Update on our IEC Project   

ACC has begun a collaboration with members of some of the longer-established intentional Eucharistic communities in the DC area. Participants are working on updating the IEC directory on the established   website as well as developing supplementary resources that might be helpful to those in the beginning stages of forming an IEC.

As we work on this project, we will keep you abreast of developments. We realize that there are already many resources and networking opportunities available. Here are some sites that could be helpful immediately:

Assemblies Community Network -  – This ACC site offers its members opportunity for networking, “conversation” and resources. There are several discussion forums devoted to aspects of IECs. If you are not a member, follow the easy directions on the home page to become enrolled.

Intentional Eucharistic Communities Facebook page – - This facebook page is available to anyone who belongs to facebook. Search for “intentional Eucharistic communities group” once you have signed into Facebook. There is potential here for sharing documents, ideas and discussion.

Sacred Quest website — This site developed by John Chuchman contains essays and tips about small faith communities and house churches, as well as a listing of additional websites to explore.

Alternative Catholic Experience website -  This is another website that has a directory of independent Catholic communities that offer an alternative catholic experience.

To the Reader:  Please consider these as a draft of our Core Values in our work to replace the Prodigal Church’s monarchical structure and systems with a gospel community whose governance is egalitarian, diverse, and democratic.

As the American Catholic Council, we recognize that the bishops attending Vatican II voted in overwhelming numbers in favor of the core values of collaboration, subsidiarity, and collegiality.  They also embraced a heightened role for the laity, stating emphatically that the Church is the people of God.  We are emboldened by these concepts and the Spirit of Vatican II on the “signs of the times” and we thirst for continued pursuit of these values as full members of the Body of Christ to re-imagine a Church that “is not yet.”

We have noticed Church leadership that have re-interpreted, negated, and/or ignored the blessings afforded the Church by Vatican II.  We openly reject these revisionist actions and instead recognize and affirm the following values:

We recognize the following as the basis of our values:

•   The primacy of conscience in decision-making by all members in the Church
•   The place of democracy, not monarchical control, in structures that govern our lives.
•   Inclusion of the laity as equal members in deciding central Church issues and appointments to reflect “the signs of the times” and the inherent abilities and rights of the Body of Christ.
•   The sacred dignity and giftedness of all people and their concomitant right to expression and participation in all aspects of Church.

We state our core values:

RESPECT:  We believe Jesus modeled a unique respect for all people through His loving kindness, Gospel compassion in dealing with conflict and mutual acceptance of the views of others.  We universally embrace that model for all communications and actions.

JUSTICE-BASED ACTIONS:  Our faith is justice centered.  We believe that by our baptism, we are stakeholders in the Church and empowered by the Spirit to speak to injustice in society and in the Church.  We will address injustice issues objectively, appropriately, openly, honestly and courageously and will not shirk that responsibility, as we work to bring about a gospel community whose governance is egalitarian, diverse and democratic.

ACC Advisory Board:

An Invitation to those who feel “called”

Since we are a movement pledged from inception to being “grassroots”, we need to ensure that our work reflects the passions of laity invested in reform.  To do that (and save time since we can’t do “person on the street” interviews) we need a group of dedicated Catholics with a vision of a healthy church that have a cadre of skill sets which will contribute to our mission.

This board is ad hoc and inclusive and therefore open to all who are:

•   Catholic endorsers of our mission and values with commitment to reform of the governance of the  institutional Church reflecting the principles and spirit of Vatican II
•   Committed to active participation in the work of the Board, including contributions of all types:  time, talent, treasure.

What specifically are we looking for?

We need a diverse cross-section of the Catholic population (diversity in age, marital status, religious, active employment in the Church, academics, theologians, etc.) to guarantee that we act representatively.   Currently, we believe that twelve would be an effective number but we are open to the Spirit to send us the needed talent for the actions that are in formation for 2013.

How do you define active participation?

We need individuals who can:

• Commit to monthly conference call meetings to provide insights on our strategic direction and the evolution of a formal strategic plan
• Maintain email availability
• Keep current on the work of the ACC and assume a working role that best fits your skill sets
• Hold this position for a 2-year term to help create the innovative foundation for others to enter with staggered terms
• Retain the confidentiality of the work in progress until we are ready for “release” and then serve as an ambassador of same

Deadline:  March 5, 2013

Please send a short bio by email to tell us a little about yourself and why you might like to help us set a new direction by becoming “new wineskins” yourself.  We are about conversion of self, families, small Christian communities, faith communities and dioceses with national and global impact.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to be in touch by writing or calling Sheila Peiffer, sheilapeiffer.acc@gmail.com or 518-334-6076.

Report on ACC Caucus at Call To Action:
Regional ACC Gatherings in the Works for 2013-2014   

ACC Planning Committee members Sheila Peiffer, John Frank and Janet Hauter facilitated a session in Louisville, KY as part of the annual Call To Action Conference. Attendees heard a report on current projects of ACC and early plans to hold regional events in 2013 and 2014 to support organizing for reform in the grassroots.

