North American Academy of Ecumenists
2024 Annual Conference
Toronto, Canada: September 27-29, 2024
SCHEDULE
Friday, September 27: Trinity College
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM -- Conference Registration / Optional tour of the Toronto School of Theology
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM -- Session 1. Encountering the Local Ecumenical Environment: The Toronto School of Theology and the Canadian Council of Churches
5:00 PM - 5:45 PM -- Opening Worship: Agape Service with the Toronto School of Theology
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM -- Reception
Saturday, September 28: Regis College
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM -- Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM -- Session 2. Resistance, Reconciliation, and Relationality: Lessons from Indigenous Ecumenics
Chebon Kernell (Native American Comprehensive Plan, United Methodist Church), “Resisting Continuing Colonizing Violence”
Sarah Kathleen Johnson / Joshua Zentner-Barrett (Saint Paul University, Ottawa), “Germinal Ritual and Reconciliation: A Visual Ethnography of a Diffuse Art Installation in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa”
David Byrne (Centennial College, Toronto), “Round and Round We Ran: On Circles, Reconciliation, and Relational Conscience”
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM -- Session 3. A Reckoning with Past and Future: Remembering Rightly in the Americas
Alex Gruber (Fordham University, New York City), ““Our Good Friends and Neighbors”: Approaching Oneida-Norbertine History in Its Ecumenical Context”
Angelique Walker-Smith (Bread for the World / World Council of Churches), “The Leadership of Pan African Women of Faith, Truth-Telling, and Truthful Reconciliation”
Raimundo Barreto (Princeton Theological Seminary), “An Ecumenical Reflection on the Preservation of Memory and the Construction of Forgetfulness on the 60th Anniversary of the Military Coup in Brazil”
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM -- Lunch
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM -- Session 4A. Memory, Truth, and Reconciliation within and between Ecclesial Communities
John Klassen (St. John's Abbey, Minnesota), “Bridgefolk and the Healing of Memories”
Russell Johnson (University of Chicago), “The Next Word: Tutu and Bakhtin on Telling the Truth”
Abraham N'dungu (London Christian Fellowship / London Correctional Institution, Ohio), “Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Lessons Learned from a Small Ecclesial Community in Columbus, Ohio.”
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM -- Session 4B. The Theories, Methods, and Stakes of Truthtelling in the Ecumenical Present
Susan McElcheran (Toronto School of Theology), “The Holy Spirit and Rivalry for Truth: A Mimetic Perspective”
Andrés Jaime Valencia Perez (Catholic University of Valencia), “The Question of Unity and Truth at the Heart of the Ecumenical Journey”
Jaroslav Skira (Toronto School of Theology), “The “Holy War” on Ukraine and Modern Eastern Orthodox Ecumenism”
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM -- Session 5. The Doctrine of Discovery and its Legacy in North America
Archbishop Donald Bolen (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina, Saskatchewan)
Christine Jamieson (Concordia University, Montreal)
Graydon Nicholas (UNB Law School / St. Thomas University, New Brunswick)
Bishop Riscylla Shaw (Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Ontario)
5:30 PM - 6:00 PM -- Evening Prayer
7:00 PM -- Banquet Dinner at the Novotel Toronto Centre
Sunday, September 29: Regis College
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM -- Continental Breakfast and Business Meeting
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM --Presidential Address (Aaron Hollander, Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute) & Concluding Discussion
11:00 AM -- Many options for local worship
Monday, September 30: Truth & Reconciliation Day
Although the conference will formally conclude at 10:30 AM on Sunday, September 29th, Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Day will follow on the 30th, with many local events that commemorate the Indigenous Canadian residential school experience, witness and honor the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation. We encourage NAAE participants who are able to stay in Toronto until Monday to join in this commemoration, which is fully in keeping with the theme of our 2024 gathering.
