CSS Speaker Shares Just Faith Program With Archdiocese

ATLANTA--At the second annual Parish Social Ministry Conference held Oct. 10 at St. Pius X High School, keynote speaker Jack Jezreel shared inspirational highlights of his Just Faith program with 75 conference participants.

The participants, representing more than 25 parishes, listened attentively as Jezreel spoke about the program, which he developed as director of parish social ministry at the Church of the Epiphany in Louisville, Ky.

Just Faith is a 36-week program which is similar to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. It focuses on living the Gospel in the family, workplace and community. The program has been implemented in 10 dioceses and over 60 parishes.

During the opening session, Jezreel spoke about the importance of parish social ministry.

"Parish social ministry is done by a few instead of the critical masses in the parish. Parishes provide many opportunities for parishioners to live their faith and experience conversion," he said. "The challenge for parishes today is transformation and how to open the eyes of our brothers and sisters who do not see."

Jezreel also described authentic religious conversion as the deepening and widening of our capacity to love.

"Parishes should be tools of personal and social change," he said. "We need to ask of all social ministries--are these activities empowering? How many people have changed this week because of them? Have the helped people to love more?"

Jezreel commented on how true compassion is a mystical experience in which apparent boundaries between two people blur.

"When they're hungry, it hurts not just them, but us, too," he said. "We should be on the prowl to alleviate human loneliness and woundedness."

After Jezreel's workshop, many of the participants, like Gini Eagen of Corpus Christi Church in Stone Mountain, are excited about beginning the Just Faith program in their own parishes.

"I was very impressed," she said. "I've been working with parish social ministry for many years. This the first time that I have heard someone present an exciting workable process for integrating dimensions of parish social ministry into every area of parish life. I look forward to getting a copy of the syllabus for Just Faith and implementing the program in this parish."

Fifteen other workshops on various aspects of parish social ministry were also presented at the conference.

For more information about the Just Faith program, contact Myles McCabe at (404) 885-7451.