Minutes of Steering Committee
Austin Convocation of Cursillo
Diocese of Texas
14 March 1999

The meeting of the Steering Committee of the Cursillo Movement in the Austin Convocation of the Diocese of Texas was called to order at St. Richard’s, Round Rock, by the convenor, Steve Ryder, at 6:09 p.m. The first act of the group was to begin deliberations with prayer.

Steve announced that a secretary for the Steering Committee is still needed. Joe Nanus volunteered to do the minutes one more time.

Motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes of the January 1999 meeting of the Steering Committee as distributed. Motion passed.

There was considerable discussion about the donation to be made by the Convocational Cursillo Community to the work of Kairos. A motion was made to donate support on the basis of one to the men’s weekend and two to the women’s weekend. The question was raised if the delineation of where the money is to go needed to be so specific. Motion, as made, passed.

There was a discussion of distribution of information within the Convocation. Steve will attempt to get e-mail addresses at the Ultreya this evening.

A discussion ensued about Servant Community. This grew out of the South Central Regional meeting held at the Episcopal theological Seminary of the Southwest in late February. Diocese were urged to examine the possibility of starting a Servant Community.

Joe Nanus remembered that there was an effort to start a convocational servant Community several years ago by Ken Perduyn and Carol Fultz. the effort was made to meet monthly for an hour before the Ultreyas to explore the literature and to study the method. The time allotted was not sufficient to carry out a Servant Community meeting as envisioned in the literature.

The Diocese had a Servant Community for a couple of years, though it was called the Fourth Day Committee. It met at the same time as the Secretariat, and it was envisioned that the Secretariat would become a part of the Servant Community and that Secretariat members would come form the Fourth Day Committee. this way the new Secretariat members would be well founded in the method and the working of the Movement and could be active participants form the first meeting.

This worked for several members of the Fourth Day Committee did go on to serve on the Secretariat and were indeed well prepared to deal with the leadership of the movement.

The Fourth Day Committee has been rather inactive because of the two leaders, one was called to a different area of the ministry and one has been ill of late and unable to be the driving force around the meetings continuing.

The format of a Servant Committee meeting is to come together and Group, using the Leader’s Group Reunion Card. Then there is a presentation on some facet of the movement such as the method, the strategy, etc., followed by a presentation by a clergy member on the biblical basis for the movement.

The group then breaks up into sub-committee meetings. The sub-committees are generally, Pre-weekend, the Weekend, the Fourth day, Communications, Administration. The group then comes back together for the reports of the groups and a closing. Following this, the Secretariat would meet and make any policy decisions that needed to be made, concluding their meeting in 15 - 30 minutes.

In some diocese, in order to be on team, the person must have completed a certain amount of study of the movement in the Servant Committee as well as the kinds of experience we require in the Diocese.

There was a discussion of the list generated by the Steering Committee for Spiritual Directors. The list was located and the persons on it will be contacted by Steve to see if they are indeed still available as directors.

Closings will continue at Brenham at least until August. The first probable date of closing at Camp Allen will be September.

The meeting was adjourned with prayer.

In attendance were: Rev. George Wilson, Peggy and Steve Ryder, St. Matthew’s; Richard Lauzon, St. Christopher’s; Jerry Lyle, St. Richard’s, Round Rock; Helen Paulsen, Resurrection; Jane Powers, St. John’s; and Joe Nanus, St. George’s.

Respectfully submitted, Joe Nanus, Acting Clerk