Location: Celebration Rooms 1-2

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Engage your parishioners and spread evangelization at the same time through the stewardship pillars of hospitality and service. The first part of this session provides creative ways to engage your parishioners to welcome the lost and unchurched to Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Easter to Church through the pillar of hospitality. In addition, learn how one parish engaged its parishioners to perform over 5,000 acts of mercy through the pillar of service.  If you are especially interested in assisting God in finding the lost sheep, come learn about these creative and engaging ideas!

Lois Locey has extensive first-hand experience cultivating stewardship and evangelization around the world from both a parish and diocesan perspective. She is best known for her creative ideas on stewardship, balancing the “theoretical” with the “practical.” She currently serves as the pastoral associate for administration and stewardship at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where she is responsible for developing a holistic vision of year-round stewardship. The three parishes where Lois ministered over a period of 23 years, each received the International Catholic Stewardship Council (ICSC) award for having the most outstanding total stewardship effort and materials. She served on the teaching faculty at the ICSC’s inaugural stewardship institute in Australia, where she worked with over 17 dioceses and their parishes to establish stewardship as a way of life in the land down under. Lois co-authored the ICSC’s Children’s Stewardship Manual and served as general editor/researcher for the ICSC’s book on best practices in Catholic stewardship throughout the world, Keeping Stewardship Alive:  Proven Stewardship Ideas. Lois participated on the curriculum committee for the Catholic Leadership Institute’s (CLI) “Tending the Talents” program and on a special task force to design CLI’s “Disciple-Maker Index.” Specializing in pastoral leadership, Church growth and engagement, Lois holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Catholic University of America.

Location: Celebration Rooms 5-6

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Reflecting Matthew 10:8 and the bishop’s definition of stewardship:  we receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly in justice with others, and return them with increase to the Lord this talk will inspire and challenge participants to reflect upon the gifts God has given them to help bring forth the gifts of the baptized.

Fr.  Mark G. Reamer, O.F.M., a Franciscan Friar of Holy Name Province, serves as Guardian (servant leader) of the Friar Community and as Mission Officer of Siena College in Albany, New York.  Before returning to his alma mater in 2014, he spent 19 years serving at the Catholic Community of St. Francis of Assisi in Raleigh, North Carolina.  During his time as pastor, St. Francis was recipient of the Murphy award.

He holds a Master of Divinity in 1991 from the Washington Theological Union (Washington, D.C.) with a concentration in Franciscan Studies.  His dissertation for a Doctor of Ministry from Duke University (Durham, N.C.) in 2014 was “Breaking New Ground: Pastoral Leadership in the Roman Catholic Church through the Lens of Bowen Systems Theory.”

In addition to his responsibilities at Siena College, Fr. Mark enjoys pastoral outreach at local parishes including as chaplain to Catholic Central High School in Troy, N.Y. and is “mentor” for the newly (5 years and less) ordained priests of the Diocese of Albany.  He was elected a member of the Presbyteral Council of the Diocese of Albany, serves on the Priestly Life and Ministry Committee and represents Albany on the New York State Presbyteral Council.

A great supporter of Catholic Education and Formation, at St. Francis in Raleigh he was part of the leadership adding a parochial school to the mission of the parish in 2000 which grew to an enrollment of over 900 (pre-K to 8) when he departed in 2014.  While in Raleigh he was a member of the board of trustees of Cardinal Gibbons High School, member of Presbyteral Council and Dean (Vicar Forane) of the Raleigh Deanery covering the 16 parishes of Wake and Franklin Counties.

Location: Celebration Rooms 7-8

The Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy Award Recipient Priests

Fr.  Charles Mitchell’s

Fr Charlie Mitchell a native of West Virginia and current pastor of St Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs FL. Fr Charlie has been the pastor at St Mary Magdalen for the last 21 years. He is a graduate of West Virginia University and St Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore MD. His parish has an 8.6 million dollar budget and hosts over 200 programs and ministries. In 2014, the International Catholic Stewardship Council awarded St. Mary Magdalen the Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy Parish Stewardship Award.

Fr. Jan Kevin Schmidt’s

Father Jan Kevin Schmidt is a priest of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and currently serves, as of July 1, 2016 in the Chancery role of Executive Director of the Department for Pastoral Life and Evangelization of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Prior to entering the seminary Fr. Schmidt worked as an executive in the theme park industry in Cincinnati, Ohio, Richmond, Virginia, Toronto, Canada and Sydney, Australia and consulted on projects in France, South Korea, China and the Middle East.

