Speakers like Faried Essack, Vuyani Vellem, Stuart Bate and Annalet van Schalkwyk will speak on the topic and a wide array of forum sessions will look into specific case studies and focus areas.

Download our brochure here.

Hope to see you at SAMS 2012.

]]> http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/all-the-info-you-need-for-sams2012-join-us-from-tomorrow-at-unisa/feed/ 0 Reggie http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/joint-theological-conference-2012-call-for-papers-missiology/ http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/joint-theological-conference-2012-call-for-papers-missiology/#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:29:16 +0000 Reggie Nel http://missionalia.wordpress.com/?p=178 ]]> As you might know, we as the community of scholars and practitioners are gearing up for the International Assembly of the IAMS in Toronto, Canada, August 2012 (Toronto 2012).

Recently we as standing committee of the Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS) resolved to extend an invitation to all our colleagues and those in the various social sciences, to join forces, in research on the very relevant theme, nl:

Migration, Human Dislocation, and the Good News:

Margins as the Center in Christian Mission

 We found this theme of Toronto 2012 to be extremely relevant for our context, although we also recognize that we all might approach this from different angles and levels. Of course, our different contexts also play a role in these variations; we feel that this should be affirmed.

Hence, we hereby want to invite you to participate in a Regional Research Collaboration, in presenting current research to address these pressing themes for our context, but also, in line of the theme for Toronto 2012. It means that we envision working together on this theme, yet also allow for local, paradigmatic and methodological particularities. In this respect, we would encourage joint contributions; in particular, those which contribute to our practice as missiologists, but also congregations, mission movements and individual practitioners in the field. We however remain conscious of the academic level and conventions in our discipline as we prepare for Toronto 2012.

In view of the aforementioned we envision the following process:

1) You notify us of your intention to participate in the collaboration: ASAP

2) You send us (SAMREC) info@missionalia.org.za an abstract, as well as an abstract to the IAMS secretariat, secretary@missionstudies.org by 31 January 2012

3) You send us (SAMREC) info@missionalia.org.za an first draft, as well to the IAMS secretariat, secretary@missionstudies.org, by 01 June 2012.

4) At the Joint Conference 22 June 2012 and IAMS assembly, August 2012, you present the full paper,

5) You receive feedback and we submit it for peerreview at Missionalia, to be published in November 2012, edition.

Let’s join hands to make a difference in our continent.

The Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS) aims at critical participation in, but also scholarship and transformation of this important interplay. As a community, we concede our participation in the aforementioned legacy, but we also share a commitment to reflect on this and continue on a pilgrimage of transformation.  Our journal and conferences, as well as various other forms of engagement attest to this commitment. One of our new exiting developments is a conversation by and with a younger generation of activists, thinkers and bloggers, face to face, as well as through various social media platforms.

Annual conference 2012

With this in mind, SAMS invites you to join us in this endeavour at our annual congress 17-20 Jan 2012, at University of South Africa (Unisa) in Tswane, South Africa, by presenting fresh research and stories, reflecting a Social and/or Missiological analysis of Religion and Empire, in Southern Africa and the rest of the continent.  Our focus would be developments the last decade, with a focus on the role of religious communities.

We welcome papers and case studies, addressing this focus through themes ranging from interreligious dialogue, Christian-Muslim joint action, African Traditional Religion perspectives, Migration, Xenophobia and Religion, Pentecostal and Charismatic studies, Faith and the Public square, Popular faith and social media, local faith communities and peace, Religious communities and ecolocy, etc. On the basis of the themes emerging from abstracts and paper proposals, we will structure the format of the conference and explore the possibilities of  study groups and further collaboration.

Remember the first day of the conference 17 Jan 2012, will be dedicated to a multi-media, dialogue amongst cohort of emerging voices in dialogue on this overall theme. Send your ideas, as well on our blog and
Facebook page, Southern African Missiological Society.
You may follow us and tweet your ideas, via Twitter @missionalia

Timeline:
(1) Proposed topic, with 150-200-word abstract, is due by 16 Sept 2011.
(2) Draft paper is due by 13 Jan 2012.

Guidelines for writing paper: Papers are not to exceed 4,000 words, including notes. Writers will be expected to strictly adhere to the Style Guide for Missionalia.
http://missionalia.org.za

Process governing acceptance of paper:
All proposals and abstracts must be send here
It will be carefully reviewed by the SAMS Standing Committee, who will finalize the program.
Writers will be notified of the committee’s decision before 30 Sept 2011.
The draft papers will be uploaded on the member section of our website, on 14 Jan 2012 our for downloading and preparation before the actual conference.

