TEXAS MISSION CONFERENCE 2008

Sponsored by Texas Mission Council
Friday – Sunday February 15, 16, & 17, 2008
Christian Renewal Center
Dickinson, Texas (near Houston)

          For the Texas Mission Council’s Annual Conference in 2008, we have invited Father Joseph Donders, one of the most prominent Catholic Theologians in Mission Theology to explain the Spirituality of Mission in terms of the life of ordinary Catholics. Father Donders will help our conference attendees understand their baptismal role as missionaries, whether at home or abroad.
          To compliment the message of Father Donders, the Texas Mission Council, in its pursuit of new and relevant guidelines for the Missionary Vocation of the Church today, has produced and is about to begin to distribute simple Guidelines for Mission in today’s world.
          While in no way, wishing to demean the traditional practices of Catholic Missionary labor of the past, with its emphasis on long term or even life-long commitment to the foreign missions, we have simply added a new dimension to Mission, adapted to today’s reality.
          This new commitment to mission, expressed in the booklet that the TMC has been developing for the past four years, using Church documents and the works of Catholic Theologians and Theological Schools, has been summarized by one of the Maryknoll Mission Educators, Matt Rousso, of the Maryknoll Mission Education Center of New Orleans, Louisiana.
          These points, which are part of TMC’s ongoing dialogue, can be summed up as follows, in two parts.

1. “THE CHANGING NATURE OF MISSION”

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2. “WHAT IS MISSION ABOUT TODAY”

a. The Changing Nature of Mission recognizes that in the past, the understanding of mission was often limited to the idea of “bringing God to the pagans” while in today’s understanding it means “meeting God already present among the peoples of the earth” (Vatican Council II)
b. From “Civilizing savages” we now include “cultural and religious appreciation of the values of other societies”
c. From “mission as an exclusive activity of Vowed Religious” to “an obligation for all the baptized “
d. Mission has expanded from “territorial/geographic” to “universal/everywhere”
e. Mission has developed from “doing for the poor” to include “being with the poor” 
f. Mission has grown from “doing works of mercy” to include “doing works of Justice”

At the TMC annual conference in 2008 at the Christian Renewal Center, Dickinson, Texas, anyone who is interested in knowing more about this new dimension in mission, including a further explanation of Spirituality of Missionin today’s world is invited to attend. Details about the conference and how you may join us are included in this Newsletter.
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Maryknoll Mission Tales

I ordered lunch in a café in Moquequa, in Southern Peru. The waitress asked if I wanted fried potatoes with the fish. “Are there other options?” I asked. “Of course” she said, “you can have the fish without the potatoes”

James Madden, MM

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The First Catholic Missionaries

“In the Acts of the Apostles we find that the first missionaries did not do any lengthy preaching. Those first missionaries arrived, announced the Good News, and shared the Spirit of Jesus (Christian Spirituality). As a local community formed itself, the members began to live their newly shared Spirit and immediately began to tackle the religious, domestic, and social issues around them in a new way. They began to worship together, they shared the Body and Blood of Jesus, but they also shared what we would call social care. One community helped another in economic need. Local communities started a soup kitchen in Jerusalem and a kind of Thrift Shop in Lydda, near Joppe. The communities had such influence that in some cities they became a danger to the existing official and corrupt order”

“Charged with the Spirit”
by Father Joseph Donders

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SPIRITUALITY – THE MORTAR OF MISSION
2008 Texas Mission Conference
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Friday, February 15, 2008
                                   Before Mission – Come Follow Me
3:00 – 6:00         Arrival and Registration
6:00 – 7:00         Meal
7:30 – 9:00         Introduction of TMC Conference 2008
9:00 – 10:00       Social

Saturday, February 16, 2008
                                  During Mission - Touch Me and Believe
8:00 – 9:00          Breakfast
9:00 – 9:15          Morning Prayer
9:15 – 10:30        Keynote – Mission Spirituality   Fr. Joseph Donders
10:30 – 11           Break
11 – 12                Group Work on Mission Spirituality
12:30 – 2             Lunch
2:00 – 3:15          Spiritual Practices on Mission – Fr. Joseph Donders
3:15 – 3:30          Break
3:30 – 4:30          Workshops – Journaling, Liturgy of the Hours & Ritual
5:00 – 6:00          Mass
6:30                     Supper
8:00 – 9:00          Vacation Bible School
                        -Learn three dynamics
                        -Learn five Spanish songs
                        -Dramatization
                        -Arts and Crafts
9:00                     Social

Sunday, February, 17, 2008
8:00                     Breakfast
9:00 – 10:00        Business Meeting
10:00 – 11:00      Operational Plan – Desired workshops, Mission trips
11:00                    Final Prayer
12:00                    Departure

(Download WORD doc with schedule and registration form.)

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2008 Texas Mission Conference
REGISTRATION FORM
Friday – Sunday,  February 15, 16, & 17, 2008
Christian Renewal Center
1515 Hughes Rd.,
Dickinson, TX 77539
(Take I-45 south toward Galveston and take exit 17 – Hughes Rd)

Name___________________________________________________________________

Organization or Parish _____________________________________________________

Personal Address_________________________________________________________

City_______________________State_________________Zip___________________

E-Mail_________________________________________________________________

Telephone_______________________________________________________________

Fee: Single Room Occupancy - $170 per person  (includes room, meals and registration)
       Double Room Occupancy - $150 per person  (includes room, meals and registration)

(If you have a preference in a roommate, please include the name of the person here)

Name_______________________________________________________________

NOTES:

Send registration form and fee to:
Texas Mission Council
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
2360 Rice Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77005

Checks should be made out to Texas Mission Council

Tables will be available for group exhibits.
Call Fr. Gerry Kelly MM at 713-529-1912 for information about scholarships

For more information about the conference, please email Awanda Whitworth
mklawandaw@aol.com or telephone 713-688-1060

For more information about the Texas Mission Council go to our website