Episcopal Region XIII Team Begins Journey Towards the V Encuentro

On August 3-5, 2015 Episcopal Region XIII (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming) held their regional training in preparation for the V Encuentro Nacional Hispano/Latino de Pastoral in Colorado Springs, with the Diocese of Colorado Springs serving as gracious hosts.

The training gathered the Hispanic Ministry leaders from the corresponding Dioceses and including Representatives from CRS and the National ENAHVE Team. We arrived on Monday, August 3rd in Colorado Springs and greeted each other like familiar friends with hugs, kisses and handshakes. We soon moved to the Diocesan Pastoral Center of Colorado Springs for dinner, convivencia and prayer.

We launched into Session I, learning about the reason for the convocation of the 5th National Encuentro of Hispanic Ministry. The session began to open the dialogue and brought forth questions about how our time during these next 2 days would be important and historical. Our evening ended about 9 p.m. and we were all ready for some rest. Our time at the hotel in Colorado Springs over the next two days was spent experiencing the Encuentro. Each session gave us more tools and language to better articulate the need for the Fifth Encuentro. Each moment of pause gave us time to better know each other to talk about our fears, joys and hopes for the national gathering. Each small group discussion provided an opportunity to express the importance of the Encuentro process and the role each of us will play to help raise the Hispanic voice within the Church in the United States.

The training concluded on Thursday, August 5th. We entered into prayer which set the mood for the strategy session to begin forming the regional team structure. Our goal was to identify team roles, which we did efficiently and there was a great spirit of collaboration and recognition of our gifts. We finished confident that the Holy Spirit was moving us towards putting our gifts at the service of the Encuentro Process. The team hosted its training for the Diocesan V Encuentro Teams October 6-8, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 2015 © Ignacio Rodriguez.  All Rights Reserved.