The three sections of this book look at Bosch’s life from different angles. It does not present a definitive biography, but a range of perspectives on his praxis. In the first section a few close friends, including his widow Annemie, write about how they experienced him and what he meant to them. The other two sections were written by Willem Saayman and Klippies Kritzinger, who were Bosch’s colleagues at Unisa. They describe and analyse his theological journey from a racist Afrikaner nationalism into a life of prophetic witness to God’s inclusive justice and compassion. Drawing on some hitherto unpublished talks and sermons, the book gives a unique insight into the life of one of the world’s most influential missiologists.

About the authors

The two authors were long-standing friends and colleagues of David Bosch: Willem Saayman taught full-time at Unisa from 1978 to 1998 and is still attached to it as emeritus professor. Klippies Kritzinger has been teaching at Unisa since 1981. Both were deeply influenced by David Bosch as a theological mentor and academic role model, until his tragic death in 1992. He helped them grow and develop intellectually as they collaborated on various study guides and other projects, including the Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS) and the journal Missionalia. As a result of this, they are well placed to provide insight into how Bosch’s mission praxis developed and to analyse the interplay between his life and his thought.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, will hold its 13th General Assembly on 5-9 December 2011, in Rabat, Morocco.

The triennial General Assembly is one of the most important scientific events of the African continent. It provides the African social science research community with a unique opportunity to reflect on some of the key issues facing the social sciences in particular, and Africa and the world at large. The theme of the scientific conference of the 13th CODESRIA General Assembly is: Africa and the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century. The 21st century, like the preceding one does not seem capable of breaking from the paradigm of the complex and the uncertain. Instead, it is confirming that hastily and carelessly proclaiming ‘’the end of history’’, as Fukuyama did, was not enough to legitimately dispose of issues and challenges such as those of how to understand the presence of Africa in a world where emerging powers (South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China) are increasingly upsetting traditional global geopolitics. The financial crisis and its social implications in some countries of the North and the increasingly global nature of many problems have raised awareness about the vital and imperious need for Africans to theoretically tackle the issue of Africa’s future in this new century. This underscores the legitimacy of an approach that is founded on a rupture: a clean break with Afro-pessimism from outside and from within to show that the new global political and economic order is not a fatality but one that calls for a breaking off with a theoretical construction of Africa which led to the posing of questions like that asked by the World Bank in 2000: ‘’Can Africa claim its place in the 21st century?” It is about understanding why and how Africa is still at the heart of the new global political and economic strategies, and what opportunities there are for our continent to reposition itself in the world, and reposition the world with regard to its own objectives, perhaps the most important of which still remains that of bringing development (also to be understood as freedom, as Amartya Sen has argued) to its people. It is also a question of deconstructing what some have called “the confinement of Africa in a rent economy” in order to more critically understand the opportunities available to the continent but also the constraints facing it, because the basic question is how, in the course of this 21st century, to oppose to the “invention of Africa” an “invention of the world” by Africa. Global Issues, Global Challenges Increasingly complex neoliberal globalisation, changes in intercultural relations at the global level, climate change, poverty, rapid urbanisation , the ICTs revolution, the emergence of knowledge societies, the evolution of gender and intergenerational relations, the evolution of spirituality and of the status and the role of religion in modern societies, the emergence of a multi-polar world and the phenomenon of emerging powers of the South are some of the realities of our world that are widely and extensively discussed by both academics and policy-makers. Some of these challenges have been identified in the 2010 edition of the International Social Sciences Council’s World Social Sciences Report, as major challenges of the 21st century. Discussions on climate change, like those on the so-called emerging powers, are much more important today than they were 30 to 40 years ago. If the Rio Summit on global environmental change was a key moment in the mobilisation of the international community to face the challenges arising from global warming, such summits were rare. However, in less than two years, two summits – the Copenhagen Summit and the Cancun Summit on Climate Change – have been organised, and another summit will be held soon on the same issues in Durban (South Africa). Major international programmes on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as REDD and REDD+, have also been launched. Furthermore, the creation of the Euro Zone as well as the rise of countries like China and India, have had repercussions worldwide. The questions one must ask are: How does all this affect Africa? And how prepared is the continent to face these challenges as well as those that will arise in the future? It is nowadays rather difficult to keep pace with advances in science and technology, including among others, in the areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology, genetic engineering. The challenge that Africa is facing is not only that of understanding how new scientific discoveries may have an impact on our societies, but also that of how to become a “continent of science” itself. The rapidity of the pace of change in virtually all spheres of social life at the local, national, continental, and global levels make it difficult to identify the challenges that Africa will be facing in the coming century beyond a few decades. Science itself is changing as a result of changes occurring in nature and in society. Moreover, science and technology, far from being neutral, have become key players in the evolutions that occur in production systems, trade, and intercultural relations, as well as in research and the formulation of responses to environmental change. The ability of science to anticipate, read and interpret the processes of change has increased over the years. The ability of humanity to follow developments taking place in nature, and to capture the major trends taking place within society, is likely to increase as science itself develops. Therefore, the list of questions that can be considered as major challenges for the 21st century is likely to change over time. Africa of the 21st Century Africa has entered the 21st century with huge unresolved issues, such as poverty, rapid urbanisation, the national question, regional integration, gender inequality, food insecurity, violent conflict, political fragmentation, and the fact that it occupies a subaltern position in the global community, and in global governance. The weight of the past is a major handicap for Africa. The effects of the slave trade, colonisation and neo-colonialism that Africa has suffered from are still being felt, as they have each and together resulted in the suppression of freedoms, the violation of human rights and dignity of the peoples of the continent, as well as the looting of human, natural and intellectual resources and what the pan-Africanist historian Walter Rodney called the “underdevelopment” of Africa. Among the major disadvantages of the continent at the dawn of the twenty-first century are also the low level of education of many Africans, the lack of modern techniques of production, transport, etc.., a fragmented political space and the