Last fall more than 3,000 people filled Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo for the Kalamazoo United prayer event. Jeff Wenke, Pastor, The Bridge, Portage and Bishop Bradley, co-organizers of Kalamazoo United, considered the event a great success as a visible show of Christian unity. The hope was to inspire greater unity and collaboration among Protestant and Catholic Churches in the Kalamazoo area. The logical follow-up question for the Kalamazoo United planning committee was, “What now?”
Priests, religious and lay leaders from 10 dioceses plus the Archdiocese of Detroit met at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit on June 2-3 for the Region VI of V Encuentro, a gathering of Church leaders to discuss how better to minister to the estimated 427,000 Hispanic Catholics in Michigan and Ohio.
More than 30 percent of students from Battle Creek Area Catholic schools’ (BCACS) community come from underrepresented racial and cultural groups. Administrators believe this vibrant diversity is a gift to BCACS, though they recognize it also comes with a challenge.
1968. It was a tumultuous time that is etched in history as the year of the tragic assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, countless protests of the Vietnam War and shifting cultural norms as more than 6 million women began using the birth control pill, introduced just eight years earlier. The year also marks a significant time in the history of the Church as many awaited the encyclical from Blessed Pope John VI where it was anticipated he would address the topic of artificial contraception.
After a long winter and a rather odd spring, we find ourselves ready for summer and all the season brings. Students are beginning to enjoy their summer vacation, families are planning summer-time activities, and hopefully, we all will experience a bit of a more relaxed schedule for the next few months. Even in our Liturgical schedule, the festive Season of Easter and Pentecost, and the subsequent Solemn Feasts, have been completed, and we have returned to what we call the “Ordinary Time” of the liturgical year.
Will offer comprehensive online and in-person courses for adult faith formation. Whether you learn best at 2 a.m. sitting at your laptop or within a group setting with live discussion an innovative new diocesan faith formation Institute will offer a course for individual’s different learning styles.