The Luke Salm Workshop
October 20 – 22, 2023
Bon Secours Retreat and Conference Center, Marriottsville, MD
The Luke Salm Workshop aims to create a dynamic space for chairs of religion departments and other religion teachers to share challenges and insights, to promote professional and spiritual development, and advance the Lasallian vision and hopes for evangelization and religious education in our times.
More than fifty-six years since the promulgation of the 1967 Declaration by the 39th General Chapter, the mission field of Lasallian education and evangelization continues the exhausting task of reaffirming its “missional” aspirations, to establish markers on educating in faith. Recollecting our Lasallian charism and heritage, the 46th General Chapter calls us to “bear witness to the reign: educating in faith for justice; renew our zeal for catechesis and evangelization.” In Lasallian Studies 17, “That your school runs well,” Patricio Bolton, FSC, challenges us “to rethink [Lasallian education] today with the conviction of the first Lasallian community: [an education] can and should transform…. The community of the beginnings was aware of its helping form new personal and social identities…”
Thus, we invite you to participate in the Luke Salm Workshop, in a spirit of association, to contemplate and respond to the calls of the Institute to bring the joy of the gospel to the young people entrusted to our care. When the Luke Salm Workshop was established, then Brother Visitor Dennis Malloy, FSC, observed: “This workshop is concerned first and foremost with the ministry of the Word, with the school as a ‘means of salvation,’ and with the evangelization and catechesis of our young people. Practically, we hope to bring you together so that you might know and be encouraged by one another, share your wisdom and best practices, create, and innovate new practices.”
For information please contact Br. Ernest Miller FSC through:
emiller@fscdena.org
About the Brother Luke Salm Religious Education Workshops
The goal of this annual workshop is to enhance and support the Christian education and evangelization of the young people entrusted to our care by providing professional and vocational development for and accompaniment to the District’s religious studies instructors, campus ministers, and other Lasallian educators.
Named in memory and honor of Luke Salm, a Brother of the Christian Schools and a theologian, he was the first non-ordained person in the Catholic Church to receive a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD). He ministered in religious and theological education at Manhattan College for over 40 years. He played a significant role in drafting The Brothers of the Christian Schools: A Declaration, a seminal text from the 39th General Chapter following Vatican II for renewal of the Brother’s vocation and the Lasallian educational mission. Lovingly known as “one of the Lasallian giants, his very ‘presence brightened everything’ and his devotion as brother, teacher, and friend inspired and taught many, not only ‘the road to heaven,’ but the pathway toward a more full and glorious life” (William Mann, FSC).
Previous Workshops
2023 – Reconnecting • Renewing • Responding
2022 – To Teach as Jesus Did: Educating for the reign of God
2021 – Part I, Educating for Witness, Experiencing the Reign of God, Building New Paths to Transform Lives (with Brother Ernest Miller); Part II, Educating for Witness, A Conversation (with Dr. Josh Packard, Springtide Research Institute)
2019 – One Heart. One Commitment. One Life.
2017 – The Growing Trend of Disaffiliated Young Catholics
2016 – Lasallian Education: Evangelizing and Catechizing in a Community of Welcome
2015 – The Radical Good News of the Gospel: Evangelizing Youth Today
2014 – Huether Conference on Evangelization and Catechesis
2013 – Fostering Faith in Adolescence: A New Map for Changing Territory
2012 – The Multi-Cultural Realities of Evangelization and Catechesis
2011 – Sharing Faith: The Lasallian Vision of Christian Education
2010 – Evangelization and Catechesis in the 21st Century
“The Lasallian school is to be a living community where young people, coming from different social (ethnic, religious) and family backgrounds, educate one another by mutual understanding and respect, openness of mind in dialogue, acceptance of the uniqueness and limitations of each, growth in spirit of service, and the practice of justice and charity.”
— The Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today: A Declaration, 1967