NEW YORK — To build on momentum established by the Province’s well-attended “Encuentro Franciscano” in Maryland, Holy Name Province’s Hispanic Ministry Committee has launched a blog.
It will include reflections — in both English and Spanish — about the event that attracted nearly 600 people, as well as updates and information about Hispanic ministries throughout the Province.
Several Hispanic Committee members are maintaining the blog, “Encuentro Franciscano.” They are Thomas Conway, OFM, of Beach Haven, N.J.,Christopher Posch, OFM, of Wilmington, Del., Christopher VanHaight, OFM, of Paterson, N.J., and Juan de la Cruz Turcios, OFM, of Tampa, Fla.
“Our committee will be posting descriptions of the best practices that we received from HNP ministries last week before the Encuentro event,” Thomas said. “I am grateful to Rebecca Doel in the Communications Office for setting up this blog in a short timeframe.”
Tom said the committee hopes the blog, with the ability to post comments on entries, will encourage a dialog among its readers.
Doel said, “To post a comment, a reader should click the link at the bottom of an entry, provide his or her name, e-mail address and comment.” She added, “Only the name and comment appear on the blog. E-mail addresses are only visible to the blog’s administrators.”
Attendees of the daylong Encuentro on Oct. 24 included friars, parishioners and staff members from more than 10 cities where the Province has ministries.
A link to “Encuentro Franciscano” can be found on the Province’s Web site on the Blogs by HNP Members page, in the Our Friars section of Who We Are. It is the fourth to be added to the site, joining blogs maintained by vocation director Brian Smail, OFM, and Ministry of the Word members John Anglin, OFM, and William DeBiase, OFM.
A new series on William’s blog, “Franciscan,” is featuring a variety of ministries around the Province, the first of which is St. Francis Friends of the Poor, the New York City-based ministry for the developmentally-disabled homeless.
A blog of another perspective, Justice and Peace, is being developed by the Province’s JPIC Directorate, of which Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, and Jud Weiksnar, OFM, are co-chairs.
The HNP Communications Office is working to provide an assortment of blogs on the Province’s Web site, according to Jocelyn Thomas, HNP director of communications.
“Blogs and other types of social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook are effective ways to both inform and to involve all members of the Franciscan family,” she said. “Many friars are using Facebook.”
Editor’s note: A report on the Oct. 24 Encuentro Franciscano will be included in an upcoming issue of this newsletter.