The Faithful Speak: Accountability Now

July 8-10, 2005
Indiana Conference Center
100 South Capitol Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana

The convocation will begin officially on Saturday morning at 8 am and conclude at 1 pm on Sunday. However, the Friday training program is a “bonus” inclusion in our time together. There is no extra charge for the Friday training workshops. For convocation attendees unable to participate in the Friday afternoon opportunity, there will be a “Next Steps” presentation on Sunday, just before our Sending Forth ceremony. This will send you home with some tools for moving ahead in the work we share. More details will be posted soon.

There will be an exhibit space available for VOTF working groups and affiliates whose work would be of interest to attendees. This will provide an additional opportunity for VOTF leaders to answer questions, give some advice, and provide a snapshot of how connected we are to each other and to our mission statement and goals. Prayerful Voice is also planning a quiet space for reflection and prayer with particular attention to survivors.

Please remember that Indiana is in the Central Time Zone. All times posted here are Central Time; you will need to make time adjustments accordingly. If you need additional details, click here.

Friday July 8, 2005

2:00 - 2:20 Welcome, Prayer, Introductions, Overview of Goals and Agenda

2:20 - 2:45 Grassroots Organizing and Action Training

2:45 - 3:35 Skill Training – Round 1 (Attend one training from the list below)

3:35 - 3:50 BREAK

3:50 - 4:40 Skill Training – Round 2 (Attend one training from the list below)

4:40-4:50 BREAK

There will be a liturgical dance training session during the time of the second Friday afternoon breakout for all who are interested – both “seasoned” dancers and “newbies” are welcome. The Friday training/rehearsal session is for performance at the Saturday noontime prayer. Judy Moynihan, dance instructor, promises that the routine she is choreographing to “Ubi Caritas” (Laurence Rosania) will be simple enough for attendees to share in their home worship communities.

Liturgical dance dress for the Saturday noontime prayer will be white T-shirt and black slacks (for both males and females).

4:50-5:00 Key Learning, Evaluation, Closing

5:00 – 5:45: Fr. Donald Cozzens, Fr. Tom Doyle and YOU – “A Shared Priesthood”

Please join Fr. Donald Cozzens, Fr. Tom Doyle and VOTF affiliate leaders Janet Hauter (IL) and Mary Pat Fox (NY) for an open discussion around lay and ordained ministries.

In Cozzens’ book Sacred Silence, he said, “It is time to replace fear with confidence and control with trust.” Doyle said recently, “There is more hope (for the Church) in Voice of the Faithful than any other organization with the name Catholic attached to it."

This is a conversation you will not want to miss!

Skill Trainings Offered

A) Media - Suzanne Morse (National Communications, MA)

B) Meeting Facilitation - Gerry Stark (Baton Rouge, LA)

C) One on One Conversations - Judy Miller (Montgomery County, MD)

D) Recruitment - Sara Koehler and Mary Catherine Gibson (Indianapolis, IN)

E) Prayerful Voice - Kevin Connors (Long Island, NY)

F) Strategy - Janet Hauter (Chicago, IL)

G) Conflict Resolution – Richard Taylor and Phyllis Taylor (Greater Philadelphia, PA)

H) Survivor Support - Sue Archibald (LINKUP), Linda Harvey (Restorative Justice Council), Marge Bean (National Survivor Support Working Group), David Clohessy (SNAP)

I) Closing Parishes - Sharon Harrington and Sheila Connors Grove (Weymouth, MA)

From 6-8 pm on July 8 at the Hyatt Regency in Indianapolis, VOTF will host a Convocation Reception for convocation attendees. We hope many of you will join us. There will be signs on the first floor of the hotel directing you to the second-floor reception. The Indianapolis steering committee will host this gathering and provide name tags at the door for those not yet registered. Light snack food will be provided and a cash bar. A skyway connects the conference center with the hotel, for those who might be coming from the Friday afternoon convocation program.