extrovert structure of the economies. The institutions of higher education and cultures of the elites are strongly marked, not by a philosophy and development strategies guided by the interests of African peoples, but by influences coming from the North, influences that are more alienating than liberating. Nevertheless, the Africa of the end of the first decade of the 21st century is not exactly the same as the Africa of the early sixties which had just got freedom from colonial rule. The challenges the continent faces today are not exactly the same as those of the sixties. Although there still are issues dating back to the early years of independence, these are of a different order, and are today discussed with a particular focus and a sense of urgency. This is particularly true of the issues of governance and development, most of which are yet to be resolved. Yet by all indications, these issues have gained particular relevance and magnitude. The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the independence of many countries in 2010 has provided an opportunity for African researchers to review the continent’s performance in 50 years of independence, a mixed record after all. There have been many achievements in terms of social and economic development. Enormous progress has been made in education and health, and some countries have managed to establish democratic governance systems, especially after the wave of national conferences (in West and Central Africa) at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. The fall of authoritarian regimes, the end of apartheid, the change of ruling parties in countries like Senegal, and the recent profound changes in Tunisia (the Jasmine Revolution), Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa have made the promise of democratisation and development of Africa much more real. Yet even with the recent political transformations, governance issues are still part of the great challenges facing our continent. Africa is still beset by the paradox of poverty in plenty: most people of the continent are poor despite the fact that the countries they live in are rich in human and natural resources. Poverty is still massive and deeply rooted, and the processes that lead to exclusion and marginalization of large segments of African societies are still ongoing. Exclusion and political marginalization of individuals, groups and entire social classes are, as we know, among the root causes of many of the violent conflicts that have ravaged several African countries, while aggravating underdevelopment and international dependence. Some of the “remedies” to the economic crisis and, more generally, to the problems of underdevelopment and widespread poverty that have been proposed or imposed on Africa have, in some cases contributed to the worsening of problems that they were supposed to solve. Others, like the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as an antidote to food insecurity, or large scale land alienation in favour of multinational companies producing food crops or crops to obtain bio-fuels, raise significant political, ethical and health concerns, making the land question more complex. Commodification, and attempts to subject almost all spheres of nature and society, including human organs, forest resources, and the social sciences themselves, to a market logic pose enormous challenges for science and for society, even if in some respects, the process has directed the flow of precious financial and human resources to some key issues and led to major discoveries that could enhance social progress. However, by all indications, with the exception of a few, the countries of the South are still at the level of receivers / consumers in the overall relationship that is behind these processes, or at best in the role of “passengers” rather than “drivers” of the process of globalisation. Reflections should also focus on issues such as the high mobility of African people, both within and outside of the continent, and its consequences in terms of citizenship rights, and its impacts on gender relations; the issues of climate change, natural resource management and food security; the recurrent problem of African integration with a focus on the issue of a common currency and common borders; or yet again the governance of African cities, since a number of prospective studies have identified urbanization as a major trend in the evolution of the continent. These issues are likely to continue to determine the evolution of the continent. Special attention should be paid to higher education, given the importance, and the uniqueness of the role that knowledge plays in development, and its ability to influence the whole system. Isn’t the “vulnerability” of Africa the result of its marginal position in the world of knowledge? With the ongoing changes in higher education around the world and the weakening of many African universities as a result of both deep crises and twenty years of structural adjustment, brain drain and sheer negligence on the part of the State, African research has encountered considerable difficulties in its attempts to study and interpret these events and more. New technologies, especially ICTs play one of the most crucial roles in social, economic and political developments of the continent. For instance, the mobile phone and FM radio stations played an important role in the political and social movements in Senegal at the turn of the Millennium. Faced with restrictions on political debates in many countries such as Tunisia, we saw the importance of the Internet, including social media and Internet-based sites such as Facebook and Twitter as spaces for democratic struggles involving thousands of highly educated but unemployed urban youth. Meanwhile, the governance of the Internet, a space managed mainly by private multinational companies of a new type (Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc…), remains an unresolved issue. Therefore the question is: Will this be Africa’s century, as it is sometimes claimed? A better way to put more or less the same question is to ask: How can Africa take charge of its future and make this century the one of its renaissance? But what does it mean to make the 21st century the century of Africa and what does that imply? How could the social sciences and humanities address the challenges that we already know, and what types of improvements are required in the African higher education and research systems in order for them to better prepare Africa to face the challenges of the coming decades of this century? What is the role of intellectuals in general and CODESRIA in particular in addressing these challenges? The theoretical issues are very important. The production of knowledge informed by and is relevant to the social realities in Africa has always been the ambition of CODESRIA and of all the great intellectuals of the continent. The intellectual struggles of Africa and the global South against the consequences of Western domination are far from having been won. The scientific division of labour in which Africa is still mainly seen as a purveyor of raw materials of little use to the transformation of African societies is still in force. The epistemological agenda of the continent must continue to include the transformation of the dominant epistemological order which favours the West and penalizes the South, and Africa in particular. The valorization of the intellectual heritage and contributions of great thinkers from Africa and its Diaspora, such as Ibn Khaldoun, Ibn Battuta, El-Bakri, Ali Idrissi, Ahmed Baba, Marcus Garvey, WEB Du Bois, Cheikh Anta Diop, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ruth First, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, CLR James, Abdul Rahman Babu, Sembene Ousmane, Fela Kuti, Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, Archie Mafeje, Bernard Magubane, Samir Amin, Claude Ake, Ali El-Kenz, Fatima Mernisi, Mahmood Mamdani, Amina Mama, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Paulin Hountondji, Jean-Marc Ela, Thandika Mkandawire, Fatou Sow, Issa Shivji, Ifi Amadiume, Oyeronke Oyewumi and Omafume Onoge (the list is long), must continue to be a part of our priorities. So must be the South-South and South-North dialogue.

