Context of Religious Research

Vol. XIII, No. 2, August 2003

 

FROM THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE

Dear RRA Colleague:

Preliminary Program materials for our annual meeting in Norfolk, 23-26 October should arrive in your mail from the SSSR office shortly. Take a look! Information will eventually be available through the SSSR site and our Web site as well. We will continue the traditional three-day layout of sessions, wherein we begin on Friday morning and continue into early Sunday afternoon. I hope you were already planning on attending-but if you were not, then I hope that seeing the program will change your mind! As usual, the worst thing I can see about it is that there are so many good offerings that choice making will be a challenge. Our program chair, Lori Beaman, has been working hard to put together an excellent series of offerings. This year Otto Maduro will deliver the H. Paul Douglass Lecture.

An important part of the summer issue of Context is the Nominating Committee’s slate of officers. Tony Blasi and the nominating committee you elected have assembled an able list of candidates. This year’s slate includes a new President-elect and Secretary, as well as members of our Board of Directors and Nominating Committee. Your ballot must be received by 22 September in order to be counted. Envelopes are provided for this purpose. Note that there are also By-law amendments. Current By-laws appear on the Web site.

Having this issue of our newsletter in your hands is confirmation to you that your 2003-2004 dues have been paid. If you work in an institutional setting, I would also urge you to ensure that a subscription to the Review is included in your library’s holdings. Review subscriptions play a crucial role in the maintenance of the RRA’s financial stability. A subscription placed now will ensure timely receipt of all the issues of volume 45 of the Review. I also want to add a word of thanks here to Pat Wittberg for the outstanding work she is doing as editor of the Review.

Although many of you will have had this news already, it is with great regret that I must make note of the death of Jeffrey K. Hadden in late January. Jeff served RRA in a number of capacities through the years, and his presence at our meetings is sure to be missed. A memorial time will be included in this year’s meeting schedule. The winter also saw the death of colleague Alan Miller in Japan.

I hope this spring and summer have been productive for you, and I look forward to hearing some of what you have been doing as you share your work in Norfolk.

Bill Swatos

CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT

MARK CHAVES, Ph.D., Sociology, Harvard University, is Professor and Head of the Sociology Department at the University of Arizona and Principal Investigator of the National Congregations Study. Much of his work spans the boundary between the sociology of religion and the sociology of organizations. Recent publications include “Religious Congregations and Welfare Reform: Who Will Take Advantage of ‘Charitable Choice’?” (American Sociological Review, December 1999), “Congregations and Social Services: What They Do, How They Do It, and With Whom” (with William Tsitsos, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, December 2001), “Religious Organizations: Data Resources and Research Opportunities” (American Behavioral Scientist, June 2002), and “Abiding Faith” (Contexts, Summer 2002). His new book, Congregations in America, will be published in winter 2004 by Harvard University Press. He has served on RRA’s Board of Directors (1997-99), and he was SSSR Program Chair in 2001.

DAN OLSON, Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, is Professor of Sociology at Indiana University South Bend. Previously he was a research fellow at the Center for Social and Religious Research, Hartford Seminary (1987-89) and the Center for the Study of American Religion, Princeton University (1992-93). He has published articles in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, JSSR, RRR, SA, and Christian Century, and several edited books on such topics as congregations (church friendship networks, financial giving, growth/decline), tensions among Protestant denominational leaders, US religion and politics, secularization, and most recently the effects of geographic religious context (especially pluralism) on religious commitment (vita and abstracts at www.iusb.edu/~dolson). He has served as a board member for RRA (1996-99), ASR (1997-2000), the ASA Section on the Sociology of Religion (2002-4), and was secretary of RRA (2000-2001). Additionally, he served on the RRA Awards Committee (1995-97; chair 1996); the RRA Nominating Committee (1994-95), the SSSR Distinguished Article Award Committee (1998-99), and the ASA Section on Sociology of Religion Student Paper Award Committee (2003).

