| 15th March 2008: 0930-1600 Present Orazio
Ruscica, Italy Paul Hopkins via Skype 1. Welcome Sonja Danner greeted everyone and thanked Orazio Ruscica and his organisation for their kind hospitality and for covering expenses at the meeting. Apologies from: Marianna Szabo, Alfred Weber and Cath Sinclair. 2. Agenda The agenda was agreed. 3. Matters arising Nothing arising here 4. Minutes from the last meeting The minutes were approved 5. Membership List Membership lists it is necessary for each board member to revise the list. Please report back to Sonja Danner or Hugo Verkest the correct list. New members: Dr. Gabriel Pava, PhD. could be board member of EFTRE as vice-dean for development and foreign affairs in faculty http://www.unipo.sk/gtf/ University of Presov Greek Catholic theological faculty in Presov 6. Next conference The conference in 2010 will be held in Belgium, as they have an organisation that can prepare it. Venue: Torhout is near Brugges, has 200 rooms single/double with bathrooms at € 30 a night, shuttle bus, plenary rooms and group rooms available. Catering has to be arranged. It is OK to stay on for additional night. Theme : So far unclear what. Antipoverty program is the EU theme is for 2010. These points were raised in the discussion (maybe we must ask Genevieve about the theme)
Practical issues
7. CoGREE activities (1) CoGREE needs the active commitment of EFTRE representatives because it is not an organization in its own but depends on the six member organizations and their investment for CoGREE to develop it further as a platform for common concerns and activities. (2) EFTRE can benefit from CoGREE because CoGREE brings together expertise and representation of different organizations and networks that have a concern about the importance of religious education in the schools of Europe and in other educational institutions as well as a concern about the right of each child to learn about religion and to experience religious education. (CoGREE member organizations beside EFTRE are: EAWRE: European Association for World Religion in Education, ECCE: European Conference on Christian Education; EuFRES: European Forum for Religious Education in Schools, ICCS: Intereuropean Commission on Church and School; IV: International Association for Christian Education). (3) To document a broader concern for the collaboration of CoGREE the steering group has decided to change the name of CoGREE into: Coordinating Group for Religion in Education in Europe. The change does not affect the existing acronym CoGREE. The steering group has also adopted a statement “Education and Religion in a European Context” as a common perspective for CoGREE. It consists of 8 points structured under A. Starting points, B. Education and Religion and C. What Religious Education can offer. (4) The Besturenraad, an organization in the Netherlands that supports the development and the policy making of Christian (protestant) schools has offered CoGREE secretarial support. The CoGREE secretary is Swier Frouws (e-mail: sfrouws@besturenraad.nl) and the moderator Peter Schreiner, both positions are confirmed by the steering group. (5) Future activities that will be discussed at the steering group meeting 27/28 June in Amersfoort include:
8. How do we organize the “mini-conferences” we agreed to run for teachers? Target: RE teachers Why: bring EFTRE closer to teachers, easier to come to conferences When: During Exec and Board meetings in host country, Friday before Saturday meeting Duration: 3-4 hours Program: Welcome, intro RE host country Input on RE in respective countries Workshops, good practice, one umbrella theme? Summary of workshops, written for distribution Small scale social evening Fee: Symbolic, depending on convenience and what is included, ¤ 10 suggested May need to be flexible when to do this, must mention the European dimension, why and how Europeization takes place For this Board period, we will try this and evaluate it for the next General Assembly All are prepared to contribute. We could use students for translation. 9. How can we develop a dialogue inter-religions in the classroom This is a follow up of the Budapest conference. In order to help the inter religious and intra religious dialogue; teachers need to create a good climate and be prepared to dare start the dialogue. The students’ integrity needs to be protected. One challenge is how to get students who are not part of the modern project to participate in the dialogue. EFTRE can provide a collection of links, and a forum for pupils to communicate across the faiths. Is it possible for EFTRE to connect people and schools? Could we use the Children Talking database on www.natre.org.uk? And expand it across countries? Funding is possible when pupils are involved. We need to get this on the newsletter. Parental consent is an issue in some countries. Nils Tidman will make a preliminary structure for this. All are willing to contribute with specific examples, and make a commitment to participate. Contributions of good practice to be sent to Sonja Danner. Relevant Literature: Building Ebridges: Inter faith dialogue for primary children using email at ‘The Religious Dimension of Intercultural Education’ The Council of Europe - Oslo June 2004 10. Could we consider some kind of “package”, mutually prepared to support the broad vision and development of R.E. locally and on a wider scale. This is a follow-up of the mini conferences, and a try to do something while waiting to host a mini-conference. Can we make up a package with good practice that is available to those who would like to organize this? The local context will be important. Norman Richardson will follow this up, by writing a proposal. 11. “Council of Europe activities”. On April 8 there will be a first dialogue meeting of the Council with experts and representatives of religious communities in Europe about teaching of religion in schools. Background: The Council of Europe has 47 member states; its activities are based on three fundamental values: democracy, human rights and the rule of law. As a fourth pillar the 400 INGOs can be seen that have participative status at the Council. In the last years there is a development in the policy of the CoE to take more into account the phenomenon of religion. It can be also observed that a more differentiated view on religion has been brought forward. This can be deocumented by the content of two current recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE: Education and religion (1720 / 2005) and State, religion, secularity and human rights (1804 / 2007) Also the project on “Intercultural education and the religious dimension” that has been established in 2002 elaborated the importance of taking into account the religious diversity when it comes to intercultural education. At the moment especially two activities are important in this context and for the work of EFTRE: (1) The White paper on intercultural dialogue that will be published before summer see: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/whitepaper_EN.asp#P27_2138 A White paper is a policy document containing background information and proposals for action in a specific area. EFTRE should discuss the White paper and work out a position concerning the overall policy and the specific proposals. (2) On invitation of the Committee of Ministers the Council of Europe 2008 exchange on the religious dimension of intercultural dialogue will take place on 8 April in Strasbourg with representatives of religious communities, INGOs and experts together with representatives of the member states. The theme is: Teaching religious and convictional facts. - A tool for acquiring knowledge about religions and beliefs in education; a contribution to education for democratic citizenship, human rights and intercultural dialogue. Peter Schreiner is invited to this meeting and will report about the outcome and follow up activities. This kind of meeting is planned to be held on an annual basis. 12. Updates from the Council of Europe and CoGREE See report by Peter Schreiner - download Trondheim
18 October 2008 |
|
|
Page
last updated July 13th, 2008 |
| This
website designed and managed by MMI
educational consultancy |