The Casablanca Conference, 50 Years On

The 13th CODESRIA General Assembly takes place shortly after many African countries have celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their independence. It is also being organised, 50 years after the holding of the 1961 Casablanca Conference that brought together Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Mwalimu Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Modibo Keita (Mali), Ferhat Abbas (Algeria) and other leaders of newly independent African states and national liberation movements, to discuss the future of the Africa. The “Casablanca Group”, as they were known, formed the progressive camp. The Casablanca Conference which was hosted by King Mohammed V of Morocco, was a very important milestone in the process that led to the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. The holding of the 13th CODESRIA General Assembly in Morocco provides an opportunity for the African social science community to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this conference, and to pay tribute to the founding fathers and mothers of the OAU that later became the African Union (AU) a few decades later, and ask the question as to how to reinvigorate the African integration process, as well as that of how to renew our collective commitment to realise the continental integration project. The Organisation of the General Assembly The General Assembly of CODESRIA will be organised in three parts: the first part is a scientific conference on the theme Africa and the Challenges of the 21st Century. This part will be organised in plenary and parallel sessions. A number of leading scholars from Africa, the Diaspora and other parts of the global South, as well as representatives of partner institutions in the North will also be invited to participate in the conference. Provision will be made for autonomous initiatives of individuals and research institutions who are interested in organising panels to do so if they are able to mobilise the resources required for that. The second part is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Casablanca Conference, and the third and last part is the business session devoted to discussions on the institutional life of CODESRIA: presentation and discussion of the reports of the President, the President of the Scientific Committee, and the Executive Secretary of CODESRIA; the new strategic plan and research priorities for the coming years; amendments to the CODESRIA Charter; and election of a new Executive Committee as well as a new President and Vice President of CODESRIA.

