Fall 2005 REACH

The following statement is the product of discussion by the Board of the new REA for purposes of explanation and recruitment. The statement can guide us in our meetings in Toronto as we stake out the future directions of this new organization.

The NEW Religious Education Association is an incorporation of the venerable 100 year old association (REA) of persons who have gathered semi-annually, published and taught religious education during this past century and the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education (APRRE), the group of professors, scholars and researchers who for the past 30 years have gathered annually as a guild of scholars building and sharing a body of theory and research. Several years of careful and intensive work by leaders from the REA and APRRE has been put into a plan of reorganization that went into effect January 1, 2005.

In the memory of many, REA’s golden years flourished in the 1960’s and ’70’s gathering hundreds of people in prophetic and innovative religious education conferences. However, in the last decades it most concretely existed in the Journal of the Religious Education Association and in an illustrious history supporting progressive causes as the educational voice of religion in the public life of North American -- plural, interdenominational and interfaith.

APRRE, while not declining in numbers, was definitely getting older in membership and seemed to be competing with the American Academy of Religion (AAR) for younger scholars who were coming with a more interdisciplinary range of interests.

The decision to bring these two organizations together into the NEW REA would establish a core population to both concentrate on the practice of religious education and champion the historic values and causes of the REA and reinvent APRRE to respond to the worldview of its new scholars.

CHARACTERISTICS
The board of the NEW REA, at a weekend together in Chicago’s mid-winter of 2005, focused two characteristics – membership and progressive education -- to respond to the challenge of reorganization.

First, as to the character of membership in the NEW REA. It is envisioned that persons will participate in the NEW REA from two vantage points. Practitioners from the faith communities and the public culture will both be inspired at the annual meeting to a see a broad vision of religious education as well as to share best practices of the profession. Those from the academic culture will come to the annual conference to both test their scholarly presentations and to learn directly what is happening in the field from faith community and public practitioners of religious education, as well as to nurture future scholars and practitioners.

Second, the NEW REA will continue to uphold historic causes in the practice of progressive, inter-faith religion and education in public as well as faith community realms. This happens with scholars’ multi and interdisciplinary presentations and mingling of faith community and public practitioners of religious education.

It is the practice of religious education that is the uniting focus of both these characteristics of the NEW REA.

THE STRUCTURE
To accomplish its reinvention, the NEW REA is intentionally and deliberately structured around three forums:

These forums do not designate the membership of the NEW REA so much as the focus of all the members on the PRACTICE of Religious Education

Both at the annual meeting and in activities beyond the annual meeting, the forum structure and leadership keep these three directions of the organization in front of us.

SCHOLARSHIP & PRACTICE
With these two characteristics, the NEW REA constitutes a unique organization among scholarly groups in terms of the union of content and context, theory and practice, scholar and practitioner. What is experienced in the faith communities and culture is taken seriously in the academy and what is advanced in the academy is communicated to and tested in faith communities and public places of religious education.

By its structure of an academic focus on the practice of religious education, a community of faith focus on the practice of religious education and a public, interfaith, global focus on the practice of religious education, the NEW REA will structure its programming, scholarship and publishing to serve and unite scholars and practitioners in the service of education in religion and religion in education.

ANNUAL MEETING
It is envisioned that annual meetings will have a core of professors and researchers whose academic home is the NEW REA. And it will have a larger group of practitioner members who want to bring practice to the critical attention of scholarship and shape scholarship to address the faith communities and the public sphere.

THE JOURNAL
The journal, Religious Education, will be a venue both for scholarship concentrated on the practice of religious education and the practice of religious education raising issue of scholarly concern. The new editor is committed to enhance both attention to practitioners in the essay reviews at the same time to provide engaging forum conversations for faculty and practitioners as well as solid scholarly articles.

This new organization truly seeks to be that unique group that gathers practitioners and academics and this requires very deliberate and intentional work during this beginning phase. A plan will need to be put in place whereby practitioners are engaged with professors through voice, leadership, and participation in the work of the organization. This will take planning "with" not "for." It will take identifying a representative group of practitioners and seeking their engagement. The organization has a standard rotation of cities: Chicago, Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, and Boston and the association will especially concentrate on these areas to build up it practitioner membership.

