Conference Theme

Between Memory and Hope has been conceived as a vessel to launch us out into the deep while remembering our port of origin. It has a twofold sense of taking the best of the past in the Church and looking to how we can be more effective in the future. It situates us as the Eucharistic connection-makers between a rich Christian past and a challenging contemporary world.

Elements of Congress 2009 will underline this theme. These elements include journaling, revisiting baptism, celebrating a Seder meal, construction of a threshold gateway etc.

Memory is about the past and Hope is for the future. ‘Here and now’ is in a space that is suspended between the two, between memory and hope, between the past and the future. If we are to live creatively in the present, we need to do so in connection with the memory of the past and with the hope that the future will bring into being the possibilities that have not been realised in the past.

Memories are both good and bad. Depending on the context, we tend to favour either the good memories or the bad memories to the exclusion of the other. To be truly connected to the past is to own both and to allow ourselves to acknowledge that we have been shaped by both. The present as we experience it has been fashioned out of the past.

This RE Congress will seek to find a way to claim the memory of the past.

If we look towards the future, and are unable to do so with hope, we are in danger of being paralysed in the present. As Christians we look to the future with the hope and the promise of Jesus Christ. May the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

This RE Congress will seek to awaken a new hope for the future based on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

LOGO
National Religious Education Congress 2009

A word on the RE Congress logo from Lir Mac Carthaigh, Graphic Designer:

'I worked closely with the RE Congress committee in order to give appropriate visual expression to the concept of this year’s Congress. The idea at the heart of the logo is ‘Kairos’, an Ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment. In art, sport and other skilful pursuits, choosing the right moment for action is crucial. The adept person can instinctively judge this moment that will result in the success or failure of their endeavours – this is the moment of Kairos.

Weaving was the craft we chose to visualise the Kairos moment – my forbears were Huguenot weavers, so the imagery of the loom struck a personal chord with me. A woven garment is made using two types of yarn: the warp, which is thinner and runs vertically, and the weft, a heftier yarn that is woven horizontally through the warp. In the graphic, illustrated above, the warp represents the past; the weft the future. The hand striking out illustrates the master craftsman at the moment of Kairos. The lines are sinuous, reflecting the fluidity of time, while the palette employed is informed by the colours found in nature.'