ITMS 15th General Meeting
Guide to opening Sessions
Thursday, June 15 - 1.30 PM - 3.00 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 15
1:30
PM – 3:00 PM
A1. First-Timers Orientation - Robert G. Grip
Robert G. Grip is news anchor at WALA
television in Mobile, AL. He has served as chair of the ITMS membership
committee, 12th President of the Society and Program Chair for the 2013
Conference.
This orientation session is designed for those attending
their first ITMS meeting. The session will include a brief introduction to
Thomas Merton, then consider the meeting theme and offer a preview of
meeting events and sessions. The orientation is an opportunity to meet other
first-timers.
A2. ITMS Chapters Workshop - Donna Kristoff, OSU
Donna Kristoff, OSU serves as ITMS Coordinator of Chapters and is director of the Cleveland ITMS Chapter. A former ITMS Board member she is an artist and graphic designer who has created logos for ITMS conferences and writes and speaks frequently on Merton and art.
If you are interested in
discovering what ITMS chapters are doing, locating a chapter near you, or
learning how you might go about founding a chapter, attend this session.
A3. Creating a Community of Merton Scholars –
Deborah Kehoe,
Patrick F. O’Connell, Paul M. Pearson, Joseph Q. Raab
Deborah Kehoe
teaches English as Northeast Mississippi Community College and the
University of Mississippi. She is a frequent presenter at ITMS General
Meetings
and is Co-Editor of
The Merton Annual.
Patrick F. O’Connell ITMS founding member and
former president, is editor of The Merton Seasonal, coauthor of
The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, and editor of six volumes of
Merton’s monastic conferences.
Paul M. Pearson is Director and Archivist of the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University, resident secretary and treasurer of the ITMS and chief of research for the Merton Legacy Trust. He is editor of Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers.
Joseph Q. Raab
is associate professor of religious studies and
director of the Liberal Arts Studies Program at Siena Heights University in
Adrian, Michigan. He is co-Editor of
The Merton Annual.
This session will include a panel presentation regarding
the publications of The Merton
Seasonal and The Merton Annual,
the process for submitting to either journal, and opportunities to discuss
ways to support persons interested in Merton, contemplation and the social
issues of the 21st century.
a. Phillip Antilla - "Elias Becomes His Own Geography: Thomas Merton and a Theology of Place."
Phillip William Antilla, M.Div. is the pastor for Bellevue First United Methodist Church near Seattle, WA. He is also a graduate student in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Seattle University.
Contemporary research suggests there is a psychological and theological difference between "space" and "place". How might a developed theology of space and place transform our understanding of Thomas Merton? What might we be missing in our understanding of Merton when we assign a lesser role to the meaning of place?
b. Stephanie Redekop - "'The Rebellion of the Saints': Blakean Spiritual Resistance and the Poetry of Thomas Merton."
Stephanie Redekop is a graduate student
in English at Boston College. She specializes in literary negotiations of
spirituality and secularism in post-1945 America .
For Thomas Merton, Romantic poet William Blake’s
countercultural spirituality was "fundamentally the rebellion of the
saints." This paper examines how Blake’s spiritual resistance informs
Merton's own vision of a spiritually fecund reality, which impels him to
invite participation in the spiritual life through a mystical poetics of
silence and sacrament.
Jan
Sheridan, M.A. is a spiritual director and a retreat director. She
is currently on the adjunct faculty at Christ the King Seminary, E. Aurora,
NY