1 INTERNATIONAL THOMAS MERTON SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Vol. 28, No. 2 Fall, 2021 Seventeenth General Meeting a Virtual Success President David G. Golemboski, ITMS Secretary “Thou Inward Stranger” was the theme of the Sev- Cassidy Hall, Daniel P. Horan, OFM, Jonathan enteenth General Meeting of the International Thomas Montaldo, ITMS Treasurer David Orberson, ITMS Merton Society, originally scheduled for St. Mary’s Vice President Christopher Pramuk, Judith Valente College, Notre Dame, Indiana but held virtually due and Julianne Wallace. to the coronavirus pandemic June 23-26, 2021. The It was announced on the final day of the conference included 339 participants from the United conference that the ITMS Eighteenth General States and eight other countries. Meeting is scheduled for June 22-25, 2023, once General session addresses included: Marie again for St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN. The Dennis: “Nonviolence: Essential to a Laudato program committee will be chaired by immediate Si’ Future”; Andrew L. Prevot: “Contemplation past president David Golemboski with Daniel in Times of Crisis”; Bonnie Thurston: “‘The P. Horan, OFM as site coordinator, and includes Inward Stranger’: Challenge, Coordinates and Jessica Coblenz, Emma McDonald, Mark Meade, Consequences”; and the Presidential Address by ITMS Treasurer David Orberson, ITMS President David Golemboski: “Absurdity and Imagination in Christopher Pramuk, Kathleen Tarr, Judith Valente a Time of Upheaval.” The conference opened with and Monica Weis, SSJ. a welcome from Program Committee chair Mark New Officers and Board Meade, followed by a Multi-faith Prayer Service The Officers and Board of Directors of the coordinated by Sophfronia Scott. The program International Thomas Merton Society for 2021- included 43 presentations over the course of its 2023 were announced by outgoing president four days: 33 concurrent session papers and ten David Golemboski during the ITMS Seventeenth workshops. A June 26 evening concert/reflection General Meeting on June 24, 2021. In accordance entitled “Encountering the Stranger: Finding the with the ITMS by-laws, the officers were chosen Hidden Wholeness in a Broken World” was a joint by the Board and members of the Board by the presentation of Carrie Newcomer and Parker Palmer membership at large, from a slate prepared by the and was followed by a closing prayer by incoming ITMS nominating committee, Christine Bochen, ITMS president Christopher Pramuk. Deborah Kehoe, Emma McDonald, Paul Pynkoski A selection of presentations from the conference and Judith Valente (chair). A total of 261 ITMS is now available on YouTube. The full playlist of members, 24% of the membership, participated in videos, which include the presidential address by the election, 240 through on-line voting and 21 by David Golemboski, and the keynote presentations mail. by Andrew Prevot and Bonnie Thurston, can be Officers are Christopher Pramuk, president; Judith accessed on the Thomas Merton YouTube Channel Valente, vice president; Paul Pynkoski, secretary; at: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTeuUZQE_x- and David Orberson, treasurer; David Golemboski Jldy_yO5qXkg/videos. will continue to serve on the board as past president. The Program Committee was chaired by ITMS Newly elected members of the board are: Rose Past President Mark Meade and included ITMS Marie Berger, Raymond Carr, Emma McDonald 2 and Kathleen Witkowska Tarr; Alan Kolp and Gray David Golemboski is Assistant Professor of Matthews were re-elected to the board. Government and International Affairs at Augustana Christopher Pramuk is associate professor of University, Sioux Falls, SD. He was a Postdoctoral theology and University Chair of Ignatian Thought Fellow in the Kinder Institute on Constitutional and Imagination at Regis University, Denver, CO, Democracy at the University of Missouri after and author of the award-winning Sophia: The completing his Ph.D. in the Department of Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton (2009), Hope Government at Georgetown University. A former Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters Across the Daggy Scholar, he has previously served as ITMS Color Line (2013), At Play in Creation: Merton’s secretary, vice president and president, and as co- Awakening to the Feminine Divine (2015) and, most chair of the Nominations Committee. recently, The Artist Alive: Explorations in Music, Rose Marie Berger is a poet and peace activist Art, and Theology (2019). who is poetry editor and senior editor for Sojourners Judith Valente, a retired journalist and poet from magazine, for which she writes a regular column. She New Jersey who currently lives in central Illinois, presented the keynote address, “Direct Transmission has served as a member of the ITMS Board. She is of Faith,” at the ITMS Sixteenth General Meeting the author of the spiritual memoir Atchison Blue as in 2019. She is co-editor of Advancing Nonviolence well as two books of poetry; her most recent book is and Just Peace in the Church and World (2020) and How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches author