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Conference 2011 Phoenix, AZ

AAPC ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Thursday, March 31 - Saturday, April 2 (Conference Activities)
Sunday, April 3, 2011 (POST Conference Workshops)
Hyatt Regency
Phoenix, Arizona
 
EMBODYING JUSTICE:
Privilege, Power & Possibility
 
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Letter from Program Planning Committee-May 17th
Commitment to Retain Phoenix as the
2011 Conference Location
Supported by AAPC Board
 
Dear Friends,
 
While the 2011 conference is still ten months away, the Program Planning Committee of AAPC is greatly anticipating how we will continue to engage our three-year theme of “Embodying Justice” in the coming year. Our 2011 conference is scheduled for March 31-April 2 and is to be held in Phoenix, Arizona. As you might imagine, the conference location is raising many concerns among AAPC members in the wake of Arizona’s new immigration law. This law, having been created after the selection of the conference location, has also created a great deal of generative conversation among the members of the Program Planning Committee.
 
As the theme of the 2011 conference is Embodying Justice: Privilege, Power and Possibility, the dilemma of our meeting location in Arizona has led the Program Planning Committee to consider myriad possibilities for addressing the structures of privilege and power represented in the new Arizona immigration law. Some have suggested to us that moving our location away from Arizona is the appropriate way to address the injustice represented in the state’s immigration enforcement policies. The Program Planning Committee has also considered this option as a way of boycotting economic involvement with Arizona, but questioned whether this might represent a limited response that falls short of full prophetic engagement with the Arizona law and the realities of power and privilege it points to in the rest of the country. 
 
Rather than deciding to take our conference elsewhere, the Program Planning Committee, with the support of the Board of Directors, has decided to retain Phoenix as the location of the 2011 conference. Therefore, the committee has turned our attention to the question, “What communities in Arizona need our prophetic presence to stand in solidarity with them in resistance to injustice and oppression?” As we strive to “embody justice” as an organization, we believe Arizona’s current climate around issues of race and immigration represents an unanticipated opportunity to gather in a locale where relations of power and privilege have converged in a very visible way. In order to engage these realities of power and privilege in a responsible manner, the program planning committee hopes to provide resources for attendees such as a spending guide that will be created with local Latino/a organizations to ensure the money members spend in Phoenix supports individuals, families and organizations most negatively affected by the new law (and inadvertently negatively affected by other boycotting organizations). In addition, we plan to collaborate in relationship with Latino/a ministerial leaders in Phoenix that will allow for deeper understandings of oppression and injustice for AAPC conference attendees, as well as provide desired training in pastoral care and counseling for local Latino/a ministers.
 
With this in mind, we plan to begin the 2011 conference on Thursday morning rather than our typical evening opening. Thursday will become a day of immersion and engagement with local communities in Phoenix that will provide opportunities for direct action to engage the numerous convergences of power and privilege represented in Arizona’s current sociopolitical context (CEUs will be offered without pre-conference charges). Our focus at the outset of the conference will be the interconnectedness of oppressions that affect all persons across markers of identity—whether racial, sexual, gender or class. 
 
As the Program Planning Committee continues to consider creative ways to embody justice, we ask that you please consider joining us in Phoenix in 2011 so that AAPC’s acts of solidarity with the oppressed and our prophetic resistance to unjust structures of power will not go unrecognized by a lack of member involvement. While feelings of anger and disappointment over Arizona’s new law may keep some away from our 2011 gathering, we are committed to ensuring that our theme “Embodying Justice” is embodied in our presence where it is needed most—in the presence alongside those experiencing the effects of oppressive relations of power and privilege. We hope you will join us in Phoenix.
 
Blessings,
2011 AAPC Program Planning Committee
 
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REVAMPED 2011 ANNUAL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES
 

 

Thursday, March 31 
[Thursday’s participation included in FULL or ONE Day Registration. 
CEUs will be offered without pre-conference charges.]

DAY:  Immersion and Engagement with Local Communities in Phoenix         
 
EVENING:  Opening Gathering & Presidential Address
  
Friday, April 1    

 
MORNING:        8:30 AM                Keynote Speaker – Emmanuel Lartey
                         10:45 AM               Keynote Speaker - Leanne Tigert
 
AFTERNOON:    2:00 PM                Workshop Sessions
                           4:15 PM                Workshop Sessions
 
Saturday, April 2  
 
MORNING:            8:30 AM              Keynote Speaker – Duane Bidwell
                             10:45 AM             Table Talk
 
AFTERNOON:     2:00 PM                Workshop Sessions
                           4:00 PM                 AAPC Business Meeting
 
EVENING:            6:00 PM               Reception
                             7:15 PM               Banquet, Awards, Closing
Sunday, April 3
 
MORNING           8:00 AM          Community Reflection/Liturgy
                            9:30 AM           POST Conference-Half & Full Day Workshops                                                                   (Fee Charged)
 

 

 
2011 WORKSHOP Selections Completed - 30 Sessions to be Offered PLUS Four Post-Conference Workshops -- Details regarding the Annual Conference will be forthcoming on this website AND the 2011 Annual Conference website currently under development.