Below is an indicative list of sub-themes around which the scientific conference will be organised:

• Thinking the future, reinventing our future;
• Renegociating Africa’s place in the world;
• African integration;
• Africa and the scientific and technological revolutions;
• The future of the social sciences and humanities;
• Strengthening African higher education and research systems;
• Climate change, adaptation processes and governance;
• Population dynamics and population policies for the future;
• Living together: local and pan-African citizenship;
• Making governance work for all Africans;
• Migration, citizenship and identity;
• The African Diaspora and global African presence;
• Governing African cities;
• Keeping the public sphere open and democratic;
• Transforming African agriculture;
• Industrial development in the era of neoliberal globalization;
• Managing Africa’s natural resources in democratic and sustainable ways;
• Africa and emerging powers: possibilities for an African strategy of engagement;
• Transforming gender relations; • Law, ethics and society; • Human rights and human security in the 21st century; • New security challenges and peace; • New religious movements in Africa and freedom of thought and expression; • African languages, cultures and the arts, and globalization; • Africa and the promise of a new democratic revolution; • New forms of hegemony, new forms of solidarity.

CODESRIA invites abstracts and panel proposals on any of these or other themes related to the main theme of the scientific conference of the General Assembly.
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st May 2011. Those whose abstracts have been selected will be notified by 30th June 2011 at the latest. The deadline for submissions of final papers is 15th September 2011.

Abstracts and panel proposals should be sent to the following address: CODESRIA General Assembly Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop X Canal IV, BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, Sénégal Tel. : +221 33 825 98 22/23 or +221 33824 03 74 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            +221 33824 03 74      end_of_the_skype_highlighting – Fax : +221 33 824 12 89 Email : general.assembly@codesria.sn – Website: http://www.codesria.org Twitter: http://twitter.com/codesria – Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/CODESRIA/181817969495

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The Theological Society of South Africa will address these questions under the theme, “A distinctly South African way of doing theology? Revisiting and gathering various strands of contextual theology”

Dates: Wednesday 22 – Friday 24 June 2011

Venue: St Augustine’s College, Johannesburg

Background to the conference theme:
Is it at all possible to address such questions? In former times it may have been possible to capture South African theological discourse in terms of major conflicts. Consider the contrast between liberal and orthodox/pietist/fundamentalist theologies before 1930. By the 1960s a clear conflict between apartheid theology (a form of Kuyperian neo-Calvinism) and confessing theology (associated with Bonhoeffer and Barth) could be identified. One may suggest that confessing theology culminated in the Belhar Confession of 1982/1986. By 1985 the Kairos Document focused on the conflict between prophetic theology on the one hand and state theology and church theology on the other. What is the situation in 2011? Is it appropriate to suggest that South African theologies have become issue orientated after 1994 – driven by long litany of issues on the social agenda of the church, each vying for attention? Or can one still capture the scene with reference to particular theological movements and/or ways of doing theology? In the 1980s the Institute for Contextual Theology defined contextual theology with reference to especially four mutually complementing discourses, namely African theology, Black theology, Feminist theology and Liberation theology. Since it was recognised that all forms of theological reflection (including apartheid theology) are necessarily contextual, contextual theology could no longer be used as a self-evident rubric. After 1994 other discourses emerged, including reconstruct-tion theology, African women’s theology, queer theologies, ecotheology and public theology. Are these discourses still complementing each other or are they actually in competition, vying for dominance? Consider the suggestion that there is a need to move “from liberation to reconstruction”, that black theology is one school within African theology (but not vice versa), the critique of African inculturation theologies from within the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, and so forth. How are these discourses related to the current interest in public theologies? What about the emergence of Pentecostal theologies, AIC theologies and the return to confessional (or denominational) theologies. Moreover, how should theological discourse in the academic sphere respond to the evident popularity of the prosperity gospel and the return to “family values” based on patriarchal structures? While one may still identify several conflicts, these are typically focused on particular issues (patriarchy, exclusion on the basis of homosexuality, stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS victims). One may even suggest that the criticisms are heard only within the discourse where it is expressed, since the various discourses have become largely isolated from each other. There is a tendency to maintain a respectful distance rather than to engage in painful confrontations. As a result, theological reflection is done in distinct schools, contexts and institutions. One may even suggest that theology has a matter of consumerist choice, with various “brands” each vying for attention or attraction, if not dominance. Is this description accurate? If not, how should contemporary South African theological discourse be characterised? These questions will be explored in both the 2011 and the 2012 annual meetings of the TSSA.

