Because of the COVID-19 (2020 novel coronavirus) global pandemic that forced most, if not all, theologians to transition to conducting their teaching and their research online and remotely, this year's report on the Sixty-Sixth Annual Convention differs in some ways from previous ones. Indeed, 226 members of the College Theology Society (CTS) “gathered” for this convention on Zoom from Thursday, May 28, to Saturday, May 30, 2020, to engage the theme “Human Families: Identities, Relationships, and Responsibilities,” which will be the title of the annual volume edited by convention cochairs Mary Doyle Roche and Jacob Kohlhaas, and published by Orbis Books. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the brilliant online coordinating team of Dana Dillon and Katherine Schmidt, who were assisted by George Faithful, secretary, and worked closely with Andy Getz, executive director of conventions, as well as to the conveners, presenters, respondents, plenary speakers, and panelists who did an excellent job adapting to an online format. This historic online convention received attention in Catholic media and is being considered as a model for other professional societies that are unable to meet in person due to the pandemic.
As has been the custom for more than two decades, the CTS met in conjunction with the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion (NABPR), with members presenting seventy-nine papers, one panel, and two open forums in a total of forty-one sectional meetings. In addition, the convention included three plenary presentations. The first plenary address, which formally opened the convention on Thursday evening, was “Identifying Patterns in the Relationship between Christianity, Culture, and the Family,” by Stephanie Coontz, of The Evergreen State College. On Friday afternoon, Darlene Fozard Weaver, of Duquesne University, offered the second plenary address, “Other People's Children: Making Solidarity Central to Catholic Teaching about Families,” and LaReine-Marie Mosley, SND, of Notre Dame of Maryland University, provided a response. Victor Carmona, of the University of San Diego, presented the third plenary address, “Mixed-Status Families and Brokenness: Will Our Fractured Relationships Heal?” on Saturday morning.
Given that the convention was online, there was no banquet on Saturday evening. Also, instead of our usual Eucharistic Liturgy on Saturday evening, there was an evening service of preached vespers on the vigil of Pentecost, hosted by the Dominican community of Toronto and the University of St. Michael's College Faculty of Theology. Darren Dias, OP, presided, and past president Shannon Schrein, OSF, offered the reflection. In addition to the “online auditorium,” the “coffee breaks,” and the “virtual lobby times” that were linked on the program, Brian Flanagan even organized a virtual 5K “run” during the convention!
During the opening session on Thursday evening, we held the awards ceremony and an abbreviated business meeting. Philip J. Rossi, SJ, professor emeritus at Marquette University, was announced as the winner of the 2020 Presidential Award for his outstanding contributions to scholarship, to higher education, to the church, and to the College Theology Society. As usual, there were many books and articles submitted by members of the CTS for the awards committee, chaired by Christina Astorga, to read and evaluate. Daniel P. Castillo received the book award for An Ecological Theology of Liberation: Salvation and Political Ecology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2019). Joseph S. Flipper received the article award for his essay, “The Ressourcement of Black Catholicism in Cyprian Davis, OSB,” appearing in November 2019 in Modern Theology. Deepan Rajaratnam, of Saint Louis University, received the Sue Perry Award for best essay by a graduate student; his paper's title was “An Integrated Model of Congar's Communion Ecclesiology: A Resource for Interpreting Pope Francis's Language of Center and Periphery.” The 2020 winner of the Monika Hellwig Teaching Excellence Award was not named at the time due to delays caused by the pandemic. Special thanks are due to the other members of the awards committee, chaired by Christina Astorga, and to the Monika Hellwig Teaching Excellence Committee, chaired by LaReine-Marie Mosely, for their hard work.
As for the business meeting, reports were briefly presented or instead shared online like a live ticker news feed. Vice President Tobias Winright shared the election results and new appointees to committees. Brian Flanagan was announced as president-elect, and SimonMary Aihiokhai and Katherine Greiner were elected to serve as new members of the board. In addition, Laura Taylor has agreed to complete the remaining two years of Jennifer Kryszak's term on the board. Winright thanked other CTS members for their willingness to run for office, and he thanked outgoing board members William Clark, SJ, Elisabeth Vasko, and Jennifer Kryszak. Also, Past President Shannon Schrein, OSF, completed her four-year term on the board, and Nancy Rourke and Dan Rober completed their two-year terms on the committee on nominations. As for the awards committee, Winright expressed gratitude to Christina Astorga, who completed her term and served as chair of the committee this past year, and he added that the other remaining committee members are Michael Fagge, Howard Ebert, Mary Ann Zimmer, and Benjamin Peters. Winright observed that the resolutions committee did not receive any resolutions for consideration. He proposed that two outgoing members of the board, William Clark and Elisabeth Vasko, serve on the Committee on Resolutions, which is regular practice. Finally, Winright reported that he received no new information about any regional meetings.
