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Beginning Experience, an international ministry supporting those who have lost a marriage due to death or divorce, will hold its biennial convention July 25-27 at the Hampton Inn Convention Center New Orleans.
Beginning Experience offers grief resolution programs serving the widowed, separated and divorced in communities across the U.S. and in other English-speaking countries. The convention will offer the ministry’s peer volunteers opportunities to enhance their ministry and leadership skills.
Beginning Experience teams in the Louisiana Catholic dioceses of New Orleans and Alexandria serve as host organizations. Beginning Experience peer ministers and program participants from the U.S., Canada, Scotland, England, Singapore and New Zealand will attend.
Prior to the convention, a program for teens and young adults who have experienced the loss of their parents’ marriage will be held July 22-24 at Rosaryville in Ponchatoula. This program offers young people an atmosphere away from home and school in which to discover who they are now; to share their fears and ideals; to find hope for facing the future; and time to
discover new ways to relate to themselves, their families, their friends and God.
The Young People’s Beginning Experience program takes place Tuesday evening through Thursday afternoon and costs $200. For more information and an application form, contact 574-283-0279 or email [email protected].
While much of the convention is intended for those who serve or have participated in Beginning Experience programs, some workshops on July 26 are open to the public. Those wishing to attend may select from the following workshops: “The Grieving Child and the Loss of a Child,” presented by Trina Charles; “Embracing God’s Timing: Letting Go of the Time Factor,” presented by Mary Whalen; or “Lord Teach Me to Pray,” presented by Dianne Caverly.
Each workshop selected is $25. For registration information, call (574) 283-0279 or email [email protected].
From its beginning at the Catholic Renewal Center in Fort Worth, Texas, the ministry now serves separated, divorced and widowed persons and children of these losses in communities across the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
A ministry of the Catholic Church, Christian compassion is the organization’s focus, according to Yvonne Stoops, executive director. Its peer ministers are widowed, separated or divorced themselves. They reach out to others who are suffering this same pain, sharing their own losses and listening with compassion to those who are traveling this difficult journey.
For more information about the ministry and the programs it offers, call the Beginning Experience International Ministry Center at (574) 283-0279 or visit www.beginningexperience.org.
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