The first round of Early Registration with the greatest discount for the ACC National Council in Detroit (June 10-12, 2011) has been extended 7 days. The normal rate is $260, but if you submit on line or via mail postmarked by August 7th,  you lock in a great rate at $170 pp ($153 in groups of 10 or more). You can register in two ways:

• ONLINE REGISTRATION
• Mail-In Registration Form

Focusing Our Aims In Detroit:
In recent days the ACC National Planning Committee has had occasion to weigh in on a debate between two progressive Catholic thinkers, Michael Morwood and Robert Blair Kaiser, that recently appeared in an online exchange in New Catholic Times. Morwood is a former priest from Australia, author and adult Christian educator now living in the US. Kaiser is also an author and journalist by profession, formerly with CBS and the New York Times, for whom he covered Vatican II back in the 1960s.

Last month, Kaiser critiqued Mr. Morwood’s position in Kaiser’s Response in New Catholic Times.  We note that Kaiser had been initially involved in the early formation of ACC in 2008, but subsequently resigned from the National Planning Committee because he felt that we had not, as part of our mission statement, called for the creation of an autochthonous American Catholic Church, i.e. an indigenous genuinely “American” Catholic Church.

The ensuing controversy between these two fine thinkers has indirectly impacted ACC. Though we respect the right of each to speak his mind, the situation is compounded in that:  (1) We only became aware of Morwood’s critique through third parties and never received it directly; and (2) Kaiser did not consult with us prior to his response and does not speak for ACC leadership. Accordingly it is incumbent on us to clear the air on this matter and clarify our position.

ACC’s Response recently submitted to New Catholic Times:
In September 2008, those involved in the early development of ACC considered the various missions, opportunities and issues associated with the formation of another group of lay-led reform Catholics in the US.  We decided then that many issues addressed by the missions of our partners in the reform movement had a clear commonality: They would all benefit from the application of the Motifs of the Holy Spirit which emerged from the Second Vatican Council.

In January 2009, on the 50th anniversary of the call of Blessed John XXIII for convening Vatican II, the American Catholic Council issued its Declaration.  In that document we addressed our reading of the “Signs of the Times” and suggested that an anniversary celebration of Vatican II could renew our commitment to the Motifs of the Spirit which emerged from this historical event.

We underscored the following Motifs of the Holy Spirit as manifested in Vatican II:
· The universal call of all the baptized to ministry & participation in our Church;
· The primacy of a properly formed conscience in moral decision making;
· The universal availability of sacraments for food on the journey;
· Humble ecumenism;
· Participation of all the baptized in the temporal governance of our Church;
· The need to look again at the earliest institutional formation of our Church;

We decided to plan a two year series of Listening Sessions through local and regional Assemblies across the country, to invite the baptized to learn about, discuss and express their concerns, dreams and priorities about these motifs.  We are now more than a year into that venture.

We have been criticized on the right for being insufficiently deferential to the “magisterium” as they define it.  We have been criticized on the left for not being willing to take on the doctrines of Nicea, for being too institutionally deferential, and for not being the incubator of a new form of US Catholicism.

None of our individual planners speak for ACC and in fact no one does, as we are only midway through the listening process which will help form our agenda in Detroit on Pentecost Weekend in June 2011.

But, this much we do know:

• Certain fundamental rights and responsibilities of all the baptized need to be proclaimed and celebrated; See our developing draft of a Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities which is emerging as a central component of our deliberation in Detroit; and
• Leadership and Governance are emerging as the central issues, though not to the exclusion of others;  a thorough renewal of our institutional structures is required, if we are ever to have full participation of all the baptized, greater availability of ministerial opportunity, greater accountability, a reversal of the disintegration of the Catholic Church in the US and beyond, and a return to the Church envisioned in the Gospels;

We regret that some may feel this is not enough, or conversely, that even this agenda is simply impossible or Pollyanna-ish.  Yet, planning for the Council continues to more forward and we are greatly optimistic that thousands of Catholics who believe that our Church can be renewed and revitalized with the help of the Holy Spirit will join us in Detroit. Please work with us.  Please join us. Thank you

– Janet Hauter & John Hushon
Co-Chairs, American Catholic Council, Inc.

Note: You can monitor and/or participate in this continued discussion in the FORUM within the ACC Assemblies Community Network: Morwood/Kaiser Discussion. To learn how FORUM works, see the article below.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: New ACC OnLine Forums
We are pleased to announce a new line-up of discussion “Categories” in the FORUM that has been relocated to the ACC Assemblies Community Network. Only the “home” page of the Assemblies Community Network is visible to the public. Most features of this “social networking site” (including all interactive features like the MEMBER FORUM) will require a simple “sign-up” process. If you are not already a member of the Network, you will be prompted to sign-up when you click on “Discussion Forums” in the horizontal Menu Bar.  Before doing so, we strongly encourage you to review the following documents about “membership” in the Network:
On Balancing Privacy and Transparency
How Membership Works on the Assemblies Community Network
The Forum consists of 8 Categories, each with a number of discussion threads that have been set up. Members can reply to any existing discussion or create new discussions in most of the categories.
The categories are as follows:
1. Key ACC Documents;
2. Nuts and Bolts of Planning Listening Sessions;
3. The Process in Detroit: Hopes, Expectations and Anxieties;
4. GOVERNANCE: The pivotal ACC Agenda;
5. Other Issues of Church Reform;
6. Engaging Young Adults and College Students;
7. Reaching out to Other Constituencies;
8. Other Topics;

Please See the following additional information:
Overview Description of content in each Category;
Guidelines for using the Discussion Forum;If you need further assistance, please contact Technical Support.
We look forward to your continued Conversation!

There’s been a significant increase in the number of people in most every state in the nation who are accessing the Assemblies Community Network and going further by joining as members of that innovative online interactive community. Local Planning

The North Florida ACC Team is hosting hospitality sessions in homes across the region, as they prepare for an assembly in Jacksonville in February.

Teams continue to form around the country, using the summer months to plan for Fall Assemblies. More than 30 local planners recently took part in teleconferences designed to support local planning efforts.

We give thanks for the courage of these folks in the grassroots who are rising to the challenge. Like Jeremiah, they may often feel like saying, “I don’t know how to speak. I am only a child!” … yet they echo the prophet Isaiah, saying, “HERE I AM LORD!” … trusting in the consoling words of our Loving God, “Do Not Be Afraid, I am with you … I have called you by name.”

People ARE spreading the word by including articles about ACC in their newsletters and email communications far and wide. Here are some stats as of July 23:

• Listening Sessions COMPLETED: 27 sessions in 11 states
  
• Participants in past Listening Sessions: Approximately 900
• Confirmed UPCOMING SESSIONS on the ACN Calendar: 9
• Prospective UPCOMING SESSIONS in Planning: 35+
• ACC Email Database: 1218
• “Sign-ups” on Assemblies Community Network (ACN): 337
• First Time Visitors to the ACN website: 4368
• Total Hit Count to the ACN website: 5929

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE DESIGN FOR A LOCAL LISTENING SESSION
For more information, check out the Local Planners Toolkit on the Assemblies Community Network or email Peg Bisgrove or Sheila Peiffer of the Local/Regional Assembly Committee.