 

CANDIDATES FOR SECRETARY

ROBERT BECKLEY, Ph.D., Sociology, American University, is Professor of Sociology and Program Director of Sociology at West Texas A&M University. He is co-author of The Continuing Challenge of AIDS: Pastors’ Responses to Patients, Families, and Friends (2002) and co-author of Religion in Contemporary Society (1977, 81, 94), as well as author or co-author of three book chapters, five journal articles, eighty scholarly papers, and three evaluation research projects. Bob has served as a review for both RRR and JSSR, as Program Chair of RRA for the 2001 Annual Meeting, and as President of the Southwestern Sociological Association, 1998-99. He remains on that association’s executive committee. Bob also recently served as president of his university’s Foundation Board. He is a past president of the Samaritan Pastoral Counseling Center Board, and has been on several boards of social service agencies.

KEITH A. ROBERTS, Ph.D., Sociology, Boston University, is Professor of Sociology at Hanover College in Indiana. His most recent work has been on religion and nationalism in Wales. He is author of the textbook Religion in Sociological Perspective now in its 4th edition (Wadsworth, 2003). Keith has published extensively on college teaching, including Writing in the Undergraduate Sociology Curriculum: A Guide for Teachers (2002). He serves as an ASA external curriculum consultant for sociology departments and has received teaching awards at local, regional, and national levels, most recently receiving the Hans O. Mauksch Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching of Sociology from ASA’s Section on Teaching and Learning. He has served on the Nominating Committee of RRA (one year as chair) and has held various offices in ASA and other professional organizations.

 

CANDIDATES FOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MICHAEL CIESLAK is Director of Research and Planning for the Rockford (Illinois) Catholic Diocese, where he is responsible for projects dealing with strategic planning, research, evaluation, and parish development. In 1997 he designed and implemented a comprehensive planning process which involved 105 diocesan parishes and 300 trained volunteers in creating pastoral plans for each parish in response to 55,000 parishioner evaluations. He serves as the chair of the Catholic Research Forum, an association of researchers and planners affiliated with the Conference for Pastoral Planning and Council Development. Mike has been published in the RRR and Today’s Parish, and is author of a chapter entitled “The Consequences of Pastoral Leadership” in The Parish Management Handbook, forthcoming from Twenty-Third Publications.

ADAIR T. LUMMIS, Faculty Associate for Research at Hartford Seminary, has been engaged in full-time basic and applied research since receiving her Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University in 1979. In addition to research reports and many papers delivered, she has published several co-authored articles, several sole-authored book chapters, and five co-authored books, including Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling (1998) and Defecting in Place: Women Claiming Responsibility for Their Own Spiritual Lives (1994). Recent research has been Web-published, including a monograph for Duke Divinity School: What Lay People Want in Pastors: Answers from Lay Search Committee Chairs and Regional Judicatory Leaders (2003). Adair has served as program chair for SSSR and held elected positions in the ASA Religion Section, ASR, and RRA.

IDA J. SMITH-WILLIAMS is currently Associate for Research and Information in the Office of Research and Information in the Office of Research Services, Presbyterian Church (USA), Louisville. She also currently serves as Database Manager for the US Congregational Life Survey, a Lilly-Endowment-funded project involving more than 2,000 congregations and their worshipers. Ida has an M.S. degree in sociology from the University of Louisville, where she specialized in statistics and SPSS. Before coming to PCUSA in 1988, she was a Research Analyst in the Department of Family Practice at the University of Louisville Medical School. She has published numerous articles in Presbyterian periodicals, contributed to most reports and other publications from the Office of Research Services, and made several presentations at annual RRA meetings. Ida has been a member of RRA for 15 years.

CHARLES ZECH is Professor of Economics at Villanova University, where he has taught since 1974. He received his Ph.D. from Notre Dame University. Chuck is the author or co-author of over 75 books and articles, including Money Matters, Plain Talk About Churches and Money, Why Catholics Don’t Give ... and What Can Be Done About It, The Parish Management Handbook, and Loving God, Being Church, Serving Others: Spiritual Formation for Lay Ministry. He has served as a consultant to a number of US Catholic Parishes and is a member of the board of directors of ParishPay, an on-line service that helps church members in all denominations contribute to their churches through electronic withdrawals.