Memory, Truth, and Reconciliation
2024 NAAE Annual Conference
After twenty-five years, the North American Academy of Ecumenists is returning in 2024 to Toronto and to a preeminent consortium of ecumenical education and lived ecumenical exchange: the Toronto School of Theology. As we consider the ecclesial challenges of today, we first commit to reckoning with the history of displacement, violence, abuse, and genocide toward Indigenous Peoples in which the churches are implicated – especially through the Canadian Residential School system as outlined in the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We also welcome conversation on questions of the churches’ involvement in or opposition to Indigenous genocide in the USA, Mexico, or elsewhere in Greater North America.
Second, and more broadly, we recognize that contemporary ecumenical perspectives often embrace the providential possibilities of Christian diversity, yet much of that diversity in the present is the product of past mistrust, suppression, violence, or scapegoating. This history is told differently, and often incompatibly, by communities shaped by their perception of others’ betrayal or abandonment of the truth. Such memories that alienate and divide need to be retrieved, expressed, shared, and valued, so that the story of what has taken place can be told together. This reckoning with the truths that animate communities’ sense of the world and of themselves is critical ecumenical work toward just peacemaking and sustainable reconciliation.
The conference proceedings will therefore concern (1) ecumenically pertinent dimensions of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, (2) analogous questions of justice and reconciliation posed to and by the churches elsewhere in Greater North America, and (3) other resonant questions around truth, reconciliation, and memory as ecumenical problems.
AWARDS
We are pleased to announce the recipients of two awards that are granted at the time of conference paper acceptance:
The Br. Jeffrey Gros, FSC Award supports student participation in the annual conference.
The Sr. Lorelei Fuchs, SA Award supports the participation of members of religious orders, contingent faculty, and others experiencing financial hardship.
The 2024 Br. Jeffrey Gros FSC Awardee, Alex Gruber.
Alex Gruber is a second-year PhD student in Fordham University's Department of Theology. He focuses on modern historical theology, specifically the United States history of the Norbertine or Premonstratensian Order of Canons Regular and Norbertine interactions with Indigenous communities like the Oneida Nation. Alex completed his bachelor’s at St. Norbert College (SNC) in 2018 and his master’s at Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry in 2020. He returned to SNC as an adjunct instructor, COVID-19 quarantine/isolation liaison, and housing area coordinator between 2020 and 2023. Alex has written for America Magazine and US Catholic.
The first awardee of the Sr Lorelei Fuchs SA Award, Father John Klassen.
Father John Klassen, OSB has completed twenty-three years of service as leader of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville. After a five-month immersion in Spanish language, culture, and hospitality of the community of Abadía del Tepeyac in Mexico, Father John is returning to the abbey to work in abbey development and to serve in a variety of ministries. He continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, as well continuing strong involvement with the work of Bridgefolk, a grassroots dialogue between Mennonites and Catholics.
REGISTRATION
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ACCOMMODATIONS
We have two blocks of rooms reserved at a conference rate: at the Novotel City Centre (275 CAD/night, farther from the TST but it is where we will have our dinner), and at the Anndorre House (335 CAD, right next to TST).
If you wish to book a room in one of these blocks, please contact the hotel directly and mention that you would like the North American Academy of Ecumenists rate. You are, of course, welcome to secure accommodation elsewhere according to your budget. The hotel blocks will be released back to general availability on August 21, 2024, so please book before then if you are planning to do so.
To make a reservation with Novotel Toronto Centre kindly use the phone number or email below. This will enable you to select your preferred stay dates between September 25 to September 30 and reserve under your group rate of $275 CAD per night.
Novotel Toronto Centre:
1 (416) 367-8900
Mention that you would like to book under the "North American Academy of Ecumenists" block.
To make a reservation with Anndorre House kindly use the provided link below. This will enable you to select your preferred stay dates between September 25 to September 30 and reserve under your group rate of $335 CAD per night.
Anndorre House:
https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/canada/the-anndore-house/torjd?corp_id=G-GEII
2025 NAAE Annual Conference
November 20-21, 2025 Boston, MA
Further Details TBA