A viable conduit for developing such participation and voice will be the Faith Community and Public Life Forums, seeking to add practitioners to the leadership and to these Forum Committees, raising up and seeking out such leadership to begin a viable modeling. The question of financing participation is a major practicality for the practitioners. Some faith community staff members do have budgets that include funding for continuing education which keeps the possibility open. And, denominational/interfaith religious education groups might consider sending elected liaisons. Both will be encouraged with specific and intentional invitation.

The REA: APPRRE Nominations Committee is putting forward the following names at the Toronto meeting:

Faith Communities forum: Margaret Ann Crain - class of 2008
Global Communities forum: Burton Everist - class of 2008
Academic forum: Cate Sajik - class of 2008

The following is the recommended rotation and assignments for the members of the forums:

Religious Education in Public Life and the Global Community Forum Coordination Team

Religious Education in Academic Disciplines & Institutions Forum Coordination Team

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.
and
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).

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.
and
[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.
and
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.

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.
and
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.
and
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?
and
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.

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.
and
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.
and
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.
and
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.

Hotel Reservations:
To make reservation call the Delta Chelsea Hotel at 1-800-243-5732. Identify yourself as part of the REA: APPRRE conference Nov. 4-6 to receive the $139 CAD room rate. Reservations must be made by Oct. 15.

Transportation:

Currency Exchange:
All transactions made at the conference in Toronto must be made in Canadian Dollars. Currency exchange stations are located in major airports. When you make withdrawals from your bank account at ATM machines in Toronto, you will automatically get Canadian dollars at that day’s exchange rate. Credit card transactions will automatically calculate the current exchange rate.

Passport and Customs:
All travelers into Canada will need a Passport and must pass through Customs upon arrival at the Toronto airport. Passengers entering from the United States may pass through Customs with a driver’s license and birth certificate.

Mailing Items:
If you need to mail materials to the hotel, prior to the meeting, they must arrive no earlier than three days in advance of registration day. The best way to send packages of printed materials is to go through UPS or Fed-Ex, not the postal service. This is the fastest and least expensive way to ship packages. You should let UPS or Fed-Ex know they (UPS/Fed-Ex) need to clear the goods through customs and act as a broker on your behalf. The package will then ship to Delta Chelsea the day it arrives in Canada.

Dear Members of the Religious Education Association
An Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education,

As we are all aware, Hurricane Katrina has caused tremendous devastation and hardship for people along the gulf coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Several members of REA: APPRRE have expressed a desire to offer assistance to other members who have been displaced. Members will not be able to attend the meeting in Toronto without assistance, as their institutions will be unable to offer any financial support this year.

The REA-APPRRE Board of Directors has authorized me to make a special appeal to our membership for a travel/membership fund for Hurricane Katrina victims. We are encouraging members to consider a contribution for such items as
• the price of one of the meals (breakfasts at $11 each or luncheons at $20),
• 2006 membership dues (an average of $65),
• the basic amount for registration ($115),
• one or more night’s hotel expense ($139 CAD),
• or an amount to be used toward air fare expense.

Specifically we will offer grants at one of the following levels for anyone directly affected by Katrina:

1. 2006 membership fee (based on the sliding scale)
2. Toronto conference registration fee ($115) for those wishing to attend
3. Toronto conference registration fee and any accompanying fees (Saturday and Sunday breakfasts, men’s or women’s luncheons, hotel room, air fare) for persons who are scheduled to make presentations.

In this time of tragedy, it is important that we demonstrate our solidarity with REA: APPRRE members who have been directly affected by the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. Please mail pledge amounts in US Dollars to Executive Secretary Lawanda Smith
REA: APPRRE, P.O. Box 12576, Alexandria, LA 71315. Include a note denoting your contribution to the REA: APPRRE Katrina relief fund.

