Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 12 — The Georgia Bulletin, February 15,1990
Family Office—
(Continued from page 1)
couples held on 20 Saturdays during the year at the Catholic
Center in midtown Atlanta. A team, consisting of a priest, a
married couple, a financial adviser and a natural family
planning teaching couple along with a workshop leader con
ducts the sessions.
Pre-Cana is geared to couples marrying for the first time.
Talks and experiential activities using a workbook deal
with the issues of communication, finance, marriage as a
sacrament, sexuality and natural family planning. Side
issues can include in-laws, dual careers, and interfaith mar
riage. Because over 70 percent of marriages in the arch
diocese are interfaith, this
aspect of the day’s pro
gram focuses on the couple
sharing their understand
ing of God and exploring
ways to pray together.
The program is able to
utilize experts in specific
areas and gives a lot of in
formation in a short period
of time. It is very popular,
according to Ms. Hughes,
and couples need to
register well in advance.
Each workshop, limited to
39 couples, is always full. They come not only from metro
Atlanta parishes but from parishes throughout the arch
diocese as well as from Macon which is not in the diocese.
Seven to eight hundred couples annually attend Pre-Cana
workshops.
‘The one-day format lends itself to the needs of those liv
ing farther away because they can complete the prepara
tion all at one time,” Ms. Hughes explained.
Ms. Hughes attests to its success. She has had phone calls
a year or more after couples participated in Pre-Cana ask
ing for the name of the team couple or the iinancial advisor
because the newly-married couple needed their assistance.
REMARRIAGE
Remarriage is another one-day workshop and is held at
the Catholic Center. It is designed for couples one or both of
whom have lost a spouse through death or divorce. It
recognizes that a second marriage is different from a first
regardless of the circumstances of that loss. The
workshop’s goal is to facilitate the couple’s dealing with
ghosts of the former marriage in a realistic way, Ms.
Hughes said. Couples entering remarriage need to realize
the impact the former marriage continues to exert on them.
Celtic Connection Of Atlanta
Pipe Band Supplies
Irish Dance Pump & Hard Shoes
Kilts To Order
Trace Family Names
Mail Orders Welcome
Irish Scottish Welsh Products
Music/Tapes/Videos
Sweaters/Shirts, Golf,T,Sweat
Jewelry Crystal
Selection of Gift Items
Atlanta’s Home of the Celts
Alice & Frank Mulligan
5 Whitlock Ave. Marietta, GA 30064
(O) 404-426-5521 <H >992-3890
Remodeling Specialist
19 Years of Business in the Metro Area
• Decks • Window Porches • Sunrooms
• All Additions » Window Replacement
• All Cabinetry
We are a FULL SERVICE Company with
MANY local references.
5 Years + in Ga. Bulletin
469-5139
Ken Hopkins Builders
FULLY Insured
it t . . . . .-it . -- » •
Facing this together can help bond them and prepare them
for the unique challenges of remarried family life.
The six-hour workshop is offered once a month and is
directed by Diane Huey, a licensed marriage and family
therapist. Limited to eight to 10 couples, the sessions in
volve couple discussions, communications exercises and
problem-solving issues as parents and stepparents. Other
topics include religion, finances and sex.
SPONSOR COUPLE TRAINING
Larry and Lynn Crutchfield through the Office of Family
Concerns conduct a training seminar in four sessions to
prepare couples from parishes to do marriage preparation
with the engaged couples in their parish. The training is ot
tered three times a year and takes place in a parish setting.
Each evening session is two hours long.
The Sponsor Couple program itself is a structured pro
gram designed for use during four to five evenings when the
married couple share one-on-one with the engaged couple,
usually in the home of the sponsor couple. As in the
sacraments ot baptism and confirmation, ideally the spon
sors keep in contact with the engaged couple alter their
marriage and so help in building up the parish community.
In addition to utilizing the example and wisdom of the lived-
marriage experience of the married couple, the Sponsor
Couple program has the advantage of local control and flex
ible scheduling for the engaged couple.
The goal of the Office of Family Concerns is to establish
the program in any parish in the archdiocese that wants it
and to train married couples selected by the pastor to
prepare engaged couples tor marriage by these couples
from his own parish.
ENGAGED ENCOUNTER
The fourth choice for couples preparing for marriage is
not directly implemented by the Office of Family Concerns.
The Engaged Encounter Weekend is a retreat experience
available in the archdiocese. It also is very popular, accord
ing to Ms. Hughes, and is filled each month with its max
imum of 23 couples. The weekend allows engaged couples to
concentrate on each other,
free of the normal preoc
cupations of daily life.
