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STATEMENT
The Conference of Orthodox Religious Education took place from 28th July to 2nd August 2006 in The Valamo Monastery, Finland. The Conference was organized in cooperation with The Orthodox Church of Finland, Syndesmos - The World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth, Valamo Lay Academy and The University of Joensuu (Department of Applied Education) and gathered 40 educationalists from various local churches and countries, mainly from Europe, but as well from Africa and USA.
The Conference was dedicated to discussing the meaning, understanding and implementation of the concept of Holistic Christian Education in the frame of Orthodox Religious Education. Other aims for the conference were to study the situation, challenges and needs of Orthodox Christian education in local churches and countries and to create a network for Orthodox religious educationalists.
The rich programme of the conference included keynote lectures and workshops which approached the theme Holistic Christian Education from various aspects as well as presentations of Christian education systems in different countries. The introductory lecture “Holistic Education and its challenges for modern education” was given by Mr. Peter Schreiner from the Comenius-Institute, Germany. Mrs. Valerie Zahirsky (USA) gave the second keynote lecture in which she presented through various examples practical applications in Orthodox Holistic Education. The third keynote lecture was written by Prof. Stavros Fotiou (Cyprus) and presented by Dr. Anthony Vrame (USA) and it discussed the catholic dimension of Christian Education as well as its implementation through education.
The conference participants confirmed the necessity of networking which gathers together Orthodox educationalists and researchers through the world. Therefore conference participants established a continuation committee and named Dr. Athony Vrame, Mrs. Valerie Zahirsky and Mr. Christopher D'Aloisio its members. The task of the continuation committee is to begin planning for the next Conference of Orthodox religious education which will meet in the year 2008 or 2009.
St. John of Damascus Institute of Theology - University of Balamand
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