Over the summer we developed the online curriculum for our nonviolent resistance Institute  Changing Power Relationships and then rolled out the 3-month course in mid-August. Participants come together in bi-weekly live webinar sessions to share insights on assigned readings and experiences. The Institute culminates in a face-to-face strategic planning session in Washington DC November 16-18. The Institute is comprised of 27 active learners and church reformers from across the US, Mexico, Canada and Europe.

This exciting pilot program, now in high gear, is grounded in the pivotal work of Dr. Gene Sharp, recently dubbed The Quiet American in the New York Times. He is Senior Scholar of the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston. Facilitated by Dr. Caridad Inda and a support team, the ACC Institute uses Sharp´s work to empower participants as they frame strategies transferable to reform action in the Catholic Church. The focus is practical, political and strategic as the group considers strengths and weakness of the struggle group (i.e. the Church Reform Movement) and the adversary group (i.e. the Vatican and its minions in the hierarchical clerical system). We are deliberating how to make this curriculum available to a wider audience in 2013.

Update on other ACC Engine Drivers  ACC continues an active role in the   Nun Justice Coalition. After having rallied support across the nation in hundreds of vigils to “Support the Sisters” during May, members of the coalition delivered the Nun Justice petition with over 60,000 signatures to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their meeting in June in Atlanta. Further planning developed more vigils in support of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious during its assembly in St. Louis in early August. Communities around the country became “Sister Cities” and held vigils and prayer services. Be sure to check out this short inspirational video:  We Are All Nuns. Over $100,000 has been directed or redirected to women’s religious orders by over 1,100 pledgers and thousands have downloaded media releases, prayer services and sample letters.

Photo Credit:  Seattle loves nuns! JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM

ACC has begun the work of consolidating and expanding data on Intentional Eucharistic Communities, with the goal of providing a website that will provide profiles of communities across the US and Canada, as well as resources for forming IECs, creating worship services and best practices.

ACC continues to promote and resource Listening Sessions across the US and Canada continue to unpack the Catholic Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. We see more and more Catholics referring to this foundational ACC document as they discuss the challenges of church reform and methods needed for success. If you are using the CBRR, let us know by documenting your experience on the CBRR Forum within the Assemblies Community Network.

As of this writing, there are nearly 40,000 signers to the online petition in support of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). The aim is to reach a symbolic “57,000″ signers, representing the 57,000 women religious who are represented by LCWR, and who comprise 80% of all nuns in the US. If you haven’t yet signed the petition, go to Support the Sisters. If you’ve already signed it, please forward the link to your friends and family and ask them to sign.

Organizers of the campaign have also announced a series of actions to resist the Vatican crackdown of LCWR. Go to www.nunjustice.org where you can download talking points, a sample flyer, a prayer service, and a sample letter to the Papal Nuncio. You can also visit the “tumblr” site of for Nun Justice at http://nunjustice.tumblr.com/for a listing of vigils, demonstrations, and other actions. Nun Justice is a collaborative action sponsored by several reform organizations that comprise the Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR).

You can also share ideas about the LCWR controversy by monitoring and posting to ACC’s LCWR Discussion Forum on the Assemblies Community Network. There you will find a number of strategies being considered in the grassroots across the US, including diverting financial support of parishes to communities of women religious and a plan to demonstrate at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, DC, among others.

Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR) is a coalition of Catholic groups, inspired by Vatican II, to further the reform and renewal of the Catholic Church. COR came into existence in 1991 and the American Catholic Council has been a member since its own beginnings two years ago. Over the years, COR has served as an information clearinghouse and has engaged in a number of collaboration actions.

COR meetings are held twice a year, each spring and fall, to exchange ideas and stay informed on reform projects. Each member organization sends two representatives to the meetings. At the April Meeting in Washington DC, ACC was represented by Sheila Peiffer (National Coordinator) and John Frank (Communications Coordinator).

This spring, COR launched a strategic analysis of the group’s functioning, with the goal of increasing cooperative projects. With the LCWR crackdown having just occurred, COR jumped into a project immediately: Nun Justice, a coalition formed to support the sisters and work to remove the Vatican mandate. (See article above).

O Holy Spirit …

As the April showers usher the blooms of May, should we acclaim Mary, the sister of us all? But . . .

• How can  we shower her with laud when oppression to women abounds here and abroad?
• How can we  throw her petals of acclamation when women are forbidden to  minister at her son’s table?
• How can we offer her hymns of praises when women are banned from preaching at the churches’ pulpits?
• How can we pray before her image when women are not allowed to call themselves Christ’s icons?

April  comes  this year with  no showers of gladness and May brings ominous thorns of sadness. But still …

• We trust in your Pentecostal power,
  O Holy Spirit, in whose image women  were created;
• We  believe  that your almighty force will replace the embroidered miters with shawls of sackcloth, the gilded staff with sticks of lowly shepherds and shepherdesses;
• We are confident that you will inspire your people to respond  to the signs of times by ushering a new awakening in our church.

We will then sing Mary’s Magnificat when women and men, equal in all respects, will acclaim You, O Holy Spirit, as Yahweh’s Uncreated Love.

(By Sixto Ramirez, as posted on ACC’s “PRAYER BLOG” on the Assemblies Community Network)