Structural Change Working Group Report
Submitted by Margaret Roylance

Members of the Structural Change Working Group are working to prepare the Structural Change Network (SCN) for its official launch on September 8th. We are adding the names of VOTF members who have asked to join. More than 50 people have now been invited to the SCN website, with a week left until the launch date.

The network will be launched with four focused topics for discussion - support for pastoral councils, finance councils and safety committees, and lay involvement in pastoral selection. We will also request that SCN members share information about dialogue with their bishops (whether successful or not). Although it is the right and responsibility of local VOTF affiliates to conduct dialogue with their own diocesan bishop, it is also important that VOTF stay aware of these contacts on a national basis, and share with each other what works and what doesn't.

In addition, when we announced the SCN launch, we invited suggestions for additional topics. We have had several very interesting topic ideas, including finding ways to enhance involvement of lay people in seminary education, identifying effective ways of counteracting the undue influence of wealthy lay groups in our faith communities, and examining the root causes of the scandal of clerical sexual abuse. We will add some of these topics as additional threads in the SCN, if there is interest in discussing them once the network is formally under way.

Thanks again to all VOTF members who have helped in the development of the SCN and to all those who have joined with us in the network. As we move into the future, the news of the current scandal will begin to pale, and there will be a great temptation to relax and fall back into our old habits of deference and passivity. We must persevere in our efforts to use our gifts for the good of our Church. Participation in the SCN is one way to keep the flame of renewal alive.

Voice of Renewal Working Group
Submitted by Anne Southwood and Jan Leary
"One of the VOR Goals is 'to empower one another to revitalize our collegial role in the Church, in the Spirit of Vatican II.'"

The VOTF Lay Education Working Group, Voice of Renewal (VOR), celebrated our year and a half anniversary in August with a Core Group potluck in Plymouth, MA and planned two pre-Fall gatherings, on August 28 and September 9. These meetings were planned to "kick off" VOR's participation in the "Second Tuesday" monthly meetings for Working Groups meeting at St. John's, Wellesley, MA.

Our VOR /Lay Education meetings are open to VOTF members interested in adult education for all laity and provide an opportunity to meet members who attended our workshops at the Boston-area June 7 Conference.

Those who attended the August 28 meeting have ties to the Paulist Center, Glastonbury Abbey, and parishes in Newburyport, Duxbury, Hingham, Dorchester, Wayland, and Dedham. We found much common ground in focusing on educational endeavors toward fostering active lay involvement in our Church.

Plans have emerged from workshops and meetings to develop a communication task force or "Central Information Network" (CIN). Those involved with this endeavor will focus on supplementing / developing a "Community Bulletin Board" on our VOR webpage providing resources for lay action.

Please contact JanVOTF@aol.com for more information and to join our Lay Education Group on the second Tuesday of each month. Also, interested readers from out of state should ask how they might "join us" via our ListServ.

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