Section 7 Meeting - Passivation



Section 7 Meeting

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta

February 4/5, 2006

Summary

1. Community Expectations:

- Community Couples need to have a sense of purpose or ownership for the ME Movement and understand the importance of their role: to invite, to serve as Prayer Couple, to support and attend Community. Presenting the talks in the Community Handbook help. Also let them know when they join community how important they are.

- When inviting couples to a Community leadership position, avoid telling them there’s not much work to the job because that leads to low expectations and performance. Better to tell them their importance in this role.

- Don’t take the decision away from others by not asking them to help. Give them the chance to say “yes”, or “no”.

- Try to make Communities family-friendly so that couples with children can participate.

2. Transmission Process for Community Leadership:

- One of the problem with weak Communities is the lack of strong leadership on the front lines. Sometimes in the turn over of Community Coordinators important information is not passed along.

- Community doesn’t have a formal written outline for passing on leadership.

- Community Pillars decided to formulate a Transmission Process similar to that used at other level or in other ME positions.

- The Lee and Jan Kremer will email a general outline for us to work from.

- The following couples volunteered to work on specific parts:

o Bernie and Kristi: The Atmosphere of Mutual Trust

o Earl and Monica: Sharing of Experience

o Jerry and Chris: Necessary Information

o Jerry and Julie: Prayer Service

- As drafts of each part are developed, they will be emailed to the Community Pillars for comments and suggestions.

- The Cincos will take the final drafts and put them in a final format for review at the August Section Meeting.

3. Bridging/Weekend Reunions:

We may need to re-think the role of the prayer couple. Maybe they are needed more to babysit so the Weekend couple can attend the Reunion.

4. Couples from the Weekend to Community:

Cincos will find and email to the Community Pillars the results of the St. Louis survey completed in 2003-2004 (compiled by the Hansons). The survey listed the reasons Weekend couples didn’t come to Community.

5. Review our concept of Community:

We were challenged to think outside the box about the role of Communities. Are they exclusively for ME couples? The suggestion was made, similar to the Parish Renew groups, that one or two Community meetings a year may be “open” meetings. Community couples would be asked to invite a non-Encountered couple to share a meeting with them. The presentation can be lighter, the non-Encountered couples can be asked to “journal” on the dialogue question, and would be welcome to participate in the sharing. This might serve as an inviting tool, a way to make ME more visible in the Parishes, and a method to support other good marriages.

6. Love Circles or Love Spiral:

These are 6-session programs for building and uniting Community Couples. Outlines are available on ERL:

7. Community Enrichment:

Chicago/Rockford/Joliet are planning an Enrichment for Community couples: Sat. Sept 30th, all day, more information coming later. Outlines might be shared with St. Louis or other areas for future programs.

Also, Springfield is presenting a Community Enrichment on “Open and Apostolic”, March 25th.

8. Build Community through focused activities:

If weekend recruiting was focused on a specific area, or 1-2 parishes, then the couples making the weekend might be from the same general area. The chances that they would come to Community might be better if they knew other couples from their weekend were also attending.

9. Review of ERL and other electronic resources:

The Kremers went through the Encounter Resource Library (ERL) and demonstrated some of the material available for Communities. They also showed a hand-out that they include in the Weekend packets that list resources for the newly Encountered couples. They will put it on the Community site at : munity

10. Make ME visible in Parishes:

Ideas were offered for making ME more visible in the local Parishes including:

o Wearing ME shirts to Parish events

o Volunteering to do parish projects as an ME group

o Sponsor Parish events as a group

o Volunteer to help with the Marriage presentation for RCIA program

o Get involved in Marriage Prep and recommend the soon-to-be married couple consider a ME weekend in the future.

11. Re-start the Prayers for the Weekend:

Suggested re-starting the Rosary for inviting and for couples to come to Community. Inviting Pillars will assist with developing a Prayer Scroll. Later, the idea can be extended to a 24-hour international prayer of adoration.

12. Progress with Parish Marriage Enrichments (PME):

- The Collisons have been invited to do a PME presentation for their diocese for the couples who present Marriage Prep in their parishes. Seems like a great way to get the ME word out to couples already interested in marriage relationships.

- Kremers are working with their Parish’s “Parents’ Night Out” offering a PME talk, then giving the couples the worksheet to take with them to their dinner-date, while the children are babysat at the parish.

- Cincos are doing their PME with the assistance of their parish Adult Education Committee – first session had 15 couples, 4 more sessions are scheduled this year, with the possibility of doing 5 more next year.

13. Track couples from PME to Weekend:

The suggestion was made to track the couples who attend the PMEs and see how many actually make a ME Weekend. It would be interesting to see how effective it is as an inviting tool.

14. Diocese Websites:

Community Pillars were encouraged to check their Diocese websites for any ME links and information. Contact their Family Life representative if changes are needed.

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