The meeting began at 9:10 a.m. and was held at the Retreat site, the Ramada Inn near Spotsylvania Mall in Fredericksburg. Present were: Geoff Davis, Lay Director; Mark Hopkins, Weekend Chair; Ed Schneider, Fourth Day Chair; John Symonds, Region 1 Rep., Elaine Kallio, Team Caller; Bill Burk, Spiritual Director, and Connie Smith, Secretary. Dave Wright, Treasurer, could not attend but will be on board in the future.

Minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Spiritual Directors for Weekends. Father Burk reported that his fourteen no's have increased to twenty-two. As of now, the Men’s Weekend is still unstaffed; 13 messages are outstanding. For the Women’s Weekend, he is scheduled to serve, along with probably Kate Chipps and possibly Sam Faeth. For the Co-Ed Weekend, Jenks Hobson, Bob Malm and possibly Bill Wells are committed.

ECLW. Yvonne Mulligan has found local housing for the national team. The cost for the event per person will be determined by dividing the cost for the facility and the national team by the number of participants. It is scheduled July 11 – 13 at St. Margaret’s in Tappahannock. Applications need to go on the Website.

Weekend Report. Mark Hopkins has been working on the Team Formation Manual. The dates, places and personnel of the 2003 weekends are:
Men’s – May 29 – June 1 at Shalom, Ed Schneider rector
Women’s – June 12 – 15 at Shalom, Sue Davis rector
Co-Ed – October 16 - 19, at the 4_H Center in Front Royal, Ted Simpson rector
Diocesan Council. Ed Schneider has sent in his registration, including forms for Geoff Davis and John Symonds. John passed around a prototype of an image and info he plans to reproduce for Council. He will also send a flyer to be reproduced for distribution to churches. Saturday will be a conflict for Geoff as it is also the MIDLIC (Mid-Atlantic Leaders in Cursillo) meeting that will introduce Pete Jeffrey from MA, the new national representative.

Meeting with Bishop Jones. The new Assistant Lay Director is David vanEsselstyn. The Bishop suggested that the Cursillo Movement needed to focus more on the Servant Community. Therefore, he recommended appointing a Chairperson of that body to serve for a one-year term. He wants to see the Servant Community empowered and active. The new draft of the By Laws reflects these directions. There was some concern voiced that the Movement was moving too much under the control of the Bishop since he would now be appointing most of the key positions (Lay Director, Asst. Lay Director, Spiritual Directors, and the Chair of the Servant Community); the idea is that this last position would serve as something of a liaison between him and the Community.

Applications. Jan Welch’s address will now appear on the Candidate Applications so they will be sent directly to her. Ed will make the change on the Website. Joe Kokalas is no longer Webmaster (though he has done good service!); Jo Freeman is taking over that position. Team Applications should still go to Pete Demaree so he can forward the updated database to Elaine Kallio, the new Team Caller.

Fourth Day. Ed Schneider reported that the ECLW is going forward. A Mid-Winter Grand Ultreya, on which John Symonds is working hard, is scheduled for Church of the Messiah on Saturday, February 22 with a pot luck supper beginning at 6:30, followed by an Ultreya at 7:30 p.m., followed by a Eucharist, celebrated by Jim Reed. Also, there will be a Day of Deeper Understanding in late June.

Team Training Manua. Mark Hopkins distributed some hard copies at the meeting and promised electronic copies as well. A rector should re-read this manual every time s/he serves. Successful weekends build on organization and prayer. The intent of this document is also to hand more authority over to the Servant Community; the Secretariat does not “run” the weekends. There is a list of “optional” events some of which seem to be considered mandatory; we need to consider that list especially prayerfully. Father Burk suggested that we add weekend witness talks from the new Cursillistas at Clausura to that list.

The next meeting, on Saturday February 15 will be held in the Family Room of St. George’s Church in Fredericksburg. It will be a meeting of the Servant Community, followed by a meeting of the Secretariat. This is a new direction in which God seems to be leading. We will get the word out as quickly and completely as possible, open to the possibility that new leaders may emerge, perhaps even recent Cursillistas. The Secretariat is, after all, only the policy-setting body of the Servant Community. It is not meant to wield any kind of ultimate authority.

Father Bill Burk ended the meeting with an inspiring story of re-covering an old hat box, with celebration of the Eucharist – and with fervent prayer. The meeting ended at 4:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Constance Fletcher Smith