Lay Movements Annual Gathering – “Pilgrims of Hope”

The Annual Meeting of the Leadership Representatives of the recognized Archdiocesan Lay Associations and Movements was held this year on Saturday, January 11th, 2025, at St. Edward the Confessor Parish in North York. Representatives from about 60 of our Lay Associations participated, totalling about 100 people.

The theme of this year’s seminar was “Pilgrims of Hope,” also the theme of the current Holy Jubilee Year. The seminar began with the celebration of Mass with the Lay Representatives and St. Edward’s parishioners. Bishop Robert Kasun CSB, Vicar for Lay Organizations, was the celebrant and homilist.

Following Mass, Fr. Tim Hanley, pastor of St. Clement’s Parish and Chairperson of the Archdiocesan Holy Jubilee Year Planning Committee spoke to the Assembly, offering not only an overview of the Holy Year, but also with a strong encouragement to each of us, individually and as members of Lay Organizations, to seek a deeper relationship of love with Jesus Christ from whom all our ministries flow, especially now during this Holy Year of reconciliation, renewal and hope. He encouraged the naming of individual and organizational charisms to be put to good use as authentic signs of hope in the Church of Toronto.

According to Canon Law, lay associations “strive in a common endeavor to foster a more perfect life, to promote public worship or Christian doctrine, or to exercise other works of the apostolate such as initiatives of evangelization, works of piety or charity, and those which animate the temporal order with a Christian spirit.” We give thanks for the thousands of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Toronto who give so generously of their time and talents through their involvement with lay movements and associations. To learn more about these ministries in the archdiocese, click here.