
The Black Experience: Fred Smith and Lynne Westfield
Greening of Religious Education: Kathleen O'Gorman

Women’s Luncheon: Diane Hymans, Coordinator
Men’s Luncheon: Gabriel Moran, Coordinator

DENOMINATIONAL MEETINGS

Pan-Methodist: Patty Meyers and Susan Willhauck
Roman Catholic: Peter Gilmour
UCC-Disciples: Sharon Warner, convener. The group is spending the session networking.
Baptist: Ronnie Prevost
Presbyterian: Lib Caldwell
Lutheran: Norma Everist , convener. A time to share areas of ministry in Religious Education, to get to know and up-date one another, and to talk about areas of common concern and interest to each other.

You are strongly encouraged to make travel arrangements (including ground transit, check-in and security screening) such that you can attend the entire meeting.

Thursday November 4, 2004

3:00 pm into evening REA Board Meeting (& Dinner)

Lutheran Professors

Friday November 5, 2004

Saturday November 6, 2004

Sunday November 7, 2004

Friday, November 5, 4:30-5:45 p.m.

Workshop
D. Bruce Robers and Robert E. Reber, “Research on Contextual Pedagogies for Leadership Development in Peer Learning Groups: The Indiana Clergy Peer Group Study Program”

Colloquia
Russell Haitch, “Distance Learning in Theological Perspective” and
Gabriel Moran, “Religious Education and National Interest”

Colloquium
Virginia Lee, “Multiplicity of Difference: Developing a Resource for Understanding Diversity and
Kathy Winings, “Taking Religious Education Out of the Classroom: Service Learning as an Effective Contextual Pedagogy”

Colloquia
Claire Annelise Smith, “Creating God’s Neighborhood as Learning Environment” and
Chin Cheak Yu, “Christian Religious Education for Awakening and Living in the Spirit in a Chinese Church Context”

Research Interest Group
John L. Elias, “Thomas Edward Shields, Pioneer Catholic Religious Educator” and
Lucinda A. Nolan, “John Lancaster Spalding (1840-1916): An Early American Catholic Philosopher of Religious Education.”

Research Interest Group
Caustino M. (Tito) Cruz, Carol Jacobson, Boyung Lee, Joyce Ann Mercer, Mai-Anh Tran, and Anton C. Vrame, “Teaching Context(s): Using Congregational Studies and Participatory Action Research as Pedagogical Strategies”

Research Interest Group
Thomas E. Leuze, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Experiment in Theological Education: Would Finkenwalde Be Accredited by ATS” and
Eileen M. Dailey, “Catholic High School Religious Education and the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church: Is the Textbook Review Process Working?”

Research Interest Group
Dent C. Davis, "Accelerated Learning and Adult Religious Education: Potential and Pitfalls” and
Catherine P. Zeph, “Location, Location, Location: Ministry Education on the Road”

Saturday November 5, 10:15-11:45 a.m.

Workshop
Thom Bower, “Contextual Pedagogies: Teaching Context as Religious Text”

Workshop
Naoki Okamura, “Elderly Japanese American Christian Women and Their Spiritual Silence”

Workshop
Henry C. Simmons, “Age as Context: On-line Annotated Bibliography on Religion, Spriituality, and Aging”

Colloquia
Charles Foster, “Teaching Contextual Practices in Theological Education”

Research Interest Group
Fred P. Edie, “A Different Context for Difference: Protestant Christian High School Students Practice the Ordo” and
Bert Roebben, “Redefining Theological Language and Education in the Context of Pastoral Ministry with Young Adults”

Research Interest Group
Linda L. Baratte, “Growing Within Our Hearts: Exploration in the Faith Development and Religious Education of Adopted Children and Their Parents” and
Partner canceled

Research Interest Group
Sue Singer, “Educating for Conviction and Commitment: Insights from Postmodernity” and
Siebren Miedema, “Religious Education Today: Between James and Durkheim and in Dialogue with Charles Taylor”

Saturday November 5, 1:45-3:15 a.m.

Workshop
Burton Everist, “Community College: Challenging Context for Teaching Religion”

Workshop
Dean Maternach, “Journaling: Teaching the Context of Our Lives”

Workshop
Clarence H. Snelling and Shirley Heckman Snelling, “Remythologizing Religious Experience for the 21st Century”

Colloquia
Kathy Dawson and Cindy Kissel-Ito, “Preschool Community and Faith Practices” and
Beverly Jones, “The Great Assignment”

Research Interest Group
Alison LeCornu, “People’s Ways of Believing: Learning Processes and Faith Outcomes”

Research Interest Group
Jerome Berryman, “Religious Education and Evil” and
Theresa O’Keefe, “Coming to Know the Other—Coming to Know Oneself: A Study of Jewish-Catholic Dialogue at the Congregational Level”

Research Interest Group
Peter Gilmour, “Text and Context of ‘The Passion of Christ’” and
Carol Lakey Hess, “Fiction and the Public Search for Truth”

Research Interest Group
Rebecca L. Davis, “Perpetuating Justice: Transformative and Emancipatory Pedagogies” and
Nam Soon Song, “Self-Cultivation and Christian Education: Exploring Self-Cultivation in the Life and Teaching of Jesus

Research Interest Group
Leona M. English, Mario O. D’Souza, and Leon Chartrand, “Religious Education Journals on Two Sides of the Atlantic—Are We Alike or Different?” and
Boyung Lee, “Decolonizing Bible Studies: A Postcolonial Challenge to Contextual Pedagogy”

Sunday November 6, 8:00- 9:15 p.m.

Workshop
Christine Gapes, “Braiding Learning: Weaving Mats and Eating Kim-Chee Pie”

Workshop
Karen J. Markin, “My Story, Your Story—Journeys of Reverence”

Colloquia
Jane Struvoka, “Confirmation through the Contextual Lens: Rethinking the Practice of Confirmation in the Slovak Lutheran Church” and
Anne Carter Walker, “Contexts for the Support of Agency and Vocation”

Colloquia
Barbara Fleischer, “St. Gabriel’s Parish: A Case Study in Communal Praxis” and
Kevin Lawson, “the Impact of Long-term Small Group Participation: 40 Years in a Women’s Bible Study and Prayer Group.”

Research Interest Group
Cheryl Magrini, “Ethnographic Inter-textual Voicing in Children’s Storyboard Art: Biblical Meal Stories Interpreted through the Practice of Hospitable Pedagogy” and
Simone A. deRoos, “Young Children’s God Concepts: Influences of Attachment and Socialization in a Family and School Context”

Research Interest Group
Paulette Isaac, “Toward a Scriptural and Cultural Context of Adult Education in the African American Church: A Health Application” and
Richelle B. White, “Christian Education Theoryfor the Hip-Hop Generation”

Research Interest Group
Kathleen O’Gorman, “The Natural World as a Religious Educator” and
Mark Markuly, “Literacy of the Heart: Finding a Language for the Affective Dimension of Religious Education”

James Michael Lee will be remembered for his significant contributions to religious education. Custom during the annual meeting is to recognize members who have retired during the past year and to remember members who have passed on since the last meeting. If you or someone you know are retiring or if you know of a member who has recently died, please contact Lawanda Smith with this information.