Thank you Tom and Maureen!

St. Benedict's Parish is extremely grateful for all the hard work Tom and Maureen Kerr have been doing to get our new website up and running. It was truly an amazing feat to have it ready for the rush of Christmas website searches! Many parishioners may not realize that our new website received well over 150,000 hits in just the first three weeks of December alone. 

Tom engaging our Faith Formation students,
encouraging their participation
in our technological endeavors.

The website looks fantastic - clearly organized, easy to use, and cleanly arranged. The homepage is continually updated with new information.  This is now an ongoing project that demands countless hours of behind-the-scenes work. The new content management system (CMS) allows the parish to rapidly update our website and to extend this ministry to ever-larger groups. Tom is great about increasing participation at every step of the way. You will notice, for example, that our 11th graders in the Faith Formation program have already added their contribution to the homepage and we have been up only a couple of weeks!  There will be much more of this collaborative input coming soon. Video and audio in-house productions, live recordings of Masses and/or homilies, faith testimonies and much more will be appearing in the course of the year.

In addition, Tom wrote the $15,000 grant that the parish recently received from The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. He shepherded us through the exhaustive grant process. This grant award will be used to "foster spiritual growth with adults, families, children, youth, young adults, and the entire community. We hope to revitalize and mobilize our parish by connecting, welcoming and engaging spiritual seekers... By more effectively utilizing digital technologies we will enhance our parish's outreach and engagement efforts." Maureen handles the substantial grant documentation as we proceed.

We will be seeing much more of Tom and Maureen's work in the weeks and months ahead. Please check the parish website often http://www.saintbenedicts.com/. 

There is no doubt that their forward thinking and technological abilities will bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God. In fact, they already have!  Tom and Maureen have already made St. Benedict's a leader in integrated technology in the service of evangelization.

Thank you both!

Youth Ministry Leadership Training

Youth Ministry Leadership Training Program

Are you new?  Maybe you're looking for help and direction as you get started in youth ministry.

Or maybe you're not new.  Maybe you've been around long enough to begin to know what you don't know yet - and you're anxious for some answers to the important questions you've run into.

No matter which category you're in, you are invited to

Level I of the Youth Ministry Leadership Training Program. 


Level I covers the topics of:
Introduction to Catholic Youth Ministry
(including an overview of the vision of youth ministry, plus legal and liability issues) 

Who Are Adolescents Today?
(and how do they develop - physically, emotionally, morally, spiritually?) 

Relating to Youth
(how to connect with youth and still set appropriate boundaries) 

Building Community with Youth
(it's not just about the newest icebreaker!) 

Praying with Youth
(they'll go deep if we help lead them or let them!) 

Join us! 

Level I is presented in three sessions:
Thursday, October 27 - 6:30 to 9:00 PM (Intro to Catholic Youth Ministry)
Thursday, November 3 - 6:30 to 9:00 PM (Who are Adolescents?)
Saturday, November 5 - 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM (remaining topics)

All sessions take place at:
St. Benedict's Parish
1317 Eggert Road
Amherst, New York 14226
(use the Westfield parking lot)

Download a registration form or contact Heather Hoffman for more details.