In 2011 the focus will be on revisiting the strands of contextual theology while the focus in 2012 will shift to relating (or gathering together) these strands to each other.

Additional considerations:
Papers on topics other than the conference theme, including reviews of recent publications by TSSA members, will also be considered for small group sessions.

The programme for the conference will also include papers for three “sections”, namely:

• “Transforming Traditions” (contact persons: John de Gruchy, Robert Vosloo),
• “Christian Faith and the Earth” (contact persons: Ernst Conradie, Andrew Warmback), and
• Christian discourse on ethics, with specific reference to teaching applied ethics. Colleagues interested in contributing to the envisaged section on Christian ethics should contact Louise Kretzchmar (Unisa), Etienne de Villiers (UP) or Piet Naude (NMMU).

Any person may participate in the programme. You do not need to be a member of the TSSA. Scholars and post-graduate students from other countries in Africa and other continents are warmly encouraged to submit proposals. Proposals may be submitted in any language. However, only proposals in English will be considered for plenary sessions.

The TSSA cannot support speakers financially, e.g. to cover costs for transport, accommodation or conference fees.

Instructions for submitting proposals
Please send the title of your proposal, a short abstract of 100-200 words describing the content of the proposed paper and your personal contact details to the conference secretary at the address mentioned below.

Please note the following relevant dates in this regard:
Final date for submission of proposals: 28 February 2011
Confirmation of accepted papers and pre-final draft of the programme: 31 March 2011.
The final conference programme including practical details on registration and accommodation will be distributed at least by 30 April 2011.

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the 2011 Annual Meeting !

Please note that the 2012 Annual Meeting of the TSSA will again form part of a Joint Conference of Academic Societies in the fields of Religion and Theology, to be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg from 18 to 22 June 2012.

Sincerely Ernst Conradie (Conference secretary: Theological Society of South Africa)

In another post, you will get more information about the themes, call for papers, etc.

Of course, you might also want to go to the Conference Facebookpage, by clicking  here

The venue is NG Stellastreet, cnr of Stella & Olivier streer, Waterkloof, Pretoria.

For more information, you also might want to drop us a comment or contact Jansie Killian jansie@cpro.co.za
]]> http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/annual-sams-conference-has-moved-from-jan-to-march/feed/ 1 Reggie http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/call-for-papers-whither-mission-after-2010/ http://missionalia.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/call-for-papers-whither-mission-after-2010/#comments Sun, 02 Jan 2011 12:21:22 +0000 Reggie Nel http://missionalia.wordpress.com/?p=148 ]]> The year, 2011 will be the celebration of 20 years after the publication of Transforming Mission, an important event in the life of SAMS. You might agree that 2010 has been an important year for mission in the world.

The annual conference of the South African Missiological Society picks up the question which Bosch (2004:518) left us with in Transforming Mission: Whither Mission? We will use the opportunity to reflect on important themes from the four conferences which were held in 2010 (as mentioned above) and their implications for the future of mission.

The four events from 2010 which will be under discussion are.

The merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in June 2010. Although this is not a missiological conference per se, it has important implications for the Reformed churches of South Africa, and the mission of the church was on the forefront of discussion at this event.

•        The Global Missions Consultations held in Tokyo in May 2010.

•        The Centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in June 2010.

•        The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization held in Cape Town in October 2010.

Papers can be presented in any of the following four tracks, which will serve as the lenses through which the above events will be examined:

•        Theological Education

•        Relationship with world religions

•        Eco-theology

•        Justice

Proposals for papers for this conference are requested to be submitted before 15 January 2010, with Jansie Killian

Here’s some more information on the programme, accomodation, etc. DOWNLOAD

For registration and all plenary sessions: Room 10, H van der Merwe Scholtz Saal, University of Free State Campus (between Old Main Building and Faculty of Theology offices)
Registration and conference fees: Any interested persons, including post-graduate students, pastors and other non-members, are most welcome to attend the conference. Conference fees: R300. Reduced rate for registered students: R200. Fee per day: R150. Fees include lunch (Thursday – not on Friday), dinner (Wednesday and Thursday) and teas. Conference fees are payable at registration. Cheques should be made payable to “Theological Society of South Africa”.

If you intend to attend the conference you are kindly requested to complete the form below and send that to Rian Venter. This will assist our hosts for planning and catering purposes.

Accommodation: Participants are responsible for their arranging their own accommodation