It has been my privilege to serve as President of the Religious Research Association during the past four years. With this Annual meeting a new team of leaders will assume the responsibility for directing the affairs of the RRA for the next biennium. I want to thank all the members of the Board of Directors and of the Several working committees for the numerous contributions they have made to the ongoing life of this Association and to the augmenting of its effectiveness.

If I may be permitted a few moments of speculation on this occasion -- there are several general areas of interest that I would like to call to your attention. One is the matter of joint projects in the field of religious research; the other is that of new relationships between professional groups in our general field of interest.

What are the possibilities of fostering inter-faith religious research projects in various centers around the country? I am well aware of the fact that the Religious Research Association is not an operating or programming agency and that we are not primarily in the business of conducting research projects. However, it is a fact that in a number of metropolitan centers we do have persons from the various faiths who are actively engaged in religious research. There have been some beginnings in this direction but I would suggest that many new possibilities have yet to be be explored.

As we look ahead, the matter of relationships to other professional groups, I think, will warrant serious consideration. What kinds of working relationships could or should be established with the American Catholic Sociological Society, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the several European groups that are working in these same general fields of interest? I see no clear cut pattern emerging. However, I would urge that every effort be made to maintain and increase the communications between these several groups and ourselves.

We are honored to have as our H. Paul Douglass lecturer this year Dr. Talcott Parsons from Harvard University. The H. Paul Douglass lecturer next year will be the former President of the RRA, Dr. Lauris Whitman. In 1967 we will be privileged to have Father Francois Houtart of Belgium serving as our key lecturer.

I urge you to continue your excellent support of the elected leadership of the Religious Research Association and of our journal the Review of Religious Research. Also your promotion of the regional and annual meetings is a key factor in their increasing significance.

Thank you for having permitted me to serve as your President during these past two terms.

Respectfully submitted,

Walter Kloetzli