Thursday, November 3

3:00 - 9:00 ELCA/Lutheran Seminary Professors

Friday, November 4, 3:30-4:45

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

Travel grants are available for students attending the conference in Toronto. To apply, contact REA: APPRRE Executive Secretary Dr. Lawanda Smith at e-mail rea-apprre@cox.net or lawandasmith@cox.net

E-mail Executive Secretary Dr. Lawanda Smith at rea-apparre@cox.net or lawandasmith@cox.net if you need assistance finding a roommate for the conference.

• The airport shuttle stops at the Delta Chelsea. Round trip price is about $30 CAD
• The Delta is only a few blocks from the subway.
• A cab ride from the airport costs about $40 CAD

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.

All packages must bear the following shipping label:

Delta Chelsea Hotel
22 Elm Street, Toronto, ON M5G 1Z4
CANADA
416-595-1975
Attention: Wendy Rose, Conference Services
Re: Religious Education Association/APPRRE
November 3-6
Churchill Room
Hold For: (Client Name)

Websites of interest:
Delta Chelsea Hotel: http://www4.deltahotels.com/hotels/hotels.php?hotelId=10
The Official City of Toronto Website http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/

Sliding scale membership fee to take effect with 2006 membership year.
According to the REA-APPRRE reorganization plan, we will move to a sliding scale for membership dues beginning next year. A sliding scale task force--Ronnie Prevost, Lucinda Huffaker, Diane Hymans, and Jack Seymour, and Lawanda Smith (ex-officio), with the approval of the REA: APPRRE Board, has developed the following scale:

$35 – less than $25,000
$55 -- $25-$45 thousand
$75 -- $46-$65 thousand
$85 – more than $65,000

This sliding scale will be effective January 1, 2006.

NOTE: To register for this year’s annual meeting in Toronto at the member rate, you must have paid the current 18-month membership fee of $75 for regular membership and $40 for student or retired membership. This membership fee must be paid by Oct. 1. Membership forms are available at the REA: APPRRE Website at http://www.religiouseducation.net

All REA and APRRE checking accounts have been combined. The checking account balance is $34,216.44 as of June 30. APRRE contributed a total of $ 14,981.27 to the combined account. $17, 524.30 has been received from Taylor and Francis for journal royalties and back issues.

Balances:
Checking: $ 34,216.44
Travel Grant: $ 13,859.96
Wachovia Investment: $128, 059.26

Total membership as of June 30: 477
International members: 115
Student members: 40

Fellowships Available: An international study commission on media, religion and culture (more info: http://www.iscmrc.org/) has been providing several full scholarships to doctoral studies for Catholic students coming from a variety of international contexts who want to focus their studies on the intersection of media, religion and culture. There are three full scholarships available for candidates from the Asia/Pacific context.

Full details (and all application materials) are available on the web at: http://www.iscmrc.org/fellowships/

Applicants must be members of the Roman Catholic Church (this is because the funding is provided by a Catholic foundation), but they can study at institutions throughout the world.

The fellowships are FULL fellowships, and the international study commission is developing a mentoring program for the latest group of recipients.

Interested students should go directly to the fellowship website or contact Dr. Mary Hess, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Luther Seminary, 2481 Como Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108 651.641.3232 mhess@luthersem.edu

The International Seminar on Religious Education and Values announces the publication of Religion, Education and Adolescence: International and Empirical Perspectives, edited by Leslie J. Francis, Mandy Robbins and Jeff Astley, as part of the Religion, Education and Culture series edited by William K. Kay, Leslie J. Francis and Jeff Astley.

Religious diversity, religious enthusiasm and religious misunderstanding remain at the heart of so much social, economic and political conflict in the world today. In this climate, religious educators have become increasingly aware of the significance of listening to the religious perceptions of adolescents, using the best research techniques pioneered by the empirical social sciences, including sociology, psychology and anthropology. For more information, contact C. F. Melchert at cf.melchert@comcast.net

Call for Papers: The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education (AULRE) will take place at Canterbury Christ Church University College from 12 noon on Tuesday 6th September to 1pm on Wednesday 7th September 2005. The theme is RE Futures: Debating the Opportunities and Challenges

Applications, together with offers of papers, seminars, workshops and presentations of good practice are invited from both AULRE members and other professionals working in the field of religious education.

Offers of papers seminars, workshops and presentations of good practice are invited from individuals, groups and relevant professional organisations. Both AULRE members and non-members may tender offers, either as individuals or small groups. Proposals should focus on place of research in the field of religious education. We are especially interested in case studies and examples of good practice. Offers may have either a theoretical or practical focus and should last approximately 1 hour. For further information, contact R. A. Bowie, Senior Lecturer in Religious Education, Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1QU UNITED KINGDOM phone: 01227 782884 e-mail: r.a.bowie@canterbury.ac.uk