Roberts & Grennan To Co-Keynote

At CWU Spring Assembly

BRIDGEPORT — Sherie Roberts, a member of Newtown Congregational Church UCC, will join Conor Grennan as a speaker for the Church Women United State Assembly on Saturday, April 16, at United Congregational Church, 877 Park Avenue. “New Horizons for Women of Faith” is the theme for the annual event, which this year also celebrates CWU’s 70th birthday.

Mrs Roberts is a full-time contracts manager in the corporate world, but attends Hartford Seminary part-time. She will be graduating from Hartford Seminary in June with a graduate certificate in spirituality. Mrs Roberts also graduated from Hartford Seminary’s  Women’s Leadership Institute in 2001. She is a 2010 graduate of the Silver Dove Institute’s Art of Spiritual Guidance Program in Vermont and is currently building a small practice as an interfaith spiritual director.

She is married to Keith Roberts, who is chair of the board of directors of the United Church of Christ Silver Lake Conference Center. They have two grown children: Carrie, a first-year graduate student at SUNY Buffalo; and Matthew, an undergraduate at University of Connecticut at Storrs.

Mrs Roberts has done lay ministry for NCC, including being the founder and leader of SpiritSisters, a celebration held occasionally prior to formal Sunday morning worship services. Usually held outdoors, Mrs Roberts is joined by other women where “we gather in a circle and we share our sacred stories in celebration of wisdom, witness, and wonder,” she said recently. The third season of SpiritSisters will begin later this spring.

Mrs Roberts will be speaking on April 16 about the rejuvenation efforts of Church Women United, the humanitarian efforts of Mr Grennan and how those efforts led to him finding his soulmate, and will also share some very personal moments of her spiritual journey.

Conor Grennan is the founder of Next Generation Nepal, a not-for-profit agency that works to return children kidnapped for trafficking to their parents.

Mr Grennan is the author of Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, which describes some of his experiences in rescuing these children. He is a resident Connecticut and he and his wife have one son and second child, due in April.

It was while volunteering in Nepal that Mr Grennan found children, reported to be orphans, who had in fact been taken from their families. Mr Grennan personally tracked down several families and reunited the children with their parents.

The Spring Assembly will open with registration at 9:30 am. There will be a short worship program featuring the Norma Pfriem Children’s Choir, the speakers, and a luncheon.

Registration is requested, and is $15 in advance. Checks should be written to CWU-CT and mailed it to Jill Shaw, Treasurer, at PO Box 227, Bethel CT 06801. Those registering are asked to include their name and a contact number.

Registrations are needed by April 11 in order to be counted for the early registration discount. Cost will be $17 at the door.

For more information, call Darlene Jackson, CWU State co-vice president, at 203-426-5192.