NAAE 2025 Conference will be held November 20-21, 2025, at the Huffington Ecumenical Institute (Hellenic College Holy Cross)
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.
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.
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.
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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
November 20-21, 2025 Boston, MA
Further Details TBA
DATE: November 16-17, 2023
San Antonio, Texas
EXTENDED: CALL FOR PAPERS
The 2023 Annual Conference of The North American Academy of Ecumenists will take place in San Antonio, Texas, November 16-17, under the theme, "Ecumenism in the Borderlands: Translating Worlds."
This conference aims to examine ecumenism's role at the edges and borders of human divisions, encompassing language, culture, and other boundaries within ecclesial communities.
Moreover, participants will explore the transformation of key ecumenical concepts and movements when applied in diverse multilingual or intercultural contexts. Special attention will be given to the US-Mexico border as a focal point for ecumenical inquiry and engagement.
REGISTRATION:
Registration fee includes all panels, workshops, refreshments, and meals during the conference (including a banquet dinner for participants at a favorite local restaurant). Please note the special Member rates if you are a member of the NAAE, and the Reduced rates for students, members of monastic communities, and contingent faculty.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
St. Mary's University is in a quieter area of San Antonio without hotels in easy walking distance. There are AirBnBs available in the area, as well as many hotels at various price points closer to downtown. Those NAAE attendees who will be staying on for the American Academy of Religion may wish simply to begin their stay early; others should note that taxis or rideshares to St. Mary's from accommodations downtown will be quick (10-15 minutes) and fairly inexpensive. Participants with severe financial limitations may inquire with us about inexpensive accommodations in a guest house on the St. Mary's campus; we may be able to make those arrangements if there are rooms remaining.
SCHEDULE:
Thursday, November 16
12:00-2:00 pm: Registration & refreshments
2:00-2:30 pm: Opening liturgy
2:30-4:00 pm: Session 1: Theorizing Borders and Translation
Emilio Alvarez: "Ecumenical Translation or Multilingualism?"
Matthew Vega: "Mestizaje and Blaxicans"
Kori Pacnyak: "Queering Ecumenical Border/lands"
4:00-4:30 pm: Coffee break
4:30-6:00 pm: Session 2: Regional Perspectives on Ecumenism in the Borderlands
Ryan Ramsay: "World Christianity and Curanderismo"
Shalon Park: "Translating Confessions: Korean Vernacular Voicing of the Penitent Self"
Binu Varghese: "Nepantlas of Faith: Decolonizing Indian American Christianity"
6:00-7:00 pm: Reception & President's Address
7:00-9:00 pm: Banquet dinner at Lisa's Mexican Restaurant
Friday, November 17
8:30-9:00 am: Breakfast
9:00-11:00 am: Session 3: Frontiers in Ecumenical Theology
Andrés Jaime Valencia Parez: "Towards Unity on a Frontier Road"
Mat Schramm: "Ecumenical Translation at Vatican II"
Raimundo Barreto: "Jose Miguez Bonino as a Borderland Ecumenist"
Tess Welch: "Challenging Dualism: Rethinking the World Council of Churches through Anzaldúa’s Borderlands"
11:00-11:30 am: Coffee break
11:30 am-12:30 pm: Session 4: Panel and conversation on local ecumenical initiatives
12:30-1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30-2:30 pm: Membership meeting & concluding liturgy
2:30-5:00 pm: Student Workshop: A Practical Introduction to Ecumenical Method
SAVE THE DATE:
ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024 • Sept 27-29, 2024 • Toronto - Toronto School of Theology
We are delighted to announce the new dates and host venue for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, to be held October 7-9, 2022, at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The conference will be conducted in a hybrid mode, with an in-person gathering combined with an option for remote attendance via Zoom.
Registration is now open through September, via the NAAE website- recommendations for meals and accommodation to follow (although participants are encouraged to secure their own accommodations as they see fit).