The REA: APPRRE Board of Directors has approved and is funding a special travel fund to aid our members who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. REA: APPRRE members are contributing to this fund so that we will be able to provide financial assistance. Specifically we will offer grants at one of the following levels for anyone directly affected by Katrina:

As an affected member, you may apply for one or more of these grants. To receive the grant(s), please make application by sending your request to Executive Secretary Lawanda Smith at rea-apprre@cox.net

In your conference travel grant request, please note the specific amount for which you are applying, including a breakdown of registration, meals, hotel, and air fare costs. Registration forms for the conference are available on the REA: APPRRE Website at http://www.religiouseducation.net In order to receive conference rates at the Delta Chelsea, I will need to receive your conference grant application by October 20. Please send registration forms to REA: APPRRE, P.O. Box 12576, Alexandria, LA 71315. Also by October 15, you will need to make hotel reservations at the Delta Chelsea by calling 1-800-243-5732.

Membership forms for the calendar year 2006 will be available on the Website and will be mailed from Taylor and Francis in November. The completed form should be sent to Taylor and Francis. Request for membership fee reimbursement should be sent to Executive Secretary Lawanda Smith at rea-apprre@cox.net.

The following reflection was written by Kathleen O’Gorman, who teaches at Loyola University New Orleans and lives in New Orleans.

I was a participant in the hurricane that visited New Orleans less than a month ago, an awesome and terrifying experience. I evacuated the city with two friends, six dogs, and two cats, taking refuge in a sturdy house across Lake Pontchartrain in Covington, LA. We got there about 3 AM Sunday morning. For most of the day, we watched the grief-filling hurricane approach southeast Louisiana and I feared we had not gone far enough. We went to bed knowing the outer bands would be whipping our refuge during the night. I lay in bed, frightened, hoping and praying the tall pines around the house would be stronger than the wind gusts that whistled and whined around the house. We lost power at 4 AM—the lights went out, air conditioning burned silent, the stillness of human engineering was profound as the wind howled and roared in episodic rhythms and cadence.

I didn’t sleep after the power went off—neither did my friends. But we all stayed in bed—quiet, silent, frozen in place, perhaps taking solace and comfort in our cribs like babies in their familiar, secure worlds. The storm raged and I recall thinking it would be at least two hours before the light of dawn would lift the veil of night darkness. It would be less frightening when we could see.

We got up and hugged each other and huddled most of the morning as the brunt of the storm bore down. We listened (thanks to transistor radios) to live broadcast accounts of people crying to be rescued from rooftops and interstates. People called in all day, reporting on damage from all quarters. Finally, some 12 hours later, the storm had moved north of us. We had little idea of the magnitude of suffering and loss left in its wake. No doubt you learned of this through media coverage.

I share the experience because I believe I must, having lived through it and witnessed first hand its devastation and grace. I believe this storm will emerge as the metaphor for the 21st century—an experience that instructs us across the spectrum of interpretation and action. It is of cosmological significance, ecological significance, sociological, political, economic, artistic, philosophical, religious / theological / spiritual, not to mention religious education significance. Here is an opportunity—indeed the responsibility—to pause and ponder the wisdom revealed in this visitation, this grand visitation.

I invite all of us to set aside some time at our meeting in Toronto to reflect on our role as interpreters of such events and how we might bring a unique, faithful, hopeful, and relevant wisdom to our communities and our world.

The following reflection was written by REA: APPRRE Executive Secretary Lawanda Smith, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina came ashore. Lawanda lives in Alexandria, Louisiana.

“Long, too long America,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn’d from joys and
prosperity only,
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing,
grappling with direct fate and recoiling not.”—Walt Whitman

The e-mails and cell phone calls began coming in the day Hurricane Katrina slammed into the northern Gulf of Mexico coast.

Just that touch of connection from friends was enough to reassure me. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be without any means of communication. In central Louisiana we were barely touched—physically—by the storm. We had a little wind and a little rain, and after the storm extensive telephone and Internet issues, but most of us in CenLa never even lost electricity.

