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eMatrimony Newsletter - May 22, 2008

Dear Lovers,

We are Tom & Katie Watson and Fr. Dennis Koopman, OFM, your National Weekend Pillar ecclesial team. Our passion is helping others to invite couples and priests to the Weekend. We have one of the best gifts to offer others to strengthen their sacraments and live out the mission to renew the Church and change the world.



What a terrific feeling to know you had something to do with that couple or priest experiencing the transformation of the Weekend. Who was the last one you invited?

We have a very full agenda of items we wish to provide which will help facilitate your inviting efforts. Some highlights are the INVITE newsletter which comes out every quarter via e-mail to the Inviting Listserve. You can find archived copies on ERL under the Weekend Pillar section . If you are not on the Inviting Listserve and would like to be, send us an e-mail and we'll get you placed on the list. There are featured inviting tools and challenges contained within the INVITE newsletter, so go check it out.

A new group of encountered couples from around the country have gathered to form the In-Touch Group. Working under the Weekend Pillar, this group of lovers specializes in the marketing and public relations fields and is dedicated to getting out the word about Worldwide Marriage Encounter. They work on such things as regular press releases to both religious and secular media, marketing messages, a diocesan media database and other communication and marketing tools for local use.

The Weekend Pillar is also constructing a new site/portal called Inviting Focus, which will both highlight and link you to inviting tools on the web. We hope to have this project completed and available before year end. A special portion of the site will provide an Inviting Gift Store featuring items for sale to stimulate inviting.

Perhaps the biggest dream we have is to develop a media center, with full public access, which produces and features audio and video messages and programs which can be distributed via DVD or the web. This would become the forerunner to a bigger dream of WWME-TV. That's right - a program version of WWME's principles and messages which will enrich couples and priests living their sacraments. Perhaps you will be one of the hosts? Does this all sound impossible? Not as impossible sounding as bringing the Weekend to over 83 countries as dreamed about in 1968!

We Create Our Tomorrows, By What We Dream Today! So let's dream lovers and dream BIG! Let us know how we can help you better invite to God's Weekend.

Our Love & Prayers,
Tom & Katie and Fr. Dennis
planmark@comcast.net
303-503-9756

Making Beautiful Music Together
by Stan & Pat Martin



Stan: "You make beautiful music together." That's what many couples are telling us now when they hear us sing. But singing together was not always a joy for us. I have been involved in music since my early rock-n-roll years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Once Pat and I were married, the responsibilities of career and family shifted my music to a part time hobby.

Pat: I always enjoyed music. And I always admired Stan's musical talent. As we settled into married life, however, I was not prepared for how much time Stan would devote to his music hobby. I began to resent it. I went searching for other things to do with my time. We fell into collusion, supporting our married singleness. Stan would stay home with the kids and do his music while I went off to save the world with my woman's clubs.

Stan: In May of 1979, we made our original Marriage Encounter Weekend. It totally changed the direction of our lives. On that weekend, we began to realize and share with each other the separateness and loneliness we were experiencing in our married single lifestyle. We went home and started making significant changes to the things we did separately. I found that Pat and I could work together in my choir director position at our parish. Our music ministry was lifted to a new level as we were asked to be song leaders together at our Saturday evening mass.

Pat: I was finally realizing the dream of being able to share in Stan's music. We started singing together for Marriage Encounter functions, World Marriage Day celebrations and even a Marriage Encounter convention. In our 22 years as a weekend presenting team, we found much joy in sharing with other couples the good news of the Sacrament of Matrimony and passing on the dream we discovered on our weekend. We were asked to start an engaged program for couples preparing for marriage in our growing parish. We feel so affirmed as we share the specialness of our sacrament with these newly engaged couples.

Stan: I was starting to dream about joining our experience in marriage ministry and our ministry to the engaged with our music ministry. I wanted to make an album of us singing, sharing the message of marriage through music. Pat was hesitant, doubting we could pull it off. Through prayer and dialogue, we became aware that God blessed us with the talent and this desire I was feeling, and the recording project took off. The result was our first album 'Standing Pat-Say It in Love'. The songs reflected the importance of deep, loving communication in marriage and family relationships. It followed the weekend concepts of romance, disillusionment and joy. We heard from couples from all over the country who listened to our album. They used the songs for dialogue presentations and we began to realize our hope that by listening and singing along with these songs, the awareness of God's love for us and His stake in our marriages would become more alive in us every day.

Both: Now, with the encouragement of other couples, we have finished recording our second album, 'Standing Pat - Say It in Joy'. The songs in this album reflect the joy we experience in our God, in our faith and in our marriage and family relationships. They also reflect the values we all try to live by in our encountered lifestyles. Throughout our time in leadership, couples shared with us how we stand pat on our values. This led to our musical name 'Standing Pat'. Our journey of faith has come a long way since that first Marriage Encounter weekend and we thank God daily for the blessings of our togetherness that have become so much more alive in us since that Weekend.

