wfn.org | Pastoral Summit will focus on local churches

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 5, 2001	News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-71B{110}

NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #109.

By United Methodist News Service

Clergy and lay leaders from  "excellent" congregations and parishes will
lead workshops at the Pastoral Summit May 30-June 1 in New Orleans.

Protestant and Catholic lay leaders seeking ideas and inspiration will find
that the event is "one-stop shopping for the local church," according to
organizer Paul Wilkes. It will explore the best practices from both
traditions and demonstrate the power and potential of Christian churches.

Wilkes, a Catholic layman, is project director of a two-year national study
of successful local churches funded by the Lilly Endowment. Two books,
Excellent Protestant Congregations and Excellent Catholic Parishes, are the
result of that study and the basis for the Pastoral Summit. Co-sponsor is
the Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.

As keynote speakers, the Rev. Martin Marty and the Rev. Andrew Greeley will
offer Protestant and Catholic perspectives, respectively, on the idea that
"All Religion is Local." Leaders of the many workshops will include the Rev.
Patricia Farris, pastor of First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica,
Calif. Her church was among those featured in Excellent Protestant
Congregations.

The $150 registration fee includes all events, some meals and copies of the
two books. More information is available at the summit Web site,
www.pastoralsummit.org, or by calling (910) 962-7225.

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United Methodist News Service
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