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Scranton
Beginning Experience to Celebrate 25th
Anniversary
The local chapter of Beginning
Experience will celebrate its 25th
anniversary with a Mass of Thanksgiving on
Saturday, Oct. 22, at St. Joseph’s Oblates
Chapel, Route 315 in Pittston Township.
Msgr.
Joseph Rauscher will be the principal
celebrant for the 4:30 p.m. liturgy.
Following the Mass, a dinner dance will be
held at Convention Hall on Oak Street,
Pittston Township, beginning at 6 p.m.
Beginning
Experience is an international peer ministry
program enabling divorced, separated, and
widowed men and women a chance to process
the grief that accompanies a loss of a loved
one. The local chapter, which is sponsored
by the Diocese of Scranton, was established
in 1980, largely through the efforts of
Patrick McMahon and Msgr. Rauscher.
Beginning Experience is a ministry to the
grieving carried out by a trained team of
volunteers who have also suffered the loss
of a loved one. The Beginning Experience
program helps grieving single-again persons
emerge from the darkness of grief into the
light of a new beginning, and move into the
future with renewed life. It offers support
to cope with sorrow, doubt, anxiety and
loneliness.
The
B.E. team conducts weekly, monthly and
weekend programs. Although rooted in the
Catholic Church, BE is open to men and women
of all faiths. Its quality and effectiveness
is well documented.
The ministry has been honored by the North
American Conference of Separated and
Divorced Catholics and the National
Association of Catholic Family Life
Ministries. Beginning Experience has
participated in the International Conference
for the World Federation for Mental Health
in Ireland, and representatives have
addressed the Australian government’s Year
of the Family Congress.
Friends of Beginning Experience as well as
anyone who has made a Beginning Experience
weekend or participated in the Encountering
Life Alone program are cordially invited to
join in the anniversary celebration. The
cost is $30 per person, which includes a
family-style dinner, refreshments and music.
For
further information, contact Louise at
570-278-8976, Wendy at 570-675-7520 or Pat
at 570-822-1063. Anyone interested in making
a BE weekend may call Shirley at
570-654-8523.
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