[MGSA-L] FW: Women and Diaconal Ministry Conference - December 6, 2014 in NYC

[Van Steen, Gonda]

>From Teva Regule
for the St. Phoebe Center for the History of the Deaconess

*****

Dear friends and colleagues,

By now, many of you know of the upcoming Women and Diaconal Ministry Conference that will be held on Saturday, December 6, 2014 at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.  This is a particular follow on to this years' Sophia Institute Conference focusing on Healing, Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Eastern Orthodox Perspectives, held the previous day, Friday, December 5, also at Union.  For those interested, we encourage participation in both events.

In particular, the Women and Diaconal Ministry Conference is shaping up to be a timely and enriching event. (A Conference flier is attached to this email and includes a brief description of the event as well as the registration form.)  The planning Committee has assembled a list of wonderful speakers who we hope will both inform and encourage us to expand our understanding of the diaconal ministry of women in the Orthodox Church.  Registrations are starting to come in.  In addition to those in the NYC area, we are very pleased to see folks traveling from as far away as IL, OH, MO, VA, MA and England (!) for the event!  For those interested in attending, I encourage you to REGISTER NOW.  (It really helps the organizers to be able to plan properly, if folks register sooner rather than later.  You can register by filling in the fields on the attached flier and emailing it to Ann Marie Mecera at the address on the flier and then paying via PayPal on the website or filling out the form by hand and mailing a check.)  For all and especially those still thinking about the possibility, I have included a few of the highlights of the conference below.  Conferences such as this do not happen very often in the life of the Church, so I hope that you will give serious consideration to attending.  For those unable to attend, I invite you to donate to the conference to help defray some of the expenses of the event.  (You can do so via PayPal on the conference website:  http://orthodoxdeaconess.org/women-diaconal-ministry-conference/ under the "Registration and Donation" button or, of course, by sending a check.)

Please help us to spread the word by sending the conference flier to any friends or colleague who you think might be interested in this event.

In Christ,

Teva Regule
for the St. Phoebe Center for the History of the Deaconess

******

Conference Highlights:

Pre-Conference Gathering, Friday, December 5, 7:30 pm.  Due to the positive response to the conference, we will hold an informal gathering of registrants who will have arrived in the city the evening before the conference. This will take place after the Sophia Institute Conference and Banquet<http://sophiainstitutenyc.org/conference/> at Union Theological Seminary in James Chapel.

Enjoy dessert on us, begin the conversation of women and the diaconal ministry, network with one another, and enjoy fellowship.  For those interested, we encourage participation at the Sophia Institute Conference and Banquet.

Blessing & Offering of Food to the Needy.  The Women & Diaconal Ministry Conference will include DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD TO EMMAUS HOUSE, a hospitality house located in Harlem. We encourage registrants to bring (or purchase when you get to the city) non-perishable items to offer at our Opening Thanksgiving service. These will be blessed as a way to demonstrate the connection between our offerings and feeding the poor. In the early Church, the leftovers from the offerings (that were not used for Communion) were distributed by the deacon to the poor and needy. A remnant of this practice is seen in the blessing and distribution of the antidoron. A representative from Emmaus House<https://www.facebook.com/EmmausHouseHarlem/info> will be present to receive our offerings.

Themed Lunch Tables.  In order to make the most of our limited time together, lunch tables will be organized so that those interested in the various ministry topics covered at the conference (chaplaincy, spiritual direction, ministry of the Word, and parish administration) can eat lunch together, enjoy informal discussions, and network.

Book Tables.  Conference attendees will have the opportunity during breaks and lunch to browse the book table where publications will be available for sale that pertain to the topics addressed at the conference as well as those written or edited by some of our speakers.

Ministry Tables.  We invite attendees to display/distribute information about ministries in which they are involved. (To receive approval to display/distribute your information, please email us at stphoebecenter at gmail.com<mailto:stphoebecenter at gmail.com>.)

Post-Conference Dinner.  If you are not planning to leave town immediately after the conference on Saturday, we invite you to go to dinner as a group (Dutch treat). Information about the restaurant will follow.





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