Fifty miles east of us, trees littered lawns and roads and crashed into houses, 60 miles east saw roof damage, and much of the entire area was still without electricity a week after the storm. Barely 150 miles southeast was virtually obliterated, from the coast of Louisiana to the coast of Alabama. Less than 200 miles north of New Orleans, we breathed a short sigh of relief when the eye of the storm passed east of the city, though we knew the damage was still extensive. Then came Tuesday morning, when the levees broke.

Most of us here were numb. It’s not like we hadn’t been warned what might happen, especially if a Category 4 or 5 hurricane struck. Papers had been written about it, forecasters had predicted it for years, and by one account even New Orleans city officials said before Katrina hit, “We expect the levee system to fail in this storm.”

But for whatever reason, Louisiana just wasn’t quite prepared, and even if we had been, even if a finely-tuned evacuation plan had been carefully executed flawlessly, unless it is told in so many words not to, the human spirit clings tenaciously to hope. And so when the disaster really happened, we were numb.

For the first time I can remember, an entire city was evacuated. New Orleans became the proverbial ghost town, and all along the gulf coast more than a million people were left looking for a place called home. Many of them tried to find it here.

In the ensuing week, a myriad of emotions set in: shock, disbelief, frustration, anxiety, and yes, even anger—anger because we couldn’t communicate with each other, anger because the poor apparently had been left behind to weather the storm alone, anger because families who had little choice in the first place were torn apart and sent to unknown places, anger because the hurricane had hit at all.

When it became apparent Hurricane Katrina would be around much longer than the wind and rain, I found myself with dozens of other CenLa residents sorting through an old warehouse full of donations. We’d had to scramble to find places for all our new residents to live, scurry to find additional volunteers, muster our resources to meet every human need and emotion imaginable, including our own.

We weren’t as prepared as we should have been. One relief agency worker admitted, “We’re not equipped for long-term care. We just don’t have the resources.”

“We’re flying by the seat of our pants,” another agreed. We’ve never had anything like this happen before.”

And yet, here we were, sorting donations, training to be disaster volunteers, driving people to Laundromats, cooking hot food, installing new showers, making places for more students in already over-crowded schools, scurrying to renovate buildings that would become temporary housing. Here we were, in the words of a friend, improvising grace.

During the next week, individual faces emerged from the masses: the single mother now living in a two-bedroom apartment with her three children, parents, and aunt; the man searching out a home base to continue his business—or start it over; the college student who had nothing but her laundry and books—what every college student would have taken home for a weekend visit; the grandfather who lives in Alexandria but has not heard from his daughter and granddaughter in New Orleans; the man from the Ninth Ward of New Orleans who, though he had virtually nothing left, offered two sandwiches to the van drivers who had taken him to the Laundromat; the 80-something-year-old woman who lived by the levee in New Orleans. When she saw the water coming, she jumped into her car to outrun the flood, rescuing a 90-something-year-old man walking along the street, unaware of the impending danger. The stories of all these people became part of our own.

Two weeks after Katrina’s landfall, the whir of Coast Guard helicopters passing overhead were 24-hour reminders that it would be many long weeks and months before people could return to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Waiting may be the hardest thing.

It took a week of shock before our own grief set in here. On Saturday after the first waves of Katrina came ashore, I wandered around in the open market downtown in my city, mostly because of my images of the French Market in New Orleans. From there I went to a local coffee shop just to recapture a little bit of what had once been home, even for those of us who have never lived there. And I was by no means the only person with that idea.

“I want an order of beignets and a café au lait—in honor of New Orleans.” I almost choked on the words.
You see, for most of us from northern Louisiana to the Mississippi/Alabama state line, New Orleans was our city, because of all its culture and despite all its problems. It’s our city—for those who left, for those who had no choice but to stay, and for those of us to whom the city has now come for a time.

As I brushed powered sugar from my jeans that day in the coffee shop and sipped on the Crescent City’s famous coffee, in my mind I still meandered the sidewalks of Jackson Square, pausing to watch the performances of chalk artists and trumpeters and sax players and tap dancers dotting the streets of the French Quarters, lingering in the bustle of Café du Monde, strolling along the River Walk, browsing through shop after shop, tasting the Cajun cuisine for which the gulf coast is so famous, breathing in the scent of gumbo and hot oyster poboys wafting down the streets, picking my way through the French market, lured by the prancing horses drawing white carriages, flying kites by the Pontchartrain.

