Speakers say effective ministry responds to pastoral, community needs

Published: 2004-07-21

NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Sometimes the best evangelization plan could be boiled down to this: pull up a chair, shut up and listen -- to the people and to the Holy Spirit. Franciscan Father Ferd Cheri told the Archbishop James P. Lyke Conference July 16 in New Orleans that for ministry to be effective, especially in the African-American community, it must respond to pastoral and community needs. The annual conference, which attracted more than 700 participants from across the country, focuses on the enhancement of worship through inculturation and education in the African-American Catholic community. Formerly known as Unity Explosion, it was renamed for Archbishop Lyke, a Franciscan who served as Atlanta's archbishop from 1991 until his death from cancer in 1992. Nearly two years ago Father Cheri and two other Franciscans -- Fathers Carroll Mizicko and Christian Reuter -- were dispatched by their congregation's Sacred Heart Province to serve in East St. Louis, Ill., a poor urban area in the Belleville Diocese across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. "We model to the people of East St. Louis what it is to be brothers to each other," Father Cheri said. "When everyone else was moving out of East St. Louis, we were moving in. They know the Catholic Church has made a commitment to that city."

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