April 6, 2022
Dear friends and colleagues:
As we look forward to the annual meeting of the Canadian Theological Society, I wanted to update you on some newer business with which the Executive has busied itself over the past year. I also am pleased to share with you the exciting program of the annual meeting, which will be held online May 24-26.
Dignity, Equity, and Justice
The Executive has taken further strides in developing policies that will attract and retain a diverse set of participants, leaders, and theological inquiries at the CTS. The Dignity, Equity, and Justice Committee has taken the lead in identifying critical tools and practical outcomes in the Society for strengthening its practices of scholarly inquiry, programming, publication, networking, and professional formation. The Executive has developed policy to ensure the Society’s commitment to these principles and will also be introducing a bylaw change for members to vote on at the AGM, which aims to regularize the role of Chair of the DEJ Committee on Executive.
Nominations Committee
Almost all positions on Executive are coming to the end of their term, including Vice-President, Program Officer, Treasurer, Secretary, and Student Representative. Please consider putting your name forward or nominating a colleague for these positions. This is a collegial group of scholars and the work of shaping theology in Canada is a rewarding venture. Please forward your nominations to the Chair of the Nominations Committee, Will Sweet: wsweet@stfx.ca .
Annual Meeting Program
The theme of this year’s annual meeting is Remembering Trauma, Imagining Hope. This theme was occasioned by the discovery of over two thousand unmarked graves in former church-run residential schools last summer.
Clearly this theme is one that resonated with the Society as almost all papers and panels at this year’s annual meeting are concerned with questions of repentance, reconciliation, liberation, and intersectional forms of oppression and injustice. Two sessions of the program are dedicated specifically to Dignity, Equity, and Justice. We will also hosting a viewing and a special roundtable on Pope Francis’ Apology to residential school survivors. Our Newman Lecture, by the remarkable The Rev. Dr. Frederick Ware, a foremost scholar of Black Theology, is certain to enhance and deepen our conversations.
Solidarity with Ukraine
As we think on themes of trauma and hope and pray for just peace in the world, we wish to express our solidarity with Ukraine and members of the Ukrainian diaspora during this time of war and suffering. We think of the churches and seminaries in Ukraine and in Canada, especially of St. Andrew’s College Faculty of Theology in Winnipeg and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in Toronto, and we extend to them our prayers that this war may soon end and that the important work of healing, reconciliation, and peacebuilding may soon begin.
A Word of Thanks
Finally, I wish to thank all the members of Executive for being such a hard-working, kind, intelligent, and cheerful group of scholars. I am deeply enriched by their collegiality and for making my role so easy and delightful. I look forward to seeing you, to hearing your scholarly papers, and especially to imagining hope together!
With every good wish,
Jane Barter
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