Diocesan Ministries Conference issues special call to young adults

By JAMIE MCCLURE, Globe Intern
Sept. 6, 2007

SPENCER - One of the goals of the upcoming 2007 Diocesan Ministries Conference is to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist in everyone's life.

Organizers want to particularly bring the message of the living Eucharist to young adults and thus are issuing a special call for their attendance.

The conference wants to invite students who are becoming mature members of the church through confirmation to seek out more knowledge of the Eucharist and its importance in everyone's lives, Vickery said.

The theme for the two-day conference is the Eucharist: The Community and the Mission of the Church.

"The Eucharist is a big topic," said Vickery. "There are professors who spend semesters trying to teach about the Eucharist and we have others who spend their whole lives learning about it. We want to spend a full day focused on the mission and it would be awesome to get as many people there as we can."

Speakers for both days will be Father Godfrey Mullen, OSB, and Father Denis Robinson, OSB.

Father Mullen is a monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey and has been an associate pastor, choirmaster of the monastery and chaplain to a monastery of Benedictine sisters. He has given workshops, retreats and missions in the area of liturgy and liturgical spirituality. Presently, he is the director of the Office of Permanent Deacon Formation at St. Meinrad School of Theology.

Father Robinson is a theologian with special interest in the work of John Henry Newman. He also teaches and writes in the areas of reformation theology, Anglican studies, theology and literature and priesthood. He has published a number of articles and papers and has presented on Newman in several countries.

Conference open to all

Vickery also stressed that the conference is an opportunity for every Catholic to attend whether a lector, Eucharistic minister, pastor, schoolteacher or a religious education teacher or just an ordinary parishioner.

"We all have baptismal calls to be ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ, and so it is important for people to stop and realize that they don't have to be a part of a ministry in their parish to come," said Vickery. "This conference is for everyone and it's free."

Vickery said he would like to see the Knights of Columbus, Diocesan Catholic Daughters, young and old and especially those who have recently joined the church and are with the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) or those who have just joined the church and are on fire with the excitement of their faith to keep that fire burning come to the ministries conference.

"The conference will serve no real purpose if we don't get people to feel like this is a personal invitation to come and join us in this experience," said Vickery. "It would be a great thing for groups from individual parishes to come.

"The ministries conference is intended to be a time that the individual parishes and schools come together to a common faith formation experience and an opportunity for us to all be on the same page, hear the same message and then go to spread love and serve the Lord," said Vickery.

In a change from past conferences, this year there will be two keynote speakers talking about the same common message, the Eucharist.

Schedule of sessions

On Sept. 23, registration will begin at noon followed by Liturgy of the Hours at 1 p.m. Session I will start at 1:30 p.m. and session II will begin at 3:40 p.m. The day will conclude with vespers at 5:30 p.m.

On Sept. 24, registration will begin at 8 a.m. followed by Mass at 9 a.m. with Bishop R. Walker Nickless as the main celebrant. Session I will start at 10:30 a.m. with lunch at 12:30 p.m. Session II will begin at 1:30 p.m. and Liturgy of the Hours at 3:30 p.m. will conclude the day.

Vickery's hope is that attendees will "walk away with a sense of being rejuvenated, feeling as if they learned something from an academic perspective, but more importantly, they learned something about themselves."

There are two options for registration - e-mail or paper. For e-mail registration, send the necessary information - date of attendance (Sept. 23 or 24), name, address, parish/school, city, home phone, e-mail, position/ministry at school/parish and any special dietary needs - to dmc07@scdiocese.org. If using paper form, mail in the entry that was sent out.

All registrations must be received by Sept. 17. For more information, send an e-mail to dmc07@scdiocese.org or call (712) 233-7520.

While Vickery asked that people register in advance so there will be enough hospitality and preparation, he said anyone who failed to register and feels called to attend the conference should feel free to attend.

"We will put our faith in God, we will draw our knowledge from the Gospel to let the Holy Spirit guide so many individual people - the local parish communities to come together to join in this extraordinary event," said Vickery.