DATE: April 27, 2001
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information, Contact:
Bud Bunce (503) 233-8373
bbunce@archdpdx.org
STEWARDSHIP CONFERENCE COMES TO PORTLAND
Over 400 diocesan and parish leaders will attend the third biennial Northwest
Regional Stewardship Conference in Portland,
May 17 and 18, 2001. The two-day
meeting will bring together leaders and
experts from around the region and the nation
to offer insights on stewardship in the
parish. Participants from more than forty
parishes in the Archdiocese of Portland
will join representatives from eighteen other
dioceses.
Archbishop John G. Vlazny will open the conference Thursday, May 17th followed
by the keynote address to be given by
Archbishop James Keleher, STD. Archbishop
Keleher is the Archbishop of Kansas City
in Kansas. In addition he serves as the
Episcopal Moderator of the International
Catholic Stewardship Council and a member of
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops'
ad hoc Committee as Stewardship.
Archbishop Keleher has been a leader in
the preparation and promulgation of the 1992
Bishops' pastoral letter, Stewardship:
A Disciples Response.
Conference participants will be offered a broad range of workshops and
presentations including "Stewardship in
a Consumer Society," "Stewardship and Young
Adults," "Receiving and Transforming Volunteers,"
"Parish Planning," and
"Evangelization the First Step."
Among the seventeen presenters are Rev. Kenneth Boyack, CSP, Director of
the
Paulist National Catholic Evangelization
Association, and Ms. Marge Perez, Stewardship
Coordinator for the Diocese of Oakland.
Local presenters include Rev. Donald Buxman,
Pastor of Christ the King Parish, Milwaukie
and Rev. Paul Peri, Director of the Office of
Ministry Formation for the Archdiocese
of Portland and Administrator for St. Cyril Parish
in Wilsonville. The Conference closes
with a luncheon and presentation by Juneau's
Bishop Michael Warfel. Bishop Warfel chairs
the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops Committee on Evangelization and
leads the U.S. Commission on Catholic
Evangelization.
In 1992 the Bishops of the United States offered the Catholic community
a
challenge to make stewardship a way of
life. Catholic stewardship goes beyond the
Sunday collection and calls all the baptized
to see everything as a gift from our gracious
God to be used and shared for the good
of all. "The Local Church of Portland," says
Deacon Thomas Gornick, Archdiocesan Director
of the Evangelization and Stewardship,
"has been given a gift with this conference.
Parishes will have an extraordinary
opportunity to learn and dialogue with
national experts that can bring a new energy
and understanding of stewardship in parish
life."
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