Crosses to anchor OACCW day

Women across the archdiocese are invited to a day of handcrafts and prayer June 17 at St. Mary Church in Norfolk, sponsored by the Omaha Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women (OACCW).

"We’d like to have a couple of hundred women there," said Theresa Pavlik, president-elect of the OACCW and a member of St. Wenceslaus Parish in Verdigre, while stressing that the number of participants is less important than the experience being offered.

The focus is a ministry called Answered Prayers Cross Inc., in which people pick out already-decorated ceramic crosses of varying sizes for themselves or loved ones – and have an opportunity to share stories and prayer while decorating crosses that will be offered to other groups around the country.

That activity will be led beginning at 10 a.m. by Elizabeth Bunbury, a member of St. Paul Parish in St. Petersburg, Fla., and founder of the nondenominational, nonprofit outreach ministry of prayer and support.

Picking out a cross can be a powerful moment, Pavlik said.

"Whenever you look through crosses on the table it’s amazing – but you look through them and you know someone who needs that cross," said Pavlik, who has met Bunbury and picked out crosses at several National Council of Catholic Women conventions.

The event also is OACCW’s spirituality day, which is held as a statewide gathering every other year. Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. by Father James Kramper, moderator of the OACCW and pastor of St. Peter de Alcántara Parish in Ewing, St. John the Baptist Parish of Deloit Township in rural Holt County and St. Theresa of Avila Parish in Clearwater.

Lunch will be served by the OACCW, with women from the organization’s seven deaneries bringing a variety of items, Pavlik said.

Preregistration is not necessary, and a prize will be given to people with the most cars from one county, Father Kramper said.

"We’re saying, ‘fill a car and come,’" he said.