of the poetry collection Bending the Arch Us about Happiness, Meaning, and Community (2019). (2018). How to Be: A Monk and a Journalist Raymond Carr, formerly Assistant Professor Reflect on Living & Dying, Purpose & Prayer, of Theology and Ethics at Pepperdine University, Forgiveness & Friendship, coauthored with Br. has also taught as visiting faculty in Germany, Paul Quenon, will be published later this year. She Switzerland and China. A member of the Merton covered stories for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Society since 2013, he has published and presented The PBS News Hour and the Chicago NPR affiliate; papers at ITMS conferences, and has taught Merton her work in print journalism includes reporting for in his classes as well as in the ENGAGE program, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and a Lilly-funded initiative to interest high school America Magazine. She is married to retired Illinois students in religious topics. Circuit Court Judge Charles Reynard. Alan Kolp holds the University Chair in Faith & Paul Pynkoski is an active member of the Church Life at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH. of the Redeemer, Toronto, ON, where he coordinates A member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and literature discussions at the Common Table, a a Benedictine Oblate, he is co-author most recently drop-in for those who are vulnerable or homeless. of Exception to the Rule (2017), and has published He is a founding member of Voices for Peace, an articles on Merton in The Merton Seasonal, in ecumenical conference on peacemaking and has Merton and the Protestant Tradition and elsewhere. contributed to The Merton Seasonal, The Merton Gray Matthews teaches communications at Annual, Orthodoxy in Dialogue and The Anglican. the University of Memphis and has served as David Orberson, current ITMS treasurer, coordinator of the Memphis Chapter of the ITMS received his Ph.D. from the University of Louisville since 2001. He was site coordinator of the 2007 and a Master of Theological Studies from the St. ITMS General Meeting in Memphis and has also Meinrad School of Theology. He is author of Thomas served as co-editor of The Merton Annual. He has Merton – Evil and Why We Suffer: From Purified been a frequent presenter at ITMS conferences and Soul Theodicy to Zen (2018). He has been teaching has published numerous essays on Merton. theology part-time at Bellarmine University since Emma McDonald is currently a Ph.D. student 2007. at Boston College, where she studies bioethics, 3 Catholic moral theology and women’s health. She contribution to Merton studies, is Sophfronia Scott. holds a Master of Arts in Religion degree from The recipient of the “Society” award, given to a Yale Divinity School. A Daggy Scholar in 2017, member of the ITMS whose distinguished service she presented a paper at the 2019 ITMS General has contributed to the aims of the Society and the meeting on Merton, Robert Lax and Fanny Howe. furthering of its goals, is Michael Brennan. While at Yale, she coordinated a monthly Thomas Willy Eurlings is chairperson of the Merton Reading Group. Mertonvrienden, the Dutch-speaking Merton Kathleen Witkowska Tarr is the founder of Society from Flanders and the Netherlands and the Alaska Chapter of the ITMS and author of We regular contributor to and translator for the society Are All Poets Here: Thomas Merton’s Journey to journal, Contactblad Mertonvrienden. He is the Alaska – A Shared Story about Spiritual Seeking compiler of the comprehensive finding aid of Books (2018). Her essays have appeared in We Are Already Cited by Merton by Title as found in the seven One: Thomas Merton’s Message of Hope (2015) volumes of Merton’s journals and five volumes of and Merton & Indigenous Wisdom (2019). She is a his correspondence, available on the Merton Center former Mullin Scholar at the University of Southern website at: www.merton.org/research/Quotations. California Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies. Sophfronia Scott, novelist, essayist and leading ITMS President Christopher Pramuk also contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in announced that ITMS members from six countries numerous publications, received the Louie for her will serve as International Advisors for 2021-2023. latest book, The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday They are: Lars Adolfsson (Strängnäs, Sweden), Conversations with Thomas Merton. Her other James G. R. Cronin (Cork, Ireland), Linda Espie books include Love’s Long Line, and This Child of (South Oakleigh, Australia), Liana Gehl (Bucharest, Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, Romania), Dominiek Lootens (Frankfort, Germany) co-written with her son Tain. She holds degrees and Marcela Raggio (Mendoza, Argentina). from Harvard and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Paul Pearson will continue to serve as ITMS She lives in Sandy Hook, CT and is the founding Resident Secretary and as ITMS Accounts Manager. director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, Patrick F. O’Connell will continue as editor of The a graduate program based in Alma, MI.