New Encounters was founded in 2020 by Dr. Mary Laver, formerly a Catholic organizer for POWER Interfaith, Reverend Stephen Thorne, chair of the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing, and other Philadelphia area Catholics who are deeply involved in the life of the Church and in efforts to combat racism.

Since the fall of 2020, we have received modest funding to provide stipends to program leaders and speakers through a donor-advised fund at the Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia.

New Encounters offer prayerful, informative, interactive sessions that challenge participants to respond to the movements of the Holy Spirit in the journey toward racial justice and healing.

In all of our offerings to date, we combine prayer, Scripture, presentation, and group reflection/ discussion.

Guided by the Holy Spirit, these truths inform our work:

• Looking at racism as Catholics involves facing uncomfortable facts about our history.

• The Church offers abundant channels of grace, conversion and repentance/reparation that can equip and strengthen us in anti-racist Catholic living: through the sacraments, the saints, and in community.

We offer ongoing mentoring for our participants in order to build a network of Catholics, who can encourage and challenge each other as they continue on the faith-journey of encountering ALL people as the beloved bearers of the Divine Image that they are.

Past events include:

• Workshop on the USCCB’s pastoral letter Open Wide Our Hearts for the Permanent Deacons of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

• Pentecost Novena for Racial Justice

• Workshops for lay Catholics on integrating Catholic Social Teaching and Anti-Racist principles

• Monthly “Mass & Meet Ups”

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