2013 Theme
"Enter the Mystery" /
"Entra al Misterio"

Important Dates
Jan. 4 - Fees scheduled to increase
Jan. 4 - Last day for refunds
Jan. 14 - Congress tickets & Youth Day name badge mailing scheduled to begin
Feb. 7 - Last day to mail in your Congress registrations (on-site only after this date)
Feb. 14 - Online registration ends 11 pm PST

 • What is Congress?

 • Dates

 • Youth Day

 • Register Online

 • Speaker Feature

 • Congress Highlights

 • Disney Tickets

 • Hotels

 • FREE MP3

 • So. Cal-ers Only

 • RECongress.org

 • Emailing

Online at archive.recongress.org


Email us at
congress
@la-archdiocese.org

January is here, so Congress is only a month away! This month we announce our Arena speakers, and January is when the Congress fees increase and typically when Youth Day closes. And don't miss ordering specially priced tickets for Disney theme parks, only available online to RECongress attendees! Youth Day at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress is close to reaching its capacity. Watch our site for notice when ONLINE registration will end. Remember, we will continue to accept MAIL-IN registrations until we close Youth Day to further registration. If you haven't registered for Youth Day yet, plan to do it very soon. Be sure to view our video about Congress 2013. Click on the graphic or this link. Pass along this emailing or our link — archive.recongress.org — to share with friends and encourage them to sign up for our Congress Emailing for updates. If you do not care to receive future updates, you can find removal information at the bottom of this message. ¡Para información en español, clic aquí!

WHAT IS CONGRESS?
The Religious Education Congress, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Office of Religious Education, is the nation's largest annual gathering of Roman Catholics! Our last RECongress, held in March 2012, brought together nearly 40,000 people during the four-day weekend! We had registrants from across the country and as far away as Ireland and Australia.

See 2012 Congress Statistics

Location
Congress is held at the Anaheim Convention Center, located at 800 West Katella Ave. in Anaheim, Calif. (just across from Disneyland and Disney California Adventure).

Fee
Fees for the RECongress increased this month. The registration fee for Congress is $75 per person ($65 before January 4). Youth Day has a separate registration and fee of $30 per person ($25 before January 4).

Registration
The Registration Guidebook contains all workshop and speaker descriptions, entertainment and liturgy options, and all events during Congress. There are two Registration Forms per book. If you attended RECongress 2012, you should have already received a Registration Guidebook. If you need a Guidebook, please order one here.

Register Online for Congress

YOUTH DAY REGISTRATION
We are close to reaching our Youth Day capacity. Watch our site for information about ONLINE registration ending. We will continue to accept MAIL-IN registrations until we close Youth Day to further registration. If you haven't registered for Youth Day yet, plan to do it very soon. NOTE: There is no registration for Youth Day after it closes, and there is NO on-site registration.

See to the 2013 Youth Day Page

CONGRESS REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Registrations for Congress cover nearly every state in the country (excluding Delaware, Maine, Mississippi, Vermont, and West Virginia -- at this point). Know someone from those states? Let them know they can make Congress history and have all 50 U.S. states represented.

We currently have 332 signed up for Congress from outside of the United States, with 272 registrants from Canada and more from Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and the Virgin Islands.

Currently, the top cities of registrants are in California (with registration numbers): Los Angeles (1,251), San Diego (436), Long Beach (207), San Jose (225), Santa Ana (185), Anaheim (145), Whittier (139), San Bernardino (124), Fontana (114), and Oceanside (93).

See the Stats for Congress 2013

ARENA SESSIONS ANNOUNCED
A little Congress trivia: Our Congress speakers are not assigned their session locations until we have over 5,000 registrations. At that point, our Congress software runs projections to determine what size room each speaker would require. Now that registrations show who our most popular speakers are, our Arena sessions have now been assigned. Note: All Arena sessions are recorded.

If you do not specify your workshops, you will receive these sessions. Also, those registering at Congress will receive these tickets.

