Ecumenical Award 2001

Are you

Living the marriage of two 

Christian traditions?

(usually a Roman Catholic married to a Christian from another tradition)

Award for Ecumenical Leadership

to

Ray & Fenella Temmerman

Catholic and Anglican couple from Morden

for their work with

Interchurch Families

including the

Web site:

www.interchurchfamilies.org

Listserv: aifw@mylist.net

 International Conference of Interchurch Families

Edmonton, August 2001

A time to talk of

interchurch families:

• The movement in history worldwide
• Story
• Gifts for the healing of disunity

Sponsored by the

Canadian Association of Interchurch Families

For more information, contact Ray & Fenella Temmerman, 204-284-1147, or email at RaynFen@gmail.com

Dear friends;

We are Ray and Fenella Temmerman, a Catholic and Anglican couple living in Morden, Manitoba. On Saturday evening, June 8^th,

8 p.m., at St. Benedict’s Monastery, 225 Masters Ave just north of Winnipeg, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, in Montreal, will presented us with their annual Award for Ecumenical Leadership, for our work on behalf of interchurch families in Canada and around the world.

Two key components contributed to our being selected. One is the web site for the Association of Interchurch Families. This site was begun in 1996, following our participation at the International Conference for Interchurch Families at Virginia Beach, USA. It now provides materials from and resources for interchurch families and their churches from around the world. The second  The other is the work we did as co-chairs of the 10th International Conference of Interchurch Families, held in Edmonton in 2001, with keynote speakers from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Vatican. This conference gathered 125 people from 9 countries, with complete programming streams for adults, youth, and children.

Interchurch families are families in which the spouses are from different Christian traditions, usually where one spouse is a Roman Catholic. More than being ‘mixed marriages’, they seek to continue living faithfully their own tradition, while participating as much as possible in the tradition of their spouse.

More than 40% of marriages in North America cross traditional church boundaries. Of these, too many interchurch couples, struggling to live their call to unity amidst the scandal of churches divided, end up dropping out of church worship and life. That is tragic, for them, for their families, and indeed for all of us.

The Canadian Association of Interchurch Families (CAIF), along with similar organizations around the world, strives to reach out to these interchurch couples and families, to walk with and encourage them in their journeys, so that together we may remain faithful and active participants in the life of our churches and ecclesial communities. In so doing, we discover and celebrate in each other tremendous richness amidst diversity, and become gifts to our churches for the healing of disunity.

If you or your friends have any questions on the award, on the Canadian Association of Interchurch Families, or on the possibilities that may be open to interchurch families, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Ray & Fenella Temmerman

879 Dorchester Ave.

Winnipeg, MB R3M 0P7

Tel: 204-284-1147

Email: RaynFen@gmail.com