DARING TO LEAD WITH HOPE: ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSORS AND RESEARCHERS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS NOVEMBER 3, 2002

Current relational crises in the global village and the damaging treatment of Mother Earth challenge religious educators to be leaders who will not shrink back from the responsibility of helping to create a better world. There is an intensifying call for these educators to carry out vocations that contribute to a sustainable communal and earth environment in which peace, love, justice, reconciliation, and the care of the environment reside. Religious educators are called on to dare to lead in ways that also kindle similar leadership in others. This address invites religious educators into a self-reflection process on their identity and vocation and proposes practices of hopefilled leadership that center on a quest for a better world.