NWCU BASIC CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Abide in my love… You shall bear much fruit
It has been quite a year, and plans have continued to change, but the National Workshop on Christian Unity will go on for 2021! We will have an entirely online Workshop which gives us the opportunity to provide you with the same great programming and none of the travel cost. Though we will miss being with each other physically, we are happy that we have found a way to continue to connect through this new “Covid-world.” Some of you may have used Whova for other conferences during the pandemic, but if you have not, we promise you will catch on easily and we will provide introductions to the platform before the Workshop begins.
As usual, some network meetings will take place on Monday (April 12) prior to the opening worship. (Look for emails from your network chairs for those details!) Opening worship will still be Monday evening (Eastern time, late afternoon Pacific).
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (April 13-15), we will have morning devotions followed by the three plenaries. Our Theologian in Residence will be Fr. William Skudlarek from St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. He was slated to be with us in Houston and has agreed to be with us online. He will lead us each morning in devotion and study.
We have also luckily been able to retain all of our plenary speakers; all plenaries will start at Noon EDT/9am PDT. Tuesday will feature Msgr. Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage who serves as the Secretary of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Wednesday’s plenary will feature Bishops from several of our denominations interacting about how our church bodies can abide in God’s love working on issues around human migration. On Thursday, we will take a boots-on-the-ground approach to the same topic with two people who are driving advocacy efforts, working directly with asylum and helping those in need at the border.
In addition to our headline programming we are prepared to offer several great seminars and a new way to experience our exhibit hall. This year as we will not have physical tables, you will be able to interact with our exhibitors and sponsors via video conferencing and informational videos. We look forward to what some of these “coffee hour” opportunities might offer in this new platform!
We are excited to be with each of you, albeit at a safe distance; we shall still be one in Christ.
Looking forward to being with all of you,
The National Planning Committee