Religious education, practical theology, and YDS: Close and historic ties

YDS asked Director of Supervised Ministries Lucinda Huffaker to tell us more about the Religious Education Association, of which she is Executive Secretary. REA has a visible presence at this weekend’s conference of the Association of Practical Theology.

 

I’m grateful to the YDS library for permission and help in creating a display about the Religious Education Association, which has strong ties with YDS and with the Association of Practical Theology, which is meeting at YDS this weekend (and which Joyce Mercer leads as President).

 

The Religious Education Association (REA) has a long history with YDS, one I’d love to highlight—and reignite.  I serve as Executive Secretary for REA, YDS Professor Joyce Mercer ‘84 M.Div. edits its international journal Religious Education, and Yolanda Smith was a Board member and President of the organization from 2011 to 2014. The quilt was created by REA members attending the 2012 Annual Meeting as part of the program design, for which Yolanda was responsible.  The quilt was her vision.

 

REA is an association of professors, practitioners, researchers, and religious educators that was formed in 1903 by Charles Rainey Harper, then President of the University of Chicago.  The first President of REA was the Dean of Yale Divinity School, Frank Sanders.  REA was organized to advance substantial research, probing scholarship and practical approaches to religious education. Annual meetings are held in major cities in the U.S. and Canada and attract almost 200 national and international scholars and practitioners.  

 

REA archives are housed in the Divinity School library, and that is why we are able to provide a nice display for the APT conference this weekend.  APT has strong connections with REA, with much overlap of members, and leadership drawn from REA leadership through the years.  The first president of APT was also the Executive Secretary of REA.  And Joyce Mercer is both president of APT and editor of the REA journal (which has been in continuous publication since 1906 and was edited by Randolph Crump Miller for a very long time.)