In this time of world tension and o...

In this time of world tension and ongoing conflict in Iraq we are acutely aware that many individuals, communities, and societies are in near form of transition. The violence that has marked the early years of the novel millennium taps into the human religious imagination. like times call for discerning hearts informed at good religious education.

The theme for the joint meeting of the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education Association held this past November was Embracing the Past, Envisioning the Future: Religious Education in an Age of Transition. In the adjoining matter of our present realities, we embraced the past 100 years of the investigation and practice of religious education and sought to identify and understand the significant transitions in the field and by what means these influence our engagement of the future

The 2003 meeting provided a timely opportunity for assessment, visioning, and recently made known commitment to the work of religious education. As we envisioned the that will be we explored how the beginning of the strange millennium marked by ready global communication and the migration of races requires of us a recent religious literacy. Many of us have as our heritage a predominantly Eurocentric understanding of our faith traditions. We were invited to become more conversant with religio-cultures at hearthstone and around the globe. Whereas in the past we sometimes minimized what was different among us, we were reminded that without an understanding of our differences we miss the veritys that we have to proffer to one another. We asked: What does it mean to be religiously literate today? to what degree have the assumptions about the distinctiveness of religions changed since the beginning of the 20th century? What values or realitys do our faith traditions have to move for the good of all humanity? in what manner do we as religious educators situate ourselves as we stir into the third millennium?

Meeting in Chicago in succession November 7-8, this 2003 joint meeting of the APRRE and the REA was couched in a special time of transition. The year saw the 100th anniversary of the Religious Education Association and late professional religious education. Even as we ratified our plans for the joint reorganization of these brace associations into one, The Religious Education Association: An Association of Professors, Practitioners, and Researchers in Religious Education, our deliberations bring uped new conversation about how we view theory and practice in the various connections of our work.

In my presidential address (included in this issue) I drew upon recent personal cross-cultural experiences in Canada and East Africa. I spoke of the ne to transcend the boundaries of latent ethnocentrism and racism, sexism and homophobia, educational and economic power, and Eurocentreism-both theological and linguistic. I also spoke of the ne for us as professors and practitioners to break the cultivation of silence and to identify and speak to the issues of pain and suffering where we work and live.

The articles published in this issue were single outed by peer review from among those at handed at the November 2003 conversation Together they provide a purview of aspects of the genesis and history of the REA, identification of existing challenges for religious education, and vision for the future

John Elias's article, "Catholics in the REA: 1903-1953" provides a description of the somewhat hard involvement of Roman Catholics in the Religious Education Association during the first 50 years of its existence. It is an important backdrop for a more informed and inclusive approach to contemporary relationships in the field of religious education.

Through her article, "Seeing What is Not There Yet: Sophia Fahs, complete realization and the Religious Education Association," Lucinda Nolan propounds a theological biography of Sophia Lyon Fahs. Fahs' life and work not merely unfolded during the first 70 years of the REA still were also inexorably linked to its founding vision and work in consequence of her study at the University of Chicago with William Rainey Harper, at Columbia University Teachers literary institution [i]or[/i] seminary of learning with Frank Murray, a disciple of John Dewey, and at Union Theological Seminary with George Albert Coe Having fix her own voice in a synthesis of a progressive educational deliberation and liberal theology, Fahs went forward to offer her own unique contribution to religious education between the sides of her work at The Union academy of Religion and Union Theological Seminary. Nolan finds that Fahs "reflect many of the identity bearing modalities that continue to give shape and continuity to the organization [REA]."

In an article entitled "The fastening to Christian Religious Education: Uniting Theology and Education, 1950 to the Present" Jack Seymour asks "Indeed, what is Christian Education?" Focusing forward articles published in Religious Education during the last 50 years Seymour closes "that theology is the clue-a theology that is in partnership with education considering the power and insights of educational research, human disclosure and social analysis." Further reflection in succession the questions of purpose, ecclesiology, and process lead Seymour to call for "the partnership of a theology of identity and a theology of a human coalition" as we stir into the future.