MIDWEST Leadership Development Seminar:
chicago session rescheduled to spring 2014
new chicago date to be posted here shortly.
additional spring dates and registration forms for california, florida and new jersey coming soon.
for more information, contact sheilapeiffer.acc@gmail.com

ACC is pleased to announce the first of a series of regional leadership development seminars across the US inthe coming months. Our initial offering is in the MIDEWEST and takes place in Chicago.  Join us for an extraordinary weekend of dialogue, reflection, study, sharing, prayer, and action planning for leaders and those who feel called to leadership in Church reform at the local, regional, and national levels. A leader is one who influences others (who may or may not occupy a leadership position).

Changing ourselves to change the institutional church 

For decades we have endured abuses of power from the hierarchy, manifest in
the sex abuse scandal, financial malfeasance, and in the monarchical institutional church where exclusion, rather than inclusion, dominates the clerical culture.

Roma locuta est; causa finita est. Rome has spoken; the matter is settled!
In a word, we have been unthinkingly OBEDIENT!

There are reasonable alternatives to being blindly obedient! The ACC Leadership Development Seminar will give you tools to increase your ability to discern and follow your conscience and to foster this skill in others. We will explore options for
creative, nonviolent action and faithful disengagement with dysfunctional dictates
as we become empowered to Transform Power Relationships in the Catholic Church.

“[Jesus said:] Again I say to you, that if two of those among you have agreed on earth, about anything whatsoever that they have requested, it shall be done for them by my Father, who is in heaven. For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I, in their midst.” Mt 18: 19-20

Objectives of the Leadership Seminar

Participants will leave the program ready to:

• Teach others about power dynamics in the Church and how to shift those using nonviolent action;
• Share the core elements of a strategic analysis and an action plan for affecting change back home;
• Use tools for adult learning, community building, and nonviolent direct action for change;
• Be sustained by the strong collegial ties with other reformers and all the resources of ACC;
• Do all of the above following the Gospel values of love of God and love of neighbor as yourself;

For Program Brochure and FAQs, CLICK HERE
Check out Leadership Seminar Discussion Forum on the Assemblies Community Network;

About the Cost and Payment Process

Program Registration fee is $255, and includes all meals (Friday evening opening wine/cheese reception and dinner, 3 meals Saturday, and substantial late morning Sunday brunch); You can claim a discount of $20 if you register by September 20th:  enter "EarlyBird" (no space) in the "PROMO" field on the Registration link below. You will have the option to pay by check via US Mail or pay directly online using your credit card through PayPal. Payment through Paypal does not require setting up a Paypal Account. Book hotel room directly with the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg by calling 888-421-1442. Ask for discounted "ACC" rate of $85/nite.

REGISTER  HERE

Pope Francis on Dialogue:  Vatican Radio, 7/27/13, in Brazil

“When leaders in various fields ask me for advice, my response is always the same: dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. It is the only way for individuals, families and societies to grow, the only way for the life of peoples to progress, along with the culture of encounter, a culture in which all have something good to give and all can receive something good in return.

Others always have something to give me, if we know how to approach them in a spirit of openness and without prejudice. I call this attitude of openness and availability without prejudice, social humility, and it is this that favours dialogue. Only in this way can under-standing grow between cultures and religions, mutual esteem without needless preconceptions, respectful of the rights of everyone. Today, either we stand together with the culture of dialogue and encounter, or we all lose, we all lose; from here we can take the right road that makes the journey fruitful and secure.”