Director of Research and Publications William Collinge, Mount St. Mary's University, shared that the 2019 Annual Volume, “All the Ends of the Earth”: Challenge and Celebration of Global Catholicism, edited by Jane Linahan and Cyril Orji, is ahead of schedule. Not counting plenaries, twenty-one papers were submitted and twelve accepted, for an acceptance rate of 57 percent. In all, including the plenaries and the panel, there were eighteen authors, of whom eight were women. Collinge also compiled a list of all CTS/SCCTSD annual publications and a list of winners of CTS scholarship (book, article, graduate student essay) awards that are now posted on the CTS website. He reported no requests to reprint material for which the CTS holds the copyright since the last board meeting. The annual volume, moreover, will now be indexed in ATLA's religion database. He also has multiple copies of previous annual volumes that are available upon request. Collinge's term expires with the next annual volume.
Treasurer Stephen Okey, Saint Leo College, reported that the CTS had an operating deficit of $2,310 for 2019. Annual dues in 2019 dipped $2,800 (8 percent) from 2018, which is sufficient to explain that deficit. The 2019 convention did slightly better than break even, with a surplus of roughly $1,800. This was aided by $3,000 in donations for the convention and the fact that lost key/keycard fees were zero. Donations to the Fr. Sloyan Annual Fund in 2019 were $1,027, continuing a decline from previous years. So far in 2020, donations total $400. This annual fund provides convention scholarships. As for the CTS's financial outlook for 2020, around the time of AAR in November 2019, in consultation with the executive committee, the treasurer decided to change our payment processor from Authorize.net to AffiniPay because of the integration between AffiniPay and our website platform, Wild Apricot. This resulted in the need for members to reenter their credit card information the next time they renewed, which hampered the previously effortless auto-renew feature. As a result of this, dues collected for 2020 are $23,775, which is roughly $7,000 (23 percent) lower than 2019. Some of this reflects individuals who were continuing as members through inertia, and some reflects individuals who may have thought they were automatically renewed and did not realize they needed to renew manually on the new payment processor. The two major expenses forthcoming for 2020 are our Horizons dues, which will be $9,279 (30 percent of the previous year's dues) and the annual volume, which is typically around $10,000. Although the CTS's administrative expenses will surely be lower this year, an operating deficit for 2020 is expected.
Secretary George Faithful, Dominican University of California, shared that the CTS has 405 active (paid-in-full) members as of May 26, 2020, and another 848 members whose membership dues are overdue or whose membership has lapsed for nonpayment of dues. Among the paid-in-full or active members, there are: 66 graduate student members, 43 associate members, 280 full professional members, 11 joint memberships, and 5 lifetime members. This represents a decrease of 99 active members from last year because there were 504 active members in May 2019. According to Faithful, some factors contributing to declining membership in this current year included the switching of the online payment vendor, the global pandemic, and economic recession. Faithful also provided a chart showing how membership decline may be a longer trend and a cause for concern.
Horizons editor Elena Procario-Foley, Iona College, reported via the online ticker news feed that the two issues of Volume 46 comprised a total of 452 pages, eight refereed manuscripts, one editorial essay, one pedagogical roundtable, one review essay, and eighty-seven book reviews. The production and distribution of the June 2020 47.1 print issue was disrupted due to the pandemic, but it was published fully online and the print version will be mailed as soon as production resumes. Procario-Foley also announced that the fourth virtual issue was published in May 2020 with the title “Feminism, Theology, and Horizons: The First 35 Years.”
Finally, during the convention, the CTS board drafted and issued a “Statement on US Racism” (http://www.collegetheology.org/2020-Statement-on-US-Racism) in the wake of the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville by police, as well as the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