SESSION	SPEAKER	WORKSHOP (* = recorded)
1-15	Rev. Terry Hershey	Living Without Fear: The Truth About Intimacy, Love and Passion (*)
2-03	John Allen Jr.	The Battle for Religious Freedom in the 21st Century" (*)
3-23	Fr. Richard Rohr	Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (*)
Keynote	Mark Shriver	Faith, Hope and Love in Action (*)
4-21	Rev. R. Tony Ricard	Diary of an Unapologetic Roman Catholic Priest (*)
5-11	GIA workshop	Can You Hear Me Now? (*)
6-22	Rev. Ronald Rolheiser	Spirituality and the Different Stages of Our Lives: One Size Doesn't Fit All (*)
7-17	Rev. James Martin	Laugh – For God’s Sake! (*)
8-21	Sr. Anne Bryan Smollin	Little Things Mean a Lot (*)

You can find those speakers assigned to Hall B on our Congress 2013 Updates page. Also, you can find handouts posted online from some of these sessions off our Congress Updates page.

Go to the 2013 Updates Page

See all Congress 2013 Speakers

CONGRESS LITURGY SPOTLIGHT
Filipino Liturgy
Saturday, February 23, 2013, 5:15 pm
Hilton California Ballroom
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, presider
Archbishop Luis Tagle from the Philippines is a frequent speaker at Congress, but this time we welcome him back as Cardinal Tagle. Installed as Archbishop of Manila, Philippines, in 2011, he was just elevated to Cardinal this past November 24, 2012. Join in the celebration of Eucharistic Liturgy with the Filipino community on Saturday at Congress.

See the Liturgies at Congress 2013

CONGRESS 2013 HIGHLIGHTS
ARCHBISHOP GOMEZ VIDEO CHAT
Friday, February 22, 10:15-11:00 am
Tech Center @ Hall A
Join us Friday morning at the Tech Center as Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez conducts a live online chat session with students from St. Bernard Elementary School in Los Angeles. This will be the Archbishop's third annual online chat with a school and is his first video session from RECongress!

See other Congress Highlights

SPECIAL CONGRESS OFFER
Advance purchase of specially priced Disneyland resort tickets are available to Religious Education Congress 2013 attendees! Special pricing for Twilight Convention tickets (after 4 pm), 1-day 1-park and multi-day tickets and park hoppers are available. click on the graphic or here to order. This offer is only available online through Wednesday, February 20, 2013. Tickets are valid from Wednesday, February 20 to Tuesday, March 5, 2013.

Note: These discounted tickets are for use ONLY for RECongress attendees and their companions during their stay. Tickets cannot be purchased for the purpose of or with the intent of being resold.

See the RECongress Updates Page

HOTELS
January is the month of deadlines for a number of hotels contracted with the RECongress for special rates for Congress attendees. Check online for our most current listing of hotels and our interactive map of these hotels. When making reservations, be sure to ask for the Religious Education Congress rate. You can find information about contracted hotels on our web site.

See the RECongress Hotels page

GET YOUR FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD!
CSC Digital Media is the official recording company for Congress, providing selected sessions on Audio CDs and now, downloadable MP3s. For trying the service, they are offering one FREE MP3 download recording from the 2012 Religious Education Congress audio recordings. Simply visit www.cscrecording.com, select your sessions and redeem your free download using Coupon Code REC2012 when checking out. (Coupon is good for the download of one session per customer and expires February 28, 2013.)

See the RECongress Recording page

JUST FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIANS
Ralphs Grocery Company, a major supermarket chain in the Southern California area, supports schools, churches and other non-profit organizations with annual contributions. The Los Angeles Religious Education Congress is a member of Ralphs Community Contributions Program. Simply by using your Ralphs rewards Card a portion of eligible purchases are contributed to the RECongress. (Note: This is an annual program that must be renewed each year. The current term is September 1, 2012 through August 31, 2013.)

If you were part of the program last year, we thank you, but everyone needs to re-enroll each year. We encourage all Ralphs shoppers to sign up for the free Ralphs rewards Card and register their card with the Community Contributions Program. It’s easy! Every time you shop for groceries and scan your card at Ralphs, RECongress will automatically earn up to 5% of all eligible purchases per enrolled card. Sign up now! It’s never been easier to contribute to the RECongress.

Organization Name: Archdiocese of Los Angeles - Religious Education
Organization Number: 90658

Find step-by-step instructions and information online.

RECongress Ralphs Program

RECONGRESS.ORG
You can find all Congress information and updates online. There are links to speakers, workshops, topics and now, information about specially priced tickets for the Disney Parks. Check our site for the latest updates and announcements.

archive.recongress.org

EMAILING
Be sure to Sign-up for this twice-a-month Emailing about Congress updates and events. You may opt out from the Congress Emailing at any time from the link below.

© 2012 RECongress.org