by K. Christine Pae
Teaching & Research Fellow

 

        This year EOL focused Flushing research on two ethnic groups: Koreans and Chinese. However, Flushing is ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse, and has motivated EOL to examine the interactions beyond the above two ethnic groups, listening to the concerns of rapid changes in Flushing’s urban landscape by local residents...(Click here to read complete article)

by Nadia Mian
Teaching & Research Fellow

 

        On May 21st, 2008, at the Interchurch Center in Manhattan, religious leaders, developers, financial advisors, and municipal officials came together to continue the dialogue on faith-based development. Directed towards those living in the New York City area, the seminar aimed to inform those who are inquiring about building, redeveloping, or making other faith-based land use decisions. Sponsored by Abundant Communities Together (ACT), Citi, and the Ecologies of Learning Project, the seminar focused on providing information to the faith-based community on various stages of development, such as: visioning, pre-development and design, financing, and management. A facilitated panel dialogue and workshops divided into the aforementioned categories were provided to help individuals at each stage of the process... (Click here to read complete article)

by Lester Edwin J. Ruiz, Ph.D.
Interim Director of EOL

 

 

Dear Friends of EOL,
     As some of you already know I am leaving New York Theological Seminary in mid August to join the Association of Theological Schools. These past six months working with EOL has been very important to me. So much has happened, so much more is happening and will happen in the coming year. The EOL Preliminary Report in this newsletter, written by Shirvahna Gobin, Director of Administration and Development, with the help of the EOL team, highlights these developments more fully.
...(Click here to read complete article)

by Darryl Footmon
Student Researcher

 

        In an effort to combat any disharmony among the multitude of diversity and to embrace and enhance the greatness of the same, Peekskill Area Pastors Association (P.A.P.A.) was organized many years ago by local pastors. It is an interfaith collegiums of recognized religious leaders from 90 houses of worship (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox, Protestant and Unitarian) that gather for lunch and fellowship each month to address interfaith issues that benefit the congregations of the greater Peekskill area (inclusive of Cortlandt, Yorktown, Montrose and surrounding municipalities) and partner to support local outreach programs.
...(Click here to read complete article)

by Shirvahna Gobin
Director of Administration & Development

 

        The Ecologies of Learning Project (EOL) is a research and action center based at New York Theological Seminary, supported by major funding from the Lily Endowment. Our work rests on two convictions backed by founder Dr. Lowell Livezey’s twenty years of research in large American cities. First, religious congregations constitute an important force in American urban life that is not adequately appreciated or understood by social scientists and government. Second, religious communities are deeply impacted by their neighborhoods and hold the power to impact these neighborhoods as well. When congregations learn about their local context and the ways they interact with that place, they are empowered for more effective, creative, and locally relevant urban ministry. Therefore, seminarians benefit from training in urban sociology...(Click here to read complete article)

by Shirvahna Gobin
Director of Administration & Development

 

        For ten days this June, a group of professors gathered in New York City with two objectives: to learn how congregations in New York neighborhoods interact with their globalized urban contexts and to learn ethnographic research skills that the professors will use to expand field-based learning and research in their institutions. The group was diverse and synergistic...(Click here to read complete article)

EOL Publications:

• Katie DiSalvo, Research Associate Review of Religious Research 2008, Volume 49 (4) Understanding an Outlier: How Parish Culture Matters in a Highly Participatory Catholic Church.

• Nadia Mian, Research & Teaching Fellow
  Journal of Urban Studies 2008, Volume 45 (10) "Prophets-for-Profits": Redevelopment and the Altering Urban Religious Landscape.

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EOL at Religious & Sociological National Conferences:

• ASR (Association for the Sociology of Religion) -
  July 31-August 2, 2008 Boston, Massachusetts

• ASA (American Sociological Association) -
  August 1- 4, 2008 Boston, Massachusetts

• SSSR (Society for the Scientific Study of Religion) -
  October 17-19, 2008 Louisville, Kentucky

• AAR (American Academy of Religion) -
  November 1-3, 2008 Chicago, Illinois

• EOL's 2nd Annual Faculty Development Institute:
  June 12-21, 2008, New York, New York
  

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Click here to download our new brochure!

Coming Up in Volume 2, Number 4: Blessed but Depressed II: Taking Care of Your Temple Summary by Monifa Mulraine SEE YOU NEXT ISSUE!