Work Groups

Work Groups are members who agree to collaborate together. They meet as part of the Annual Meeting, but they also conduct their work in a variety of ways during the year.  Presenters for the Work Group sessions at the Annual Meeting are chosen by each group or by conveners of the sessions.  New Work Groups may be initiated by request of members. (see Bylaws IX.1.c)  New Work Groups might start as a scheduled or informal conversation among several members at the Annual Meeting who then decide to continue and expand their work to include others who might be interested.

AANARE (coordinator: Peter Cariaga & Hannah Injamuri)

The Asian and Asian North America Religious Educator (AANARE) Work Group welcomes everybody who is interested in the exploration, development, and enhancement of Asian/Asian North American perspectives in religious education.  As a Working Group of the REA/APRRE, we gather to provide one another collegial support and to stimulate thinking and discussion for the generation of new scholarship and resources.

Adolescent Girls and Faith (coordinator: Emily Peck-McClain)

Black Experience (coordinator: Annie Lockhart-Gilroy)

As a working group, members of the Black Experience working group gather to provide collegial support, mentoring of young scholars, create projects together, and to think together about new scholarship and resources that are needed. Our annual gathering begins with introductions and a discussion of the theme for the next REA/APPRE annual meeting. The floor is then open for any discussions that group members would like to raise. All those who are interested in adding to the voices of Religious Education scholars that center writings and projects on the experiences of Black people are welcomed to attend.

LGBTQ+ and Allies (Coordinators: Alfred Pang Kah Meng and Robin Ferguson)

We are a working group that aims to build an international, inclusive, and collegial community of LGBTQ+ members and Allies within the guild and beyond. We welcome all who share in our hope of being a think-tank for queering religious education, as well as provide collegial support to cultivate the vocation of LGBTQ+ religious educators & scholars.

Diversity and Inclusion

The REA Diversity and Inclusion Work Group works to shape awareness of systemic racism and identify internal barriers to change.

Peace & Justice (coordinator: Carl Procario-Foley)

After introductions and general discussion, the Peace and Justice Work Group discussed possible ways of engaging the theme for the 2019 REA Annual Meeting, potential collaborative projects with other task forces, and brainstormed about other ways of highlighting the importance of education for peace and justice within and beyond the REA.

Religion and Education (coordinator: Callid Keefe-Perry)

Since its beginning The Schools Work Group explored the ways that schools can be an ecological support of all religious traditions, and how they can be a place and vehicle for growing intellectually probing, critically discerning, and spiritually oriented souls and citizens.

In 2018 we had a very engaging and productive working group meeting. There were twelve people in attendance. John Falcone and Ryan Gardner were the two members of the REA from the United States, and then we had two from Indonesia, two from Germany, two from South Korea, one from Turkey, one from the Netherlands, and one from Austria. Ben Marcus, from the Religious Freedom Center at the Newseum Institute, also joined us, by special invitation. As we introduced ourselves to each other, we also shared what we were working on and what our current projects are. This gives us an opportunity to make connections, network, and explore possible collaborations.

We also had a report from Moon Son and Dr. Hyun-Sook Kim on the status of our proposal for a significant grant from the South Korean government to consult with religious education stakeholders in South Korea regarding the development of religious education programs in South Korea. At least two new members of our group may be joining our team for the South Korea project, which Dr. Moon Son will be submitting in February 2019. We will be sending that proposal around to the group to see if anyone is interested in joining us, and also to solicit feedback from other members of our working group.

We invited Ben Marcus to share with us the work he did in Albania this past summer helping government, academic, and faith communities work together to create a plan and a program for the development of a religious education approach in Albanian schools. We had a very robust and insightful discussion about lessons he learned from that experience that are relevant for our upcoming potential project in South Korea.

Religious Persecution, Vicarious Trauma (coordinator:  Jennifer Haddad Mosher)

The Religious Persecution, Vicarious Trauma work group continues to examine a number of artistic responses to suffering in the wake of persecution. Using examples from Middle Eastern Christian and Eastern European Jewish communities, we explore how visual imagery and material space can be used pedagogically, rather than as a means of separation and segregation, as tools to educate towards common imaginative and healing responses to suffering.

Senior Scholars (coordinator: Bob O’Gorman)

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