by Mary-Celeste Brown

The Pastoral Summit Boston 2003 took place from October 6 through October 8 at the Marriott Copley Place. It consisted of prayer, in addition to a series of presentations and conversations held together and in break-out groups throughout Tuesday and Wednesday. Each morning began with a continental breakfast and a presentation about a pastoral program. The first presentation we viewed was "Islands of Hope: Travels through Religious America with Paul Wilkes," a documentary film about pastoral programs taking place throughout the U.S., including the struggles and successes of the work.

This was followed by a Taiz service (a combination of spoken group prayer, meditative singing and quiet reflection) led by members of the Jesuit Center. It was accompanied by a ninety-minute workshop session. Then came a spectacular gourmet lunch and the keynote address by Huston Smith. The afternoon sessions were of the same length as the morning ones. The evening of the first day brought a community workshop service at Old South Church, a trolley tour and then a dinner cruise of Boston Harbor.

Here is an interesting story from the conference. There was a woman who lived her whole life near a monastery. She had never met any of the monks who lived there, for they were cloistered. One day, as an old woman, she sees an old monk just outside the monastery wall. She approaches him and says, "I have always wanted to know. What do you do in there?" He replies, "We fall down and get up, we fall down and get up. We fall down and get up."

This was the story with which Brother Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge opened his presentation on the Contemplative and Mystical Tradition. It provided wry and touching introduction to the Christian life in any form it takes, and was a good image for us laypeople to take away about the monastic experience. For me personally, Brother Curtis' thirty-minute talk was a highlight of the Summit, with his words and manner bringing us close to the contemplative experience itself.

The second day had the same basic structure as the first, with a different breakfast presentation (Paul Wilkes' New Beginnings), and Alice McDermott as the keynote speaker at lunch. In addition morning and evening prayer services were held. The former was a contemplative prayer service for peace led by several Protestant ministers, and the latter was a closing liturgy hosted by the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble.

Sessions were usually conducted by two people, one Catholic and one Protestant. The topics were many and varied. They ranged from how to reach out to and serve specific sectors of our communities, such as teens, college students and the elderly to various ways of improving liturgies to the care of our-selves and pastoral ministers to community organizing and reaching out to those in need. Although each of the session topics was available at least twice, with so many choices and only four sessions it was difficult to decide which sessions to attend and it was impossible to do everything that offered promise for our Sacred Heart community.

The summit was attended by ministers, mostly pastors and directors of religious education, from as far away as Oregon and South Carolina. I found that sitting with, talking to and listening to people from such diverse backgrounds and places, but with shared concerns, has a way of focusing the mind on the essentials and energizing the spirit for the work ahead.