Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jan 2003
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Ron Wilson, San Antonio Express-News

CONFERENCE'S FOCUS IS MINISTRY

About 200 Presbyterian leaders will meet here this weekend to learn more 
about the needs of the increasing Hispanic population and new ways to help 
people with disabilities, mental illness, AIDS and drug addictions.The 
Biennial Social Welfare Ministries Conference, titled "God is about to do a 
new thing" (Isaiah 43:19), is designed to help people who believe that 
"ministries of justice are integral to the witness of the church," 
conference facilitator Joan Thompson said.

Father Virgilio Elizondo, former rector of San Fernando Cathedral, is to be 
the featured speaker at 8:15 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Elizondo is 
internationally recognized as an expert in Hispanic Catholicism and 
cultural diversity in the church.

Elizondo will speak on liberation theology.

Giving the Reformed view of liberation theology will be the Rev. James 
Noel, associate professor of American religion at San Francisco Theological 
Seminary.

Noel's specialties include African American Christianity, black religion in 
Africa and the Americas, and African American social, cultural and 
intellectual history.

Trina Zelle, who heads a border ministry of the Presbytery of Sierra Blanca 
in New Mexico, is to serve as worship leader.

There also will be site visits to San Antonio programs such as the 
Children's Bereavement Center; La Casa de Maria y Marta, which works with 
groups doing service work in a multicultural urban setting; and the 
peaceCENTER, Thompson said.

The public is welcome but must pay the daily registration fee.

One local point of interest will be the Westside Community Center in New 
Braunfels. It was started by a small, mostly Hispanic Presbyterian church 
that decided to turn some open ground into a community service center. It 
received a $250,000 grant from the Kronkosky Foundation.

Other conference topics include how the church can speak to a society 
undergoing ever-expanding drug addiction; how to get congregations involved 
in the various social ministries; and rural-urban-migrant issues.

Registration begins today at 2 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel San Antonio 
North, 37 N.E. Loop 410.
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