I still drove out of the city and strolled along the lapping waves of Biloxi, playing with a calmer ocean on Ship Island, the sea streaming down my face and salt water tantalizing my tongue, basking in the sun, with dolphins in the distance, a wooden break stand at the road (where one could both buy hot dogs and rent beach chairs), novel in hand, with a few others like me, getting better acquainted with the world around us.

In the corner in the coffee shop sat a couple from New Orleans, laptop open, searching every website still alive for any news about home—anything. Two girls ambled through the door, headed for beignets. So did a young woman, ordering just a bit of the city’s flavor for New Orleans friends now living with her. They had all come for the same thing I had—a little piece of home.

And then, on the wall across from us, something caught my attention, the distinctive of voice of a Mississippi blues musician, “I’ll survive.”

Maya Angelou writes of her own community, “It may be enough to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (including preachers, musicians, and blues singers.)”

Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, I got a first-hand experience when Rita slammed ashore along the Texas / Louisiana coastline and blew through central Louisiana.

Some people had to evacuate a second time for this storm. Some stayed here. Mandatory evacuations were issued for areas two hours southwest of where I live. Areas an hour to the south and west were under voluntary evacuation orders.

I chose to leave. To flee from the oncoming storm is to know one’s own vulnerability.

Three days later I returned, still feeling eerily cut off. We had no water and no gasoline. Trees were blown down on houses. Even businesses that were physically unaffected by Rita’s wrath were forced to close temporarily. The entire city was strangely and mysteriously quiet.

Two weeks later plastic bags still hang from pumps at usually crowded gasoline station. Parts of my own city have been without electricity for a week or more, and those that had power restored fairly quickly still have sporadic phone and Internet outages. I can still hear helicopters overhead, only one of the reminders that Katrina and Rita have changed us, perhaps forever.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Youth and Young Adult Faith and Faculty Director of Contextual Education. Boston College Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry (www.bc.edu/irepm) announces an opening for a clinical (non-tenure-track) faculty position with dual responsibilities for Youth and Young Adult Faith and Contextual (Field) Education. The ideal candidate will possess a PhD or equivalent, have some previous experience in supervised ministry or field education, possess a working knowledge of Roman Catholic pastoral life, be a scholar in the field of youth and young adult faith, and possess strong administrative skills. Please send a letter of inquiry, a curriculum vitae and three letters of recommendation to Dr. Jen Bader, Chair, Search Committee, Boston College IREPM, 31 Lawrence Ave., Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467. Boston College is an equal opportunity employer.

EMORY UNIVERSITY’S CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY invites applications and nominations for a tenured or tenure track position in Religious Education beginning fall 2006. Candidates should hold a PhD and be prepared to teach in masters and doctoral programs. Breadth in ecumenical and interfaith education is valued, with knowledge of and appreciation for United Methodist theological and educational traditions. Evidence of a constructive research agenda and commitment to graduate theological education are expected. A full description is available at candler.emory.edu/ABOUT/positions.html Send letter of interest, curriculum vitae, an official transcript of the highest degree earned (sent directly to Candler from the granting institution), and three letters of recommendation to Religious Education Search, c/o Mr. Dale Smith, Manager of Faculty Development, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322 or email documents in Microsoft Word to dale.smith@emory.edu. Review of applications will begin December 1, 2005. Candler School of Theology is committed to diversity as a core institutional value. Emory University is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Association of Practical Theology
The Association of Practical Theology (APT) cordially invites you to its Biennial Conference on “Practical Theology and its Subdisciplines: Pedagogies and the Implications,” which will take place at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, Friday-Sunday, April 21-23, 2006.

