On 4 October 2021, our dear friend Dr Peter Schreiner said goodbye as Director of the Comenius Institute in Münster. He has worked at the Institute for precisely 30 years – since 1991 – first as a research assistant and then from 2015 as director. His area of work initially had three main tasks:
– to inform about the school and education system in European countries and to analyse developments in education policy,
– to perceive the different concepts of religious education and their changes across Europe and to remain capable of discussion given the increasing problems of legitimacy for RE,
– to follow developments in the cultural and religious sphere in Europe and participate in the solution of central problems (e.g. preservation and implementation of human rights, education for plurality and democracy, strengthening European values from the common Christian-humanist heritage).
These tasks remain relevant today and it continues to be essential to address them together in cooperation with numerous actors and different institutions in the European context. From the beginning, Peter Schreiner has worked intensively to build up such a cooperative network. As president of the ICCS for many years and as moderator of the CoGREE, he helped develop essential cooperation structures and played a leading role in them. He has also continuously advised the Board of the IV for many years.
ICCS and IV, as actors in the European field of religion and education, owe him a great debt of gratitude! In close cooperation, we will continue what he has created and work in his spirit. We will continue to carefully observe the tendencies of an economisation of education in the European context and counteract the danger of a functionalist narrowing of the education concept. Religion opens up a “more” for education that must not be lost.
The IV, unfortunately, has to say goodbye to another person: Hans Groen from the Netherlands, the long-time webmaster of the IV homepage, is ending his work at the end of the year for health reasons. The board of IV thanks him very much for many years of excellent and reliable cooperation!
We wish you all a joyful Christmas season and God’s blessing for a good and peaceful coming year in 2022.
Dr Tania ap Siôn and Prof Heid Leganger-Krogstad
Michael Jacobs and Piet Jansen (IV)