Anglican Religious Hold Triennial Conference
Episcopal News Service. May 6, 1982 [82118]
GLENDALE, Ohio (DPS, May 6) -- "Only with a reawakening of the spiritual experience...is there a possibility of the reawakening of the Religious Life," said the Rev. Adrain van Kaam at the triennial meeting of the Conference on the Religious Life in the Americas, held April 26-29 at the Convent of the Transfiguration here. Representatives from twenty-four men's and women's Religious communities in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada attended the meeting.
Van Kaam, an internationally-known Roman Catholic priest, psychologist, and author, is the founder of the Institute of Formative Spirituality at Duquesne University. Along with van Kaam, Dr. Susan Muto and the Rev. Richard Byrne, also from the Institute, were speakers at the meeting.
Van Kaam based his talks on the idea of the imago Dei, the image of God, which was the central point of the spirituality of the undivided Church. He said that there is no one coming into Religious Life today who is not tremendously influenced by a humanistic type of secular thinking which is incompatible with Christianity. He said that Christians have neglected to build a theory of personality which is Christian. He explained that his term, "formative foundational spirituality," is based on the idea that formation consists, not in molding the outside of a person's life, but in disclosing the form, the image of God, within.
Mother Mary Grace, CSM, chaired the business meetings. Brother Andrew Rank, rector of the Society of St. Paul, was elected chairman of the Conference on the Religious Life for the next six years. Sister Marilyn Elizabeth, CT, was elected to a three-year term as vice-chairman, secretary-treasurer of the Conference.
Plans were made for republishing the directory of member communities. The directory will be sent to parishes and distributed at the General Convention. Member communities of the Conference on the Religious Life meet the definition of a Religious community which is found in the Episcopal Church's Canon III.27, "a society of Christians (in communion with the see of Canterbury) who voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years: to holding their possessions in common or in trust; to a celibate life in community; and obedience to their Rule and Constitution."