by Brenda Cerkez
Outgoing Executive Director
After 31 years as executive director of Family Honor, it’s now time to say goodbye … but what a journey it has been!
Without a doubt, Family Honor has had a tremendous impact on my life. Family Honor prepared me for marriage in ways I did not realize it would, and it taught me (hopefully!) how to be a better wife, friend, sister, daughter, and aunt. Family Honor also opened my eyes to the depth and beauty of Catholic church teaching on love, virtue, family, fertility, and much more.
A firm foundation for our apostolate was established back in 1988 by the original founders and board, with Ann and Bob Nerbun and J and Tonia Seth providing the vision and goals, and then Mary Ann Fey coming on board as curricula writer. I was privileged to be able to start out leaning on these folks for guidance and support.
Thankfully, with their help, and the help of many other talented staff members, board members, our wonderful Presenters, and our faithful donors, we were able to – together – accomplish the following:
- Bring thousands of parents and their children together to share special moments learning about life, love, and the big questions in life: Who am I? and What is my life for?
- Host the first-ever national conference on The Theology of the Body, in Charleston, SC in 2002, followed by three more national conferences in various locations. The conferences typically attracted people from over 30 states and occasionally foreign countries as well;
- Create and update various training courses for men and women who wanted to become Family Honor Presenters, including our current Understanding the Human Person class;
- Establish Family Honor affiliate teams (in addition to our South Carolina Program Presenters) over the years in: Columbus, Ohio; St. Marys, Pennsylvania; Raleigh, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Augusta, Georgia; Gulf Breeze, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Huntsville, Alabama; and Clarksville, Tennessee;
- Develop an outreach to African-American families;
- Translate some of our curricula and books into Spanish;
- Train bilingual Family Honor Presenters to deliver our programs in Spanish;
- Take our Presenters ‘on the road’ to deliver our programs in areas where we did not have teams, such as California, Virginia, Texas, and Canada;
- Create new half-day seminars: Be Not Afraid: Responding to Sexual Chaos with Truth and Love and Shining the Light on Gender, Identity, and Freedom;
- Host a podcast on Catholic radio;
- Provide our books to crisis pregnancy centers, Catholic hospitals, and parents around the country.
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to each and every individual, parish, organization, foundation, and business who helped me and helped Family Honor serve families over the years.
I look forward to welcoming our new executive director, Daniel West, when he takes over on August 18, and encourage you to continue to pray for Family Honor, support Family Honor, and consider how Family Honor might be able to serve your parish or diocese.
My plan is to stay involved with Family Honor as a presenter in our weekend class and our seminars, and hope to see many of you in the coming months through those efforts.
God bless!