Ordained by Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk in 1990, Fr. Schmidt is a graduate of Archbishop McNicholas High School in Cincinnati and holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati and the Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West.

Fr. Schmidt has served as Chaplain and faculty member at Archbishop McNicholas High School from 1990 until his appointment as Pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Cincinnati in 1995.  While assigned to McNicholas Fr. Schmidt was in residence and served as a resident associate at St. Andrew’s Parish in Milford (1990-91) and Our Lord Christ the King Parish (1991-1995). Fr. Schmidt has served several terms on the School Board of McNicholas High School and has just completed his 24^th year as a coach in the school’s soccer program. In addition, he was appointed the first President of Archbishop McNicholas High School in December of 2007 and continues to serve as a Chaplain to the school.

In 2008 as Fr. Schmidt completed his pastorate at Immaculate Heart of Mary the parish received the Archbishop Thomas Murphy Award for the exemplary practice of stewardship in the United States from the International Catholic Stewardship Conference (ICSC) of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

In July of 2008 Fr. Schmidt became the Pastor of St. Margaret of York Parish in Loveland, Ohio, completing that assignment in June of 2016. He has also been responsible for shepherding the Archdiocesan One Faith, One Hope, One Love Capital Campaign [Goal of $130M – present total $165M] to a successful completion through the solicitation period in his role as Chair of the Pastor’s Advisory Committee to the Archbishop on all matters concerning the campaign.

Fr. Schmidt is currently a member of the faculty at the Athenaeum of Ohio – Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary of the West and sits on several boards and advisory committees of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.  He has presented workshops at the national conventions of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) and the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA), the International Catholic Stewardship Conference (ICSC), LA Congress, Fashion Me a People and has been the Chair for the Convocation of Priests on issues of Parish Administration for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 2003.  He frequently presents in-services to pastoral leaders on stewardship, pastoral planning and catechesis.

The Department of Pastoral Life and Evangelization of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati includes the Offices for: African-American Pastoral Ministries, College and University Campus Ministry, Divine Worship and the Sacraments, Evangelization and Discipleship, Health and Hospital Ministries, Hispanic Pastoral Ministry, Marriage and Family Life, Mission and Pontifical Mission Societies, New Evangelization, Pastoral Ministry to the Incarcerated, Pastoral Vitality and Mission, Respect Life Ministries, Young Adult Evangelization and Discipleship and Youth Evangelization and Discipleship.

Fr.  Patrick Sheedy’s

Fr. Pat Sheedy was ordained a priest in 1965 in County Clare, Ireland.  He has served in the Diocese of Orlando for 46 years, and as Pastor of Blessed Trinity parish in Ocala, Florida, since 1988.  Blessed Trinity has been a total stewardship parish since 1992.  Under Fr. Pat’s leadership and direction the parish has grown spiritually, has experienced an increase in parishioner involvement, maintained perpetual adoration, and has become involved in numerous outreach projects locally, nationally, and internationally.

Blessed Trinity parish has been the recipient of the Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy award for outstanding Christian stewardship and has also been recognized for excellence for its parish stewardship video.  Fr. Pat and members of the parish stewardship committee have presented sessions at the ICSC annual conferences in San Francisco and Boston, and have been invited to speak at Diocesan stewardship days in Florida, New York, Texas, California, and Illinois.

In addition, Fr. Pat and members of the Blessed Trinity stewardship committee have developed materials and short presentations for numerous parishes throughout the United States to assist them “Parish to Parish” in the introduction of stewardship as a way of life and also with the follow-up “How To” keep stewardship alive and well in the parish.

Rev. Jeffery A. McGowan’s Biography

I was born and raised in Laurel Springs, New Jersey.  It is a small town and I couldn’t get away with much growing up, because all our parents were friends and the community was strong. (I remember when Sister scolded me in the 5th grade she asked ask what my grandfather would think).  I attended Catholic schools from first grade through college. I was ordained in 1989 and I have pastored at Queen of Peace in Gainesville, Florida for 27 years. In those years we built our permanent church, opened and built our Catholic elementary school, established 85 active ministries and all the while tithed 10% of our income to outside charities (over and above the Cathedrum). And by far what I’ve learned is that the faithful practice we call “Stewardship” is God’s best plan for living positive lives.  Stewardship places gratitude to God first and I’ve never met an unhappy grateful person. It invites fuller participation in the Mission of the Church as God’s gift of life in action. It gives all Catholic parishioners a faith-filled way of impacting our world with the Good News.