 

CANDIDATES FOR NOMINATING COMMITTEE

PERRY CUNNINGHAM has worked as a Research Manager for the LDS Church since 1978. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and taught for several years in the School of Management at the University of Calgary. He has been affiliated with RRA and SSSR for over 20 years, and for the past seven years has been on the steering committee of the Faith Communities Today (FACT) project directed by the Hartford Institute of Religion Research.

RALPH W. HOOD, JR. is Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He was one of the co-founders of the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and is a past co-editor and book review editor of that journal. He is also past editor of the JSSR and is currently co-editor of the Archiv für Religionpsychologie and an elected member of the Internationale Gesellschaft für Religionpsychologie. He is a past president of the Division of Psychology of Religion of the American Psychological Association and received its William James Award for research in the psychology of religion. He has authored several books, including the widely used text The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach (co-authored with Bernie Spilka, Bruce Hunsberger, and Richard Gorsuch), which has just been released in its 3rd edition. His major research interests are in the study of religious experience.

PAUL PERL, whose Ph.D. is in sociology, is a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) in Washington, DC. At CARA much of Paul’s applied research focuses on national and diocesan-level polls and studies of priests. Among his publicly available applied reports are “Exploring the Impact of Campus Ministry on Catholics in the United States” and “Priests in the United States: Satisfaction, Workload, and Support Structures” (both with Bryan Froehle). Aside from US Catholicism, Paul’s academic interests include religion and politics and the “new paradigm.” His most recent journal articles are “Gender and Mainline Protestant Pastors’ Allocation of Time to Work Tasks” and “Perceptions of Anti-Catholic Bias and Political Party Identification Among US Catholics” (with Mary E. Bendyna), both in JSSR.

CYNTHIA WOOLEVER is Principal Investigator for the US Congregational Life Survey project, a Lilly Endowment-funded study of a national random sample of congregations. She has worked for a number of years in the Research Office of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as Associate for Congregational Studies. As of July 1, she began work at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary, as Professor of Sociology of Religious Organizations. She co-authored (with Deborah Bruce) A Field Guide to US Congregations (Westminster John Knox, 2002) and Beyond the Ordinary: 10 Strengths of US Congregations (Westminster John Knox, January 2004). Cynthia has 20 years of experience working with and studying congregations. She became a member of RRA in 1996.

 

BY-LAW AMENDMENTS

1. Amend By-law I.2, I.3, which deal with Classes of Membership, to eliminate the category of Organizational members (i.e., remove in its entirety 2b [adjusting numeration within 2a accordingly] and the second sentence of 3). Rationale: There is confusion both among the membership generally and the Board itself about the application of this category. The Board thinks the most appropriate resolution of the confusion is to eliminate the category. “Membership,” will then be a category that applies only to individuals. All others will become subscribers. Persons wishing to support the RRA above and beyond their dues may make contributions. (Proposed by the Board)

2. Amend By-law IV.3, which deals with the Nominating Committee, to bring it into line with the remaining by-laws by eliminating the words “chairpersons of standing committees,” amplifying the word “directors” to “directors-at-large,” and adding the following words “such other positions as may be assigned to it elsewhere in these by-laws or by the Board of Directors.” The last part of the sentence will then read “... officers, members of the Nominating Committee, directors-at-large, and such other positions as may be assigned to it elsewhere in these by-laws or by the Board of Directors.” Rationale: Currently (1) the forms of selection of all chairpersons of standing committees are otherwise specified in the by laws; (2) there are other directors, who are not directors-at-large, whose selection does not entail reference to the Nominating Committee; the additional words at the end of the sentence allow for future developments without revising the by-law further. (Proposed by the Executive Committee)

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