ECUMENICAL CATHOLIC COMMUNION

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March, 2024

ECC Holy Synod of 2024

“Passing the Torch”

October 11 – 14, 2024

YMCA of the Rockies

500 Big Thompson Ave.

Estes Park, CO 80517

Greetings from the House of Pastors!

Hello to the Ecumenical Catholic Communion.

We are excited that it is a Holy Synod gathering year, and that Estes Park Colorado is our destination. We hope everyone has the dates October 11-14 on their calendar and ECC communities are finalizing who your HOL and HOP delegates will be. We also want to extend the invitation to attend Synod to EVERYONE, not just delegates. Our theme for this Synod is Passing the Torch.

This Synod will have a different tone throughout, more like a retreat. We know, there will be some work that needs to be accomplished, but the planners of this Synod want to take advantage of the amazing site where we are gathering in the mountains of Colorado to nourish our spirits as we build strong relationships together.

We have commitments from 2 of our 3 keynote speakers and are going to include some information about them later in this newsletter.

We know you are anxiously waiting for the materials to Register for Synod to be released, and we are hoping that will happen within the next 4-6 weeks. We are still looking for many volunteers to help, and we ask you to prayerfully discern if that might be a role for you this year.

For HOP members, please note that we will have an all HOP (delegates and clergy) gathering sometime in May. Our theme is Rituals of Reconstruction. We will share rituals that we have created for our communities that embody what it is to be Ecumenical Catholics. There is more information on that later in this newsletter as well and a Zoom link to be sent in May.

May the Blessings of Holy Week be shared with you and through you in abundance.

Teri Harroun

HOP Chair

pastor@lightofchristecc.org

303-886-2540

Trish Vanni

HOP Vice Chair

trish.vanni@charisecc.org

SYNOD 2024

Keynote Speaker: Rev. Richard Manalo

Rev. Ricky Manalo, CSP, Ph.D. is a Paulist priest, a composer, theologian, and author. He will help us explore what it means to gather for liturgy in a world that now includes technological connections in his session, Onsite and Online: Catholic Worship and Technology in a 2.5 World.

During the Covid epidemic’s highpoints, lockdowns drove the Christian Churches to quickly embrace a range of new technologies as they gathered for Sabbath worship. Although most of us initially faced hiccups and stutters, the presence of technology lingers in many of our ECC Communities. Many of us continue to use Livestream through Facebook, YouTube, or Vimeo; Zoom for hybrid worship; or post recordings of Sunday liturgy on our websites for later viewing. What does this mean for our present and future? How do we understand “full, conscious and active,” principles many of us have carried over into our ECC liturgical sensibilities? Is e-church church? We will hear from Fr. Ricky and engage questions together as we look at technology and new media, and it’s implications for our future as praying communities.

Many of you may know Fr. Ricky from his successful career as a liturgical composer. He is the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Catholic Music Composer of the Year Award by the Association of Catholic Publishers, and the 2018 Pastoral Musician of the Year Award by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He studied composition and piano at the Manhattan School of Music, theology at the Washington Theological Union (WTU), and liturgy, culture, and sociology at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), Berkeley, CA where he achieved a PhD in liturgical theology.

Fr. Ricky's music is published chiefly by Oregon Catholic Press. He is known to compose in a variety of musical styles, from contemporary to traditional, and from Western classical to Asian pentatonic. Some of his best-known hymns include:

Beyond the Days

In These Days of Lenten Journey

Pange Lingua

Spirit and Grace (and Mass of Spirit and Grace)

With One Voice

Worthy Is the Lamb

He is also known for pioneering and popularizing Asian Catholic liturgical music in the United States with his hymns, including:

Ang Katawan Ni Kristo (Filipino: "The Body of Christ")

By the Waking of Our Hearts

Many and Great

Fr. Ricky has written more than 30 articles, books, and chapters in books on a wide range of topics, including liturgy, culture, music, and the intersection of sociology and religious practices. His first book, Chanting On Our Behalf (revised edition, Pastoral Press, 2015) won the first place award for Best E-Book by the Catholic Press Association. His second book, The Liturgy of Life: The Interrelationship of Sunday Eucharist and Everyday Worship Practices (Liturgical Press, 2014) was a finalist for the 2015 Excellence in Publishing Awards by the Association of Catholic Publishers. He is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the International Societas Liturgica, and NPM (board member, 2008-12).

As a missionary priest, Fr. Manalo has been to 6 of the 7 continents to do a variety of presentations, from academic lectures, keynotes, and pastoral workshops, to preaching, presiding, and giving concerts. When he is not traveling throughout the world, he resides at St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York City.

Keynote Speaker: Christopher Pramuk

Christopher Pramuk lives with his wife Lauri and their family in the Denver area, where he serves as the University Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination and Professor of Theology at Regis University. He and Lauri met at Regis almost 35 years ago, where both, they say, were first “ruined by the Jesuits." She is a pediatrician, and together they have four children.

Chris recently completed a two-year term as President of the International Thomas Merton Society. Chris is the author of seven books, including Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters Across the Color Line (2013), a sustained meditation on race relations in society and church, and two award-winning studies of Thomas Merton: At Play in Creation: Merton’s Awakening to the Feminine Divine (2015), and Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton (2009), recipient of the International Thomas Merton Society’s “Thomas Merton Award,” its highest honor.

