January 25, 2002

                                                                                              NEWS RELEASE
                                                                                              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                                                              For More Information, Contact:
                                                                                              Bud Bunce (503) 233-8373
                                                                                              bbunce@archdpdx.org

GROUPS GATHER TO LEARN THE DYNAMICS OF EVANGELIZATION

        Parishioners from around the Archdiocese gathered at one of two sites to learn
practical aspects about Catholic evangelization. The workshops were held on January
12th at St. Paul parish in Eugene, and on Sunday, January 13th at St. Philip Neri Church
in Portland. The Eugene workshop included 60 people from 15 parishes ranging from
Ashland, Newport, Florence, and Salem to Portland. The Sunday workshop was
attended by 82 people from 28 parishes from Portland, Gresham, Forest Grove, Tigard,
Keizer, Salem and as far away as North Bend.

Parishes sending 5 or more participants were:
St. Joseph, Roseberg (8)
St. Mary, Our Lady of the Dunes, Florence (20)
St. Paul, Eugene (5)
St. Agatha, Portland (7)
St. Anthony, Forest Grove (11)
St. Cecilia, Beaverton (9)
St. Edward, Keizer (10)
St. Rita, Portland (9)

        The workshop answered the question of "what is evangelization?" and
participants discussed why they are called to evangelize. The dynamics of
evangelization such as witness, outreach, proclamation, invitation, conversion and
discipleship were explained. The workshop looked at three examples of how Jesus
evangelized, and how participants can share their own faith journey. The participants
were then challenged to share their own personal faith journey with someone who
would not know about their faith journey before the end of the following week.

        The presenter for the workshop was Frank Mercandante, who is the Executive
Director of Cultivation for team-based, comprehensive and disciple-making Catholic
youth ministers. Cultivation emphasizes training, resources and supporting adult and
teen leaders.

        The workshops were sponsored by the Archdiocesan Department of
Evangelization. At the end of the two workshops participants left organizers with such
comments as: "I am hungry for very practical training. I'll look forward to any more
training of this nature. It was excellent." Many expressed the need and desire for
more training programs and workshops on evangelization.

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