New Episcopal Liaison FIP: Bishop Arturo Cepeda, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit
Most Reverend Bishop José Arturo Cepeda,
Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit,
Archdiocese of Detroit
1234 Washington Boulevard
Detroit, Michigan, 48226
Feast of the Epiphany
January 8, 2012
Your Excellency,
On behalf of the national Federación de Institutos Pastorales (FIP), I welcome and thank you for accepting to be our new Episcopal Liaison to the USCCB. We are grateful to Archbishop Vigneron for his support by letting you serve the Church and our organization in this role.
We will now announce and present you to our FIP membership and the general public as the new Episcopal Liaison for the national Federation of Pastoral Institutes or Federación de Institutos Pastorales (FIP), the only organization of its kind in the nation and maybe even in the world!
I’m glad we will have you present at our annual meeting in the Diocese of Joliet (Romeoville, Ill.) this January, in particular during our business meeting day on Wednesday January 18th. You will be receiving the agenda and other materials in preparation for the upcoming meeting soon. We look forward to meeting and gathering with you in person!
Our federation, a small but selective national forum of formation institute/program directors at the national, regional and diocesan levels, is currently working on several tasks:
- Revision of our By-Laws and re-structuring of our organization.
- Final pre-publishing editing and English translation/version of our new FIP Manual designed to help formation directors create or enhance formation institutes and/or programs. The new manual will annex FIP’s Accreditation Manual designed to help accredit institute member’s formation programs.
- Follow-up on our co-sponsor role at the National Symposium on Lay Ecclesial Ministry (in Collegeville, MN) and our current collaboration to provide the national Alliance for Certification of Lay Ecclesial Ministry (ACLEM) with the criteria and process in the granting of academic “equivalencies” for its national certification process with faith-formed people seeking this certification lacking academic degrees.
- Follow-up on our participation in the Emerging Hispanic Leadership Initiative (in San Antonio, TX at MACC) in particular with the task of strengthening our organization and tapping on the available support and resources present in the country, as far as financial support and leadership training, so that FIP moves from survival mode to a thriving mode of operation. With this there are pending moral and formal collaboration arrangements with the Instituto Fe y Vida and the NCCHM with their respective initiatives to launch Hispanic Ministry Leadership Training programs around the country.
As FIP’s Episcopal Liaison, you will be part of the work and dialogue on these and other tasks and issues that concern the federation and/or its member institutes. Thank you for joining us! ¡Bienvenido a la labor!
In Christo Iesu,
Reynaldo Montemayor Jr., PhL.
FIP President
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