The Hyatt Regency Indianapolis has an informative web site including maps. Click here.

Saturday July 9, 2005

9:00 - 9:25 Welcome – Ken Sauer, Indianapolis VOTF; Opening Prayer – Susan Troy and Sr. Betsy Conway, VOTF Prayerful Voice

9:25 - 10:10 Keynote Address: Francine Cardman, Weston Jesuit School of Theology, "Re-membering the Church: Participation and Structure Then and Now"*

10:10 - 10:30 Break

10:30 - 11:15 Voice of the Faithful: Where Have We Been? Moderator – Peggie Thorp, VOTF Communications

Working Group chairs/represenatives will recap three years of their work and achievements:

Prayerful Voice – Susan Troy
Survivor Support – Steve Sheehan
Priests’ Support – Svea Fraser
Structural Change – Margaret Roylance
Protecting Our Children – Elia Marnik
Voice of Renewal/Lay Education – Donna Doucette

11:15 - 11: 35 - Mary Heins, Indianapolis co-chair, introduces Jim Post

11:35 - 12:05 Question & Answer between attendees and all morning speakers

12:05 - 1:20 Noonday Prayer/ LUNCH

Please join your fellow affiliate representatives for an exchange of tales,
trials and triumphs of the VOTF affiliate experience. Take notes (betweeen
bites), laugh, remember, and share during lunch on Saturday July 9 from
12:35-1:15pm.

1:20 - 2:00 VOTF vice-president Kris Ward: “Accountability in Our Church”

Panel presentation: Justice Anne Burke will address bishops’ accountability; David Castaldi will address accountability in Church finances; Paul Lakeland will address accountability among the laity

2:00 - 2:20 Break

2:20 - 5:10 Breakout Sessions

There will be a total of nine breakout sessions in the Saturday afternoon portion of the program.

Bishop Accountability:

1. When an Episcopal See falls vacant, how can the faithful, both clergy
   and laity, participate effectively in the process of filling the post?
2. How can bishops be held accountable for failing to carry out their
   governance responsibilities? What can survivors teach bishops?
3. How can the laity effectively communicate and participate in deliberations with bishops at the diocesan and national levels?

Financial Accountability:

1. Whose money is it, anyway? What do we expect when we call for full disclosure of parochial and diocesan finances?
2. How can parishioners claim meaningful and effective participation in
   their parish finance councils? What has worked? What hasn’t?
3. What is the scope of a meaningful voice for laity in diocesan financial structures? Is it enough?

Lay Accountability:

1. How can we ensure that women’s gifts, and those of all marginalized persons, effect a more truly “catholic” Church?
2. How can the voice of the laity be heard in the parish, the diocese, the nation and in Rome?
3. What spirituality practices might enrich our faith lives in this new millennium?

5:30 Mass

Sunday July 10, 2005

9:00 - 9:15 Morning Prayer

9:15 - 10:00 Awards

10:00 - 10:15 Introduction and Commissioning of National Representative Council

10:15 - 12:00 Sensus Fidelium – Presentation of the 9 Breakout Findings and Recommendations to Council and Officers (Breaks to be announced by the moderator)

12:00 – 12:30 Next Steps: What Do We Do Now?

12:30 Sending Forth ceremony and Departure

 

*Re-membering: 1) to call to mind, to know again, to make a part of oneself in being and doing; 2) to bring together again, to rejoin separated parts or members, to re-form and reintegrate, to renew and make whole.

Re-membering is an organic process of incorporating past and present, the many and the one, both in oneself and in other bodies of which we are a part. Re-membering the Church recalls who and how we have been, reviews who and how we are, and re-visions who and how we might be as Church. The process of re-membering the Church calls into communion the lost and silenced voices, the forgotten possibilities, the necessary alternatives from every age so that we might faithfully pray, think, and witness together as Church for the sake of the gospel and the life of the world.