North American Academy of Ecumenists
2024 Annual Conference
Toronto, Canada: September 27-29, 2024
Memory, Truth, and Reconciliation
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.
We invite proposals that consider (1) any ecumenically pertinent dimension of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, (2) analogous questions of justice and reconciliation posed to and by the churches elsewhere in North America (such as the Commission on Truth in Mexico), or (3) other resonant questions around truth, reconciliation, and memory as ecumenical problems, such as:
Obstacles to truth-telling in countenancing legacies of violence between and within confessional communities, including echo chambers, epistemic bubbles, “alternative facts,” and incompatible understandings of what is true and real;
Methods for forging common histories out of contested histories (such as the “healing of memories” framework of Mennonite-Lutheran and Mennonite-Catholic dialogues), and the ethical questions these raise;
The singularity vs. the multivocality of religious truth, and whether multiple belonging implies or necessitates holding multiple truths simultaneously;
Examinations of successful attempts to move carefully from truth-telling to just and truthful reconciliation;
Indigenous Christian voices in dialogue about the above or other pressing ecumenical concerns.
We anticipate that all papers will be presented in English, for the sake of maximum accessibility.
Accepted conference papers will be presented at the 2024 Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada, September 27-29, 2024. Authors will be invited to submit revised versions of their conference presentations as articles for publication in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.
Please send an abstract of roughly 300 words, along with a CV, to the NAAE programs committee at submissions@ecumenists.org no later than June 1, 2024.
We are pleased to offer 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.
If you belong to one of these groups and would like to be considered for an award, please indicate your interest along with your paper abstract.
Registration for the NAAE 2024 Annual Conference will open July 1 and remain open until September 1, 2024. A discounted registration rate will be available until August 1.