The conference offers an opportunity to explore through the lens of pedagogical practice commonalties and distinctions between the subdisciplines. We have invited scholars from six subdisciplines to spark conversation: religious education: (Katherine Turpin, Iliff School of Theology); worship/liturgy (John Witvliet, Calvin College); pastoral care (Kathleen Greider, Claremont School of Theology); homiletics/preaching (Brad Braxton, Vanderbilt Divinity School); leadership and administration (Tom Frank, Candler School of Theology); and mission/social ministry (Steve Bevans, Catholic Theological Union). The program will leave ample time for discussion of this topic and socializing in general, including a Saturday reception co-hosted with the Working Group on Constructive Theology, which is meeting during the same time. We will also discuss a proposal for a new major program initiative on Sunday morning.

We also invite you to attend the APT session at the American Academy of Religion on Saturday November 19, 2005 from 4:00 to 6:30 PM at the Philadelphia Convention Center, “Converging Disciplines: How I Got Interested in Practice and Context,” focuses on the “turn to the practical” in the fields of Bible, history, and systematic theology and its significance for practical theology. Michael Brown, Associate Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, James Hudnut-Beumler, Dean and Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Associate Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School will each talk about how they became interested in practice and context. Rodney Hunter, Professor of Pastoral Theology at Candler School of Theology will respond to their reflections, exploring implications for practical theology. The program will allow for ample interaction and conclude with a brief business meeting.

Many other exciting developments in the APT are underway, including a proposal to the AAR for the formation of a Group on Practical Theology that will offer an opportunity for greater discussion and presence of scholarship in practical theology at the AAR.

To hear more about this and other developments, to register for the Biennial Conference, or to become a member of the APT, we invite you to visit our revised and updated website for further information about program and other materials: www.practicaltheology.org

R E A C H
Newsletter of The Religious Education Association: An Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education	Fall 2005
www.religiouseducation.net

Contents
*Organizational News* Understanding the New REA Nominations	*Annual Meeting* Program Schedule Description of Breakouts Reminders and Information Katrina Travel Grants	*Networking & Resourcing* Reflections on Katrina Position Openings Announcements

Friday
8:30-12:00		REA: APPRRE Board Meeting
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
9:00-2:00		Registration/Welcome Table/Exhibits
Noon		Luncheons for Doctoral Students and Religious Education Journal Board
2:00-3:15		Opening Plenary: Religious Education in Faith Communities -- 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.
3:30-4:15 changed		Time for ritual from one religious tradition: Sabbath Service with Tobias Gabriel of Beth Tzedec Congregation of Toronto
4:30-5:45 changed		Break-outs: RIGs, Workshops, Colloquia
6:30		Banquet: Address by President-Elect Ronnie Prevost, Professor of Church Ministry, Logsdon School of Theology and Seminary, Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas
Saturday
8:30-9:45		Business Meeting 1 – Reports, Nominations, and Proposals
10:00-11:15		Break-outs: RIG, Workshops, Colloquia
11:30-1:00		Women’s and Men’ luncheons
1:15-2:30		Break-outs: RIG, Workshops, Colloquia
2:45-4:00		Plenary: Religious Education in Public Life and the Global Community -- 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 UrbanConcerns 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.
4:15-5:30		Break-outs: RIG, Workshops, Colloquia
7:30		Special session that will include general conversation on our personal and corporate responses to natural disasters
Sunday
7:30-8:15		Worship
8:30-9:30		Task Forces Adult Education: Jane Regan reganje@bc.edu Children: Karen-Marie Yust kmyust@union-psce.edu Liturgy and Catechesis: Ron Anderson ron.anderson@garrett.edu Asian/Asian North American: Tito Cruz / Eddie Kwok fcruz@fst.edu Greening of Religious Education: Kathleen O’Gorman ogorman@loyno.edu Ethnography: Margaret Ann Crain margaretann.crain@garrett.edu The Black Experience: Evelyn Parker eparker@smu.edu History of Religious Education: Patty Meyers pmeyers@Pfeiffer.edu Peace and Justice: Bud Horell horell@fordham.edu Class Issues: Susanne Johnson susannej@mail.smu.edu
9:45-11:00		Plenary: Religious Education in Academic Disciplines and Institutions --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.
11:15-12:00		Business Meeting 2 – Voting and Decisions