They are led to dialogue
with one another honestly
about areas important to
their future.
A priest and two couples,
one longer married, the
other more recently mar
ried, make up the team. They share their own experiences
and insights, exploring such topics as self-identity, role ex
pectations, money, sex, children, family and religion. Each
engaged couple interacts only with one another through
writing their responses to and ideas about the topics in a
notebook which they exchange. The only time all the
couples socialize as a group is during a usually lively Satur
day evening “rap” session.
Mary Ellen Hughes, herself, is from a remarried family.
She was raised in Atlanta, attended Our Lady of Assump
tion elementary school and St. Pius X high school. After
high school she entered the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
D & A CONCRETE
SPECIALIZING IN ALL KINDS OF
RESIDENTIAL
CONCRETE WORK
• Repair & Replacement •Driveways
• Sidewalks • Garage Slabs
• Pool Decks • Patios
469-0093
Are Your Loved Ones
Protected?
SIMPLE WILL
*75; COUPLES *99
Call For Appointment
371-8233
CYNTHIA L. HORTON
Attorney At Law
First National Bank Building
Decatur, GA.
Most legal matters handled
f t » • • ^Saturday Hrs. hy-appt. - * - - -
[j
but left before making final
profession. In the religious
congregation she worked
with disturbed adolescents
in a residential treatment
community.
Ms. Hughes is a member
of St. John Chrysostom
Melkite parish. She is a
licensed clinical social
worker. When she began
working in the archdiocese
in 1978 she spent two-and-a-
half years initiating the
Crisis Pregnancy program.
“I see my role here as
one to enable people who
can do this work best to be
out there doing it. I’m a
catalyst. I hope to be ^
creating structures and g
programs where the spirit
of God is free flowing. Each
of us has wisdom. If we can Mary E ]| en Hughes
keep a spirit of shared
wisdom, incredible things happen.”
The Office of Family Concerns receives approximately 50
percent of its funding from the archdiocese. The remainder
comes from fees from its programs. Guest speakers and
volunteers in the Pre-Cana program receive an honorarium
for their contribution, as does the guest speaker in the
Remarriage program. The therapist in the Remarriage
program is under contract with the Office of Family Con
cerns and receives a stipend. Sponsor Couple trainers also
receive an honorarium.
“In order to offer more programs we attempt to match
the income from the archdiocese with fees from the various
programs,” Ms. Hughes explained. “We try to be as self-
supporting as possible.”
Couples participating in the Pre-Cana and Remarriage
programs pay $50 for the one-day workshops. The per cou
ple fee for the Sponsor Couple training program charged to
the couple’s parish is $25. The Engaged Encounter
Weekend is primarily self supporting through fees for the
weekend and through donations.
Programs coordinated by the Office of Family Concerns
other than marriage preparation programs are the Begin
ning Experience for those starting over after a separation,
divorce or death of a spouse: the Natural Family Planning
program which teaches this method of birth regulation:
and a program for single parents. Retrouvaille is a
weekend program for troubled marriages with its own
governing body.
Volunteers add to the cost effectiveness as well as the
ministry of the Office. Ms. Hughes estimates over 200 men
and women assist in its programs as volunteers. In recogni
tion of their contributions and in support of their own needs
for enrichment and rejuvenation, the Office hosted an
enrichment day Feb. 10 for all the volunteers who had work
ed in family ministry through the Office during the year.
Eighty participated in the day which was held at Holy Cross
Church in Atlanta.
(The Office of Family Concerns is one of the arch
diocesan efforts supported by the Archbishop’s Annual Ap
peal, to be held Sunday, March 11.)
Do Your Floors Need A Good Cleaning
FREE ESTIMATES
Hardwood S Parquet Kitchen & Bathroom
Cleaned, Waxed & Buffed (Vinyl or Tile)
Cleaned & Refinished
Sanded & Refinished
t:
Efficiency Floor Service
587-3480
Call Between 9-5
Food Served J PM 10 PM
Irish Stew* Irish Sausage
• Soda Bread •
Atlanta’s "Only" Authentic Irish Pub
FIRST TO HAVE
GUINNESS HARP &
BASS ALE ON TAP!
For Our British Friends:
Woodpecker Hard Cider On Tap
"From England’
John Courage - McEwans
Traveling Irish Minstrels
Feb. 15-24 - Harry O’Donahue
Feb. 27-Mar. 17 - Rich McDuff
Mar. 20-31 - The Ferrymen
County Cork Pub
56 East Andrews Drive, H.W.
"Sweet 16"
Upper Level Buckhead 262-A BAR
Open M.-Sat. 3 PM 2AM
Your Hosts Cynthia & Art Fessenden