Conference Hosts

Hosting the conference is a partnership of the Faculty of Divinity of Trinity College and Wycliffe College (both in the University of Toronto) and the Canadian Church Historical Society (a co-operator with the General Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada) Under the title of Trauma and Survival in the Contemporary Church: Historical, Archival, and Missional Responses. Presentations would focus on the Anglican/Episcopal tradition responding to historical experiences of traumas from the Reformation to the present.

Possible Topics

Some examples of potential traumas include:

• political and social upheavals;
  
• displacement and refugee identities;
  
• personal, psychological trauma and experiences of abuse and victimhood;
  
• Indigenous identity and the legacy of Residential Schools;
  
• community disestablishment and realignment;
  
• war;
  
• liturgical and doctrinal revision;
  
• natural and human made disasters.
  

In addition to substantial consideration of the identified trauma from historical and theological perspectives, and the response of the Church, archival implications (sources, preservation, migration, erasure, memory, research) would also be addressed.

Possible Activities

Some activities in addition to conference sessions might include:

• Worship at the historic chapels of both Trinity and Wycliffe and visits to the many other sacred spaces on campus
• Tours of historic Toronto, ‘A City of Churches,’ including:
  • Hogtown’s two Anglican cathedrals;
  • St. James Cemetery and the Chapel of St. James the Less, a national historic site;
  • Fort York and the battlefield of American and Canadian forces during the War of 1812;
  • St. Anne’s, decorated by members of the Group of Seven;
  • Toronto’s lost Anglican churches;
  • General Synod Archives at the Church House of the Anglican Church of Canada;
  • Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto;
  • Archives of Trinity College 2 Supporting Canadian Anglican and Ecumenical Heritage
• An optional day trip to the growing pilgrimage site of St. George’s, Newcastle, Ontario, and the nearby birthplace of Bishop Charles Henry Brent, stopping also in Cobourg, Ontario to visit St. Peter’s and the nearby site of the original Diocesan Theological Institute, ending in the neighboring Diocese of Ontario with visits to HM’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawks, Deseronto, and St. Alban’s, Adolphustown near the Loyalist landing site of 1784.

Trinity College

Wycliffe College

Fort York

Conference organizers endeavor to connect conference delegates with specialist research agendas to sites, repositories, or institutions of relevant interest. Where customization of the experience of attendance can be achieved, organizers deem this desirable.

Site

As two of the most important hubs of theological education and training for ministry in Canada, members of the ecumenical Toronto School of Theology, Trinity and Wycliffe represent the breadth of the Anglican tradition, an ideal location for welcoming friends and colleagues from United States of America, and beyond. Divine Worship, speaker sessions, meals, and social events would take place at both Trinity and Wycliffe, conveniently located in immediate
proximity to each other.

While the combined facilities of Trinity and Wycliffe are more than adequate for hosting scheduled events, meals, and worship, in addition to a nearby Holiday Inn adjacent to the campus, vacant student residence rooms will also be available to conference delegates. Both Colleges have extensive experience of hosting world-class academic events with support staff, security, caterers, and bookings officers on site. The University of Toronto boasts a safe, elegant campus in a central location in a multicultural city close to the Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, luxury shopping, hotels, and dining, and a theatre district.

International Travel

Prevailing currency exchange rates favor American visitors to Toronto, located within an hour’s drive of the border between Ontario and New York, easily accessible to major airlines.

While a ‘thickening’ of the U.S.-Canada border has been acknowledged in recent months, cases of American passport and enhanced driver license holders with legitimate reason for entry being rejected by the Canada Border Services Agency are very rare. Reentry to the United States from Canada by non-U.S. citizens may hazard greater risk.

Joint Planning Committee

The Joint Planning Committee makes the conference go and work towards honoring all sponsoring organizations with a program reflecting the common areas and various goals of each; providing a setting for introduction of new scholarship on a given topic area; and providing an (inter-)national conference with (inter-)national focus while providing for a regional flavor.

Facilitator

Dr. Jonathan S. Lofft teaches courses in Anglican history and identity, the cult of the Saints, and Gothic studies as an Adjunct Instructor in the Faculty of Divinity of Trinity College in the University of Toronto and the affiliated Toronto School of Theology. He has published and lectured in Canada and the United States, earning his doctorate with a thesis entitled A Blessed Word: the Mixed Life of Edward Marion Chadwick (1840–1921), research supported by a Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Jonathan has recently contracted with the Champlain Society for a forthcoming edition of Chadwick’s extensive diaries. A trained archivist, his research interests include Anglican studies, Canada’s Indigenous peoples, imperialism, historiography and life writing, and heraldic studies. As well as serving as Secretary of the Canadian Church Historical Society, and President of the Toronto Branch of the Royal Heraldry Society of Canada.

HSEC Rep

To be determined.

NEHA Rep

To be determined.

EWHP Rep

To be determined.

Other Members

To be determined.