His writings have appeared in America magazine, Theological Studies, Cross Currents, and the prayer journal Give Us This Day. His book, The Artist Alive: Explorations in Music, Art, and Theology (2019) is the fruit of many years of using music, poetry, and the arts in the theology classroom. Chris’s forthcoming book, All My Eyes See: The Artistic Vocation of Fr. William Hart McNichols, a collaboration with artist and iconographer Fr. Bill McNichols, will be published in April 2024 by Orbis Books.

After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1987, in his hometown of Lexington, Chris moved to Colorado to study music, was drawn deeper into Buddhist and Christian spirituality, and taught theology at Regis Jesuit High School for five years. After completing his PhD at the University of Notre Dame, he taught at Xavier University in Cincinnati for ten years, developing courses at the intersection of spirituality, race, the arts, theology, and social justice. In 2015 he was honored by students in Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society, as Xavier’s Teacher of the Year. The following year he was recognized by his faculty colleagues with the Roger A. Fortin Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship in the Humanities. In 2017, he and his family returned to the Denver area, where his position at Regis University builds from his passion for the principles that animate Ignatian spirituality and Jesuit pedagogy.

Two of Chris and Lauri’s four children were adopted from post-earthquake Haiti in 2010, one of the many experiences of cross-cultural encounter he writes about in Hope Sings, So Beautiful. A lifelong musician and student of African American history and spirituality, Chris spoke in 2017 on racial justice, resurrection faith, and the legacy of the slave songs and spirituals for the national assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in Orlando. He lectures widely around the country and has led retreats on topics such as racial justice, Ignatian spirituality, and the witness of Thomas Merton.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

Lots of Volunteers needed for the ECC Holy Synod of 2024, to be held in Estes Park, CO, October 11-14. There are several teams that will be involved in the planning and hosting of this ECC Synod. Delegates and non-delegates can be part of these teams. Since the Synod will be in Colorado, it is essential for each team to have ECC members from Colorado helping. If you can be part of any of these teams, please send a note to Fr. Teri Harroun at pastor@lightofchristecc.org. Team Leads for each team will attend a monthly planning meeting with the ECC Leadership Council. Team members will meet with the team regularly to prepare for Synod. Here are the teams, and our greatest needs:

Tech Team 1: Meeting Room Support

This Team needs team members to help with the technology in the meeting rooms that has nothing to do with the internet. This includes microphones, lecterns, slide projectors, etc. Equipment will be supplied by the YMCA of the Rockies.

Tech Team 2: Online Support for Facebook and Zoom

This team needs both a Team Lead and team members. This team will coordinate all of the online sharing for Synod. Some will be via Zoom, some via our ECC Youtube channel, as well as loading things onto our ECC Synod Facebook page. Some members of this team will need to bring their own equipment.

Hospitality Team:

The Hospitality Team needs team members. This team will benefit from Colorado wisdom, as we help people prepare to be at altitude. This team will be ready to greet, and will create welcome bags for all participants (including water bottles, chapstick, etc). In addition, this team will put out snacks during social times, and perhaps some games, cards, etc. We are looking at having a dance one evening, and this team may be helping us to plan that event.

Transportation between DIA and Estes Park:

This team needs a whole bunch of Colorado folks with cars. This team also needs a Team Leader to coordinate everybody. If you are in Colorado, even if you are not going to Synod, please consider joining this team to show our Colorado hospitality and help our ECC siblings get to and from DIA and Estes Park. Driving will be needed mostly on Friday Oct 11 and Monday Oct 14.

Transportation onsite at YMCA of the Rockies:

This team needs a Team Leader and team members - Colorado folks, and others, who are taking their own cars to the Synod. Most people will be able to walk around the YMCA of the Rockies and easily get to all of the buildings that we have events in.

Liturgy Team:

This team needs creative members to help create the Liturgies for the Synod. One Liturgy during Synod will be in the big chapel on site and will be broadcast on the ECC Youtube channel so that all members of the ECC have the opportunity to worship together, whether attending the Synod in person or not.

Liturgical Items Team:

This team needs to be people from Colorado, who are able to bring the many liturgical items needed to the Synod: i.e. chalices, corporals, bread, wine, etc. This team will be helping with setup and cleanup for all liturgies. This team will work closely with the Liturgy Team.

Music Team:

This team needs a team leader as well as team members. There are several liturgies during the Synod and this team will be helping with those services. There will most likely be rehearsals at Synod. There may be an opportunity for "strolling musicians" one night as part of social time. This team will work closely with the Liturgy Team.

Registration Team:

This team needs team members. This team will create the registration form and process (the Leadership Council has already done the legwork to know costs and set up the contract in Estes Park). Information will need to be collected on the registration form including dietary needs, delegate or non-delegate, travel needs, etc. The Registration Team will work with the Hospitality Team for check-in upon arrival at the Synod.

Scholarship Opportunity

The Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship was started by ECC priest Mother Sheila Dierks from Colorado.

Several ECC women have received scholarships in the past.

http://www.womensordination.org/programs/scholarship/

Deacon Bob Pragano

Celebration for the ordination of new ECC Deacon Robert “Bob” Pragano, member of St. Francis ECC in Largo, FL on February 25, 2024. This celebration was led by our Presiding Bishop Pablo Burson and included attendees Rev. Rose Buffone from Holy Spirit Catholic Community ECC in Newtonville, MA and Paula Hayford from Emmaus ECC in Oshkosh, WI.