After a century of ecumenism, where are we? Most scholars date the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement to the 1910 Edinburgh Conference, where church leaders gathered to forge a way forward for greater cooperation in missionary endeavours. But 100 years on ‘mission’ – with its overtones of proselytization – means something quite different to ecumenists.
Along with the journal Concilium, my School is hosting a conference, ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness – Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century,’ June 16-18, 2010 at Trinity College Dublin. The conference will explore this and other significant shifts in global ecumenism. More information is available at the conference website.
We want to push the discussion of ecumenical issues beyond the rather Irish and Northern Irish habit of navel-gazing on the Catholic-Protestant divide. To that end, the conference has three major themes:
- From World Mission to World Christianity and Beyond
- Cultures of Faith and Public Theology: Ecumenical Witness
- Religious Pluralism and Interreligious Witness
Some of the world’s leading scholars in these areas will be keynote speakers, including Catherine Cornille, Linda Hogan, John D’Arcy May, Ina Merdjanova, Ram-Prasad Chakravarthi, William Storrar, Robert Schreiter, Ataullah Siddiqui, and Felix Wilfred.
Along with these invited speakers, academics are invited to submit paper proposals by February 1.
The conference itself is open to the public, at a cost of €100 [50 Euro for students / unwaged] by April 1, 2010. The cost is 120/60 Euro after.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Peter Admirand (ISE) at Dublinecumenics2010@tcd.ie.