The theme for this year's conference is "Ecumenism and Asceticism":
It has not always been appreciated over the past decades of rapprochement between formerly antagonistic ecclesial communities that lasting peace cannot simply begin with dialogue or strategizing for the future of a relationship: it must begin with spiritual work and transformation within the communities that would take steps to reconcile. Peace and conflict research has made clear that identities and relationships alike accrue damage from histories of antagonism and the traumas of past violence, which cannot simply be set aside through formal accords as though they did not continue to constrain the available mentalities, emotional conditions, and very self-understanding of communities in the present. Painstaking ecumenical formation (which includes the uprooting of corrupt attitudes toward otherness and the weeds of rancor sown by history) therefore has to precede productive ecumenical engagement – even as guided and strategic encounter is doubtless crucial to ecumenical formation.
The 2022 annual meeting of the North American Academy of Ecumenists, therefore, will engage questions about the role of asceticism, broadly construed, in ecumenical affairs, for instance: formation for ecumenical engagement, ecumenical spirituality and liturgy, prayer practice as fuel for ecumenical compassion and attunement, virtue ethics and the theological anthropology of ecumenical engagement, the ways that closed or captive epistemologies foreclose on the possibility of authentic ecumenical understanding, the sins/passions/demons that exacerbate or incentivize corroded relationships and the ascetic traditions that confront such forces, monastic settings as venues for ecumenism or as training grounds for ecumenical virtue and praxis, and historical voices from the ascetic tradition that offer insights for contemporary ecumenical challenges.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Friday, October 7, 2022
2:00 pm - On-site registration opens
3:00 pm - Informal tour of the Cathedral
4:00 pm - Opening worship & welcome from NAAE and Cathedral leadership
5:00 pm - NAAE Presidential Address & annual membership meeting
6:00 pm - Wine & cheese reception
Saturday, October 8, 2022
9:00 am - Morning prayer in the Cathedral
9:30 am - Continental breakfast & coffee
10:00 am - Session 1: Asceticism in Contemporary Ecumenism
11:30 am - Break for lunch in Morningside Heights
2:00 pm - Session 2: Liturgy, Spirituality, and Formation
3:30 pm - Coffee break
4:00 pm - Session 3: Asceticism and Ecumenism: Voices from the Tradition
6:00 pm - Evening prayer in the Cathedral
6:30 pm - Banquet dinner for participants at V&T Pizzeria
Sunday, October 9, 2022
9:00 am - Panel & conversation featuring local ecumenical initiatives
10:30 am - Holy Eucharist at the Cathedral - all are welcome
12:00 pm - Final reflections & closing of conference
All times are in Central Standard Time
Welcome & Opening Worship (10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.)
Liza Anderson, NAAE President
Aaron Hollander, NAAE Vice President
Paper Session 1 (11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.)
Russell Johnson, University of Chicago
“The Gospel in a Polarized Society”
Lunch & Membership Meeting (12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.)
Beth Nicholson, NAAE Secretary
Paper Session 2 (1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.)
Kathryn Reinhard, Gwynedd Mercy University
“Recognition and Ecumenical Interdependence: Relationship beyond Division”
Coffee Break / Breakout Conversation (2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.)
Paper Session 3 (2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.)
Jakob Rinderknecht, University of the Incarnate Word
“Re-discerning the Body: Ecumenism in the Present Age”
Closing Worship & Announcements (3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.)
