Call for Papers
The conference program will consist of invited plenary speakers as well as selected papers and workshops from interested persons. If you are interested in presenting a paper or leading a conference workshop, please prepare and submit the following:
> A brief abstract (approximately 200 words)
> A personal profile (two paragraphs)
Please give an indication as to whether you are offering a workshop or paper. The closing date for submission of abstracts is Friday 1 November 2013. Please reply to:
Conference Secretariat: AARE Conference, 41 Davison St Richmond VIC 3121 Email: jennycrofts@ozemail.com.au Phone: (03) 9429 2310
It should be noted that assistance for travel, registration or accommodation expenses is not available. Social program add-ons will also be at cost to the participant.
For further information please contact: AARE Conference, Jenny Crofts Consulting, Conference Manager, 41 Davison St, Richmond VIC 3121 Phone: (03) 9429 2310 Fax: (03) 9421 1682 Email: jennycrofts@ozemail.com.au Web: http://www.aare.org.au. If you wish to be included on the mailing list to receive the advance program and registration brochure please email your contact details as requested below to jennycrofts@ozemail.com.au or complete the form and fax to:
25th National Conference
Australian Association for Religious Education
C/- Jenny Crofts Consulting
Fax: (03) 9421 1682
interfaith 
Thanks for the clarity. Sounds like you all are walking some expanding paths there. As for school chaplaincies, well, that’s delicate. I think only Interfaith or “Inter-connectional” Chaplains are appropriate in public arenas. Emphasis would be on well-trained people with a good grounding in the essentials of many perspectives and good connections/relations with clergy in various traditions (for referral). Yet, there are times I think this is too idealistic and too problematic for working with youth. It’s hard to find a Chaplain who is not a Preacher of “one way,” of one “I Am.” Certainly I wouldn’t leave it to the state to decide who is most balanced in these matters! Good be with you.
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I am delighted that you have included a representative of Freethought. This is the new wave forward in anything truly “interfaith/inter-connection.” I do have one suggestion: at first glance I thought your conference was primarily Christian, since the cross is on the top of the logo and the “I Am” is clear. Just a thought. All the best.
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Thanks Chris, yes, the symbolism would appear to make Christianity primary, seeing the cross is located at the top of the logo. However, I’m assured that it’s not – possibly some hangovers from the time of a not-so-inclusive Australia…
Actually, there’s a big debate in Oz at the moment about the school chaplaincy program which funds Christian chaplains but not others, though I might add that the “ethics” subjects are part of ordinary curriculum in Australian schools along with religious education whereas the Christian chaplaincy program needs to be separately funded. Our organisation will be lobbying for Interfaith Ministers to be funded to teach comparative studies in Australian schools and to provide Interfaith chaplaincy.
One comment on the “I AM” – I happened to deliver a lecture on the great I AM statements to an Interfaith conference, “Is Jesus the only way?”. I quoted from the many great I AM statements from Egypt, Persia, India and even Israel, some made several thousand years before John 14:6. My feeling is that John was intending to communicate Jesus as having cosmic proportions, outside Time, of the same ilk, as, for example, Isis:
“I AM Isis, queen of heaven …
I AM all that has been, that is or shall be; no mortal man hath ever me unveiled….
I AM Isis, the mistress of every land…
I AM eldest daughter of Kronos…
I AM wife and sister of Osiris…
I AM she who finds fruit for men…
I AM the queen of the rivers and the wind and the sea” etc
[excerpts taken from the Cyme Inscription, Asia Minor, approx 200 CE]
or as Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita [10:8]
“I AM the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from me. Everything is born of me…”
or from the Upanishads :
“In the beginning this [universe] was the Self alone… [the Self] reflected and saw nothing but the Self and first said, “I AM”. Therefore, Self came to be known by the name aham, “I” and stated its conscious existence. [Upanishads, Part 2 (SBE15), translated by Max Müller,1879]
in Inter faith/connection
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