Remember the Progressive Faith Blog Con, which I blogged about a few months ago? The planning committee has finally settled on a venue and a date. The con will be held from July 14-16, 2006 at Montclair State University in New Jersey, not far from NYC. (Here's Thurman's post announcing the news.) I've posted the mission statement before, but I figure it's worth saying again:

Faith and politics have the capacity to profoundly divide, or to profoundly connect. Progressive Faith BlogCon is a chance for progressive bloggers of faith to meet one another, talk with one another, and learn from one another.

Our progressive politics are rooted in our theologies, and our theological stances inform our politics; why not celebrate them together? During this weekend gathering we'll break bread together, talk about the subjects that fire our passions, and put faces with the names on our blogrolls.

The current plan calls for a bunch of panels -- led by and for bloggers of progressive faith -- on subjects that matter to us. For instance, I'm planning to suggest panels on ecumenism in the blogosphere, using blogs for Scripture study, and a few other nifty things; I'll post more about that soon. We're also hoping to have a couple of keynote speakers, and some ecumenical worship opportunities. It should be a ton of fun.

It's not yet clear to me whether or not I'll be able to be there. On July 17th I'll begin a two-year program in liturgical leadership skills, the Davvenen Leadership Training Institute, which meets for week-long retreats every six months. It's required by the Aleph rabbinic studies program, and I'm incredibly excited about it. Trouble is, I'm not sure I'll be able to go straight from the PFBC to DLTI. (For one thing, it turns my July into alphabet soup! But more seriously, it means a lot of time away from home, and two intense experiences back-to-back, and it might not be feasible.) We've talked about wanting to make remote participation possible, ideally via an irc channel and webcast; I'll keep folks posted on how and whether that develops, and on my own plans as they come together.

That said, I'm still on the planning committee, and I'm incredibly excited about the possibilities inherent in a group of progressive religious bloggers getting together. If there's any way I can be there, I will; I hope you will, too. Register here if you want to be on the mailing list; as more information coalesces, we'll let you know. (And if you want to help out in one way or another, let us know; we can always use more hearts and hands!)

Technorati tags: religion, Judaism, progfaithblogcon.