Aaron Hollander, NAAE Vice President
Liza Anderson, NAAE President
2022 Membership includes Virtual Annual Conference Registration. Non-Members and Students may register separately.
NAAE 2018 ANNUAL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
“Living Unity: Ecumenical Shared Ministries”
Thursday Evening, September 27-Friday Noon
NAAE Board Retreat, Hilton Crystal City Hotel, Washington, DC
(separate schedule for the retreat to be emailed to attending board members)
Friday 28 September, 2018 Afternoon: Arrivals, Check in
1:00 PM Conference Registration Opens
3:00-4:30 NAAE Board Meeting
5:00 PM Opening Worship
6:00 PM Dining Room Dinner
7:15 PM Welcome and Introductions
7:30: Plenary 1: Tom Ryan
Saturday 29 September, 2018
7:30 – 8:45 Dining Room Breakfast
9:00 AM Gathering Worship
9:15-10:30 AM Plenary 2: Sandra Beardsall
10:30-10:45 AM Break
10:45 AM-12:00 PM Plenary 3: Mitzi Budde
12:00 Dining Room Lunch and Break
1:30-3:30 PM Panel of Ecumenical Shared Ministries Representatives
3:30-4:00 PM Break
4:00-5:15 PM Membership Meeting; Recognition of Students
6:00 PM Reception
6:30 PM Dining Room Banquet and Speaker: Gerard Mannion
8:45 PM Evening Worship Vice President
Sunday 30 September, 2018
7:30-8:45 AM Dining Room Breakfast
8:45-10:00 AM Plenary 5: William McDonald
10:00-10:15 Conclusion, Thanks, and Looking toward NAAE 2019, Montreal, Quebec
10:15-11:15 PM Closing Worship
11:45-12:45 PM Dining Room Lunch / NAAE Board Meeting
Departures
Worship in Ecumenical Contexts: A Once and Future Vision
What Have We Learned? What are our Limits – and Future Possibilities?
2017, September 22-24
Dover, Massachusetts
Worship in Ecumenical Contexts: A Once and Future Vision
What Have We Learned? What are our Limits – and Future Possibilities?
2016, September 23-25
Decatur, Georgia
Commemorating the Reformation: Churches Looking Together Toward 2017 – and Beyond
2015, September
Niagara Falls, Canada
The Church: Toward a Common Vision II
2015 Annual Conference Schedule
2014, September 26-28
Burbank, California
The Church: Toward a Common Vision
2014 Annual Conference Schedule
2013, September 27 - 29
Chicago, Illinois
The Emerging Face of Being One: Exploring Various Models of Christian Unity
2012, September 21 – 23
Halifax, Nova Scotia
The Ecumenical Legacy of the Second Vatican Council Student Essay Contest
2011, September 23 - 25
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Called Together: Identity, Accountability, Hospitality Student Essay Contest
2010, September 24 - 25
Montreal, Quebec
The Next 100 Years: New and Renewed Strategies for the Ecumenical Mission Student Essay Contest
2009, September 25-27,
Washington, DC
The Ethical Horizon from an Ecumenical Perspective Student Essay Contest
2008, September 26 - 28
St. Louis, Missouri
Ecumenical Ecclesiology: One Church of Christ for the Sake of the World
Student Essay Contest
2007, September 28 - 30
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Interpreting the Scriptures Together: Seeking the Visible Unity of the Church
2006, September 22 - 24
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Eucharist: Sign and Source of Unity?
2005, September 23 - 25
Jamaica Estates, New York
Forgiveness and the Healing of Memories: The Ecumenics of Reconciliation
2004, September 24 - 26
Columbus, Ohio
The Church: Its Faith and Unity
2003, September 26 - 28
Pierrefonds, Quebec
Christ and Culture Revisited
2002, September 27 - 29
Lansdowne, Virginia
Professing Christ: The Church and Faithfulness in a Religiously Plural Society
2001, September 28 - 30
St. Petersburg, Florida
Justification: Soteriological and Ecclesiological Implications
2000, September 29 - October 1
St. Louis, Missouri
The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification: Ecumenical Implications
1999
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Gathered in Christ: New Companions, New Questions
1998
Cincinnati, Ohio / Covington, Kentucky
Renewing the Vision, Revitalizing the Challenge
1997
Toronto, Ontario
The Papacy: Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone to Christian Unity
1996
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Reconciling Memories: Building an Ecumenical Future
1995
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
From Dialogue to Decision: What Further is Required for Full Communion?
1994
Pasadena, California
Gospel Shaping Culture: Dynamics of Unity and Division
