By Thea Jarvis

The scene is as bittersweet as a September song.

The weekend looms lazily ahead in a mellow, early autumn haze. The hours will be endless--to read in, to dream in, to savor to enjoy. So thinks Mom.

The walls begin caving in on Wednesday afternoon around 3:30. Shinola wants to have her best friend (this week) Alberta sleep over on Friday night. Fenwick decides Saturday would be a good day for a garage sale to raise money for a new hamster. (The old one is still lost in the living room sofa).

Igor announces his soccer coach scheduled a Saturday practice game at 4 p.m.--cross-town. Dad has three (count ‘em) tickets to the Falcons game. And little Elouise is begging to set her alarm for 5:30 Saturday morning so she can watch the “Wake Up With Willy Cartoon Extravaganza.” (chorus of sighs)

If weekends at your house promise the moon and deliver a bologna sandwich, you have much in common with the rest of the ladies of the Atlanta Archdiocese, who are planning a getaway guaranteed to cure September melancholia.

To be sure, the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (AACCW) doesn’t promise the moon, but they don’t deliver bologna sandwiches either.

What they do deliver is a Friday though Saturday program designed just for you--the contemporary woman in the Church--combining practical workshops, fellowship and spiritual stimulation.

This year’s AACCW convention “Respond to the Call,” begins Sept. 25 with registration at the Northwest Atlanta Hilton Inn. Friday’s evening events include an open business meeting and social hour, with music, refreshments and frivolity.

On Saturday morning after hot coffee and danish, the workshops begin. Members are invited to select those workshops that are of particular interest and attend as many as possible.

“What Women Could be Responding to in the Church and Diocese Today” will be presented by the Church Affairs Commission. The Family Affairs Commission will consider “Responding to the Needs of the Changing Family,” and the Community Affairs Commission will have as its workshop “The Rainbow in My Life--Growing Old Gracefully.”

El Salvador will be the topic of the International Affairs Commission workshop and Representative Joe Burton and Cheatham Hodges will be the featured speakers at the Legislative Commission’s workshop. The Organization Services Commission will present “Ways and Means: Involvement in Parish and Community” with Father William Calhoun and Mrs. Karin Haag of St. Joseph’s Church in Athens.

Saturday’s activities continue with a luncheon and business meeting followed by a panel discussion featuring guests from the National Council of Catholic Women and the Atlanta province. There will also be a display of archdiocesan organizations, through which members may become familiar with church happenings throughout north Georgia. Representatives will be available to explain the organizations and provide information on their goals and outreach.

Informal deanery meetings will precede the AACCW convention Mass, celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan at 6 p.m.

The closing activities Saturday evening climax the weekend events. The traditional banquet will this year feature a major dramatic event--a “walk through” 25 years of the Archdiocese of Atlanta--that doesn’t guarantee a Broadway run but does promise the usual AACCW hilarity.

Archbishop Donnellan will address the convention after the dinner and reflect on the silver jubilee celebrated by the archdiocese this year.

For the wonderful women of the archdiocese looking for a little time to themselves, the AACCW annual convention is a delightful way to spend an autumn weekend--and still make that Falcons game on Sunday with you know who.