The last of the events scheduled for me on this trip was speaking at St. Mathias Parish in East Lyme, Connecticut. I drove there Saturday right after the Board of Directors meeting finished and came back Sunday afternoon, hurrying to arrive in time to hear Tom Roberts speak at Maryknoll.

After several cloudy days, Saturday afternoon was a brilliant autumn afternoon at Bethany when the Board of Directors meeting finished.

The delightful fall weather, just a bit cool, carried over to East Lyme, Connecticut, one hundred and ten miles miles from Maryknoll, to St. Mathias Church.

The parish office is a former restaurant. The parish bought the restaurant and surrounding grounds to build their new church in 1998.

The church is modern and spacious, actually too big for their present population. It has a comfortable and functional design.

Tom Roberts, Editor-at-Large for the National Catholic Reporter, was the October speaker in the Maryknoll Speakers Series, and spoke to several hundred interested people in the Asia Room of the seminary building.

Tom Roberts spoke about his new book The Emerging Catholic Church and the research that led to it. He explored forces like demographics, changing attitudes about religious institutions, and contemporary crises in the church to help the audience get an idea of the church as we experience it today and as it will develop in the years ahead.

Sam Stanton, the executive director of the Maryknoll Lay Missioners, was one of the audience who commented and questioned Tom Roberts after his talk.