Please send comments to leaderpub@votf.org

In the Vineyard
Special Edition
VOTF One-Year Anniversary

"This is what the Holy One asks of you: only this, to act justly,
to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

No doubt there are as many ways to note an anniversary as there are candles on some of our cakes. Once again, VOTF chooses words and action to "speak" for us as we rededicate ourselves to our shared mission and goals and as we continue to draw Catholics into the conversation about our faith and its future in the Roman Catholic Church. If you have been following our progress on the website, in the regular editions of In the Vineyard and in the media, you already know the work that is being done and the work that lies ahead.

Susan Troy and the National Prayerful Voice team she leads, remind us regularly of the place of spirituality in all that we say and do. (See the Liturgy of Rededication on our website.) Recently, Susan quoted Ronald Rolheiser, author of The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality, "Spirituality is not a private search for what is highest in oneself but a communal search for the face of God. What shapes our actions is our spirituality."

As our growing community searches for the face of God, we do so in a variety of ways - many of these focus on hearing each other and are well documented in the stream of reports from our 160 affiliates across the U.S. and, most recently, Canada. The written word is another of our efforts toward Rolheiser's "communal search." To progress this ambition, In the Vineyard is introducing some new columns with this issue. Our first Parish "Best Practices" piece appears; VOTF member Tom Smith has written a book review (other recommended reading appears on our website at Prayerful Voice); VOTF member Mary Hogan begins a "Say What?" column that will "take on" some of the words we use in our faith journey, how we use them, and where they come from; Anne Murphy introduces a Q&A - we hope readers will challenge us! We also introduce the VOTF National office staff, whose work pretty much defines the how of what VOTF does. Were it not for our staff, volunteers, parish voices and affiliates, officers and working groups, VOTF would just be another great idea. VOTF president Jim Post looks back with gratitude on a year well spent.

Looking back, of course, is part of any anniversary so we have reprinted the whole text of our Convocation statement delivered to Cardinal Law on March 9, 2002, along with a few reflections by those in attendance. VOTF president Jim Post looks back with gratitude on a year well spent.

Right now, however, we begin where we began and welcome the first voice of Voice of the Faithful, our founder Dr. Jim Muller.

Peggie L. Thorp, Ed.

If you think communicating with members and the public about VOTF activities is important, donate now to support our communications efforts.