For more information on Stan & Pat's music, contact them at: Stan & Pat Martin, 11845 W. Windsor Ave., Avondale, AZ 85392

Stellar WWME Communities

Central Minnesota WWME Team
The Central Minnesota community meets faithfully every 3-4 weeks. Each meeting begins with prayer, a presentation, dialogue, open sharing, business, a closing prayer, and singing of "There's a New World Somewhere". At Christmas the group carols at local nursing homes, and when the snow melts they typically join together on a family camping weekend. Semi-annual Sunday brunches are another way the community enjoys each other and not only nourishes the relationship but the body as well.



Four Central Minnesota couples (Norm & Judy Hansen, Tom & Meg Klecker, Roger & Nancy Drontle, Nathan & Jeannine Owen-Block) and Father Mark Willenbring gathered for good food and an evening of laughter, tears and community intimacy.

Comunidad del Encuentro Matrimonial Mundial

San Gabriel en Detroit, Michigan

Las cualidades que hacen de esta comunidad especial son (in English):
HERMANDAD: Nos preocupamos unos por otros.
ORACIÓN: Se esta en oración permanente y en cada FDS, se reúne un grupo de oración desde que inicia a la hora de las inscripciones, hasta que las parejas empiezan la primera charla.
UNIDAD: Las comunidades en el área, y las parejas pueden asistir en los diferentes talleres que se presentan en todo el EMM en Detroit Michigan.

La unidad se refleja, ya que todos son bienvenidos y se les recibe con amor. En los eventos grandes todos nos unimos y asistimos como una familia. Como en las Posada del año pasado, donde se disfrutó en grande, en las que asistieron aproximadamente 50 familias, hubo, oración, cena, aguinaldos, piñatas, dulces y regalos.

Estas celebraciones son parte de la iglesia católica a la cual nosotros servimos como movimiento católico y apoyamos constantemente sirviendo con entrega incondicional a nuestra comunidad parroquial y a nuestros amados sacerdotes.

Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga,
Jesus & Lilia Ibarra y Padre Francois Pellissier, Equipo Eclesial Sección 18



Mantenemos nuestras tradiciones y crecemos en nuestra relación de pareja y con nuestra familia y comunidad.

Fr. Chuck Gallagher Celebrates 50 Years of Priesthood

by Tony & Cathy Witczak

In addition to our 40th anniversary convention, there is another big event in June. Fr. Chuck Gallagher is celebrating his Golden Jubilee on June 22, 2008. There will be a mass at St. Thomas of Villanova in the Philadelphia area on Saturday, June 21st at 11:00am. You are all invited to join in this anniversary celebration.

Ron & Kathy Feher of Berwyn, Pennsylvania are organizing this event, and they have asked for our help. If you have access to a video recorder, they are asking for stories of the quintessential Fr.Chuck moments, sayings, miracles or accomplishments. Share your fondest memories and send them on a DVD disk. Ron & Kathy will put them all together into a presentation. Feel free to include your reflections on the impact that Chuck has had on your life and in the church and/or the world. Of course Ron & Kathy will accept letters to place in a memory book, too. The video would be needed as soon as possible; the letters can arrive up to June 10. Ron & Kathy Feher's email address is PMRCUSA@msn.com. Their home address is 1023 Tenby Rd, Berwyn, PA 19312.

Also, Ron & Kathy know that their son Charles Gallagher Feher is not the only child named after Fr. Chuck. He asked the entire 1984 international ME convention to have a baby for him. It would be a great joy for him to see pictures of those kids now. His celibate paternity has been prolific, and he is such a tender and generous father to us all. Please help us to get the word out about this event and about the search for Fr. Chuck's namesakes. We would like a flood of cards, letters, videos and pictures. Don't forget to spread the word to all those couples and priests that served our movement so well in the past, but who may not be directly linked to any local communities at this time.

If you are thinking of joining us at this event, please let us know so we can provide more details. Fr. Chuck doesn't travel by plane anymore, so he won't be with us in Ontario although he has prepared a DVD for our convention. We would like to pack the church at Villanova on June 21st to show our love and gratitude for this dreamer who helped to launch us all on a magnificent journey. We can help you get housing with the WWME community here in the Philadelphia area should you need a place to stay.

Convention, Convention, Convention!!!

The Worldwide Marriage Encounter 2008 International Convention is getting closer - June 27-29. We hope you are planning to come to Ontario, California, and join couples from around the world to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the movement!

To register for this year's convention, please click here.

Mission Statement
As an online publication of Worldwide Marriage Encounter, eMatrimony serves as a resource to support, encourage and challenge couples, priests and religious to live the values of the WWME experience and grow stronger in their efforts to renew the church and change the world.