Electronic Lay Movement

            The Scalabrinian Lay Movement is in part a child of the electronic age.  The Internet, web sites and e-mail have allowed widely scattered people with the same calling to find and to maintain contact with each other.  Electronic media permit rapid communications.  Although the computer and the payments for electronic service can be expensive, think how expensive it would be to do the same work via long-distance telephone.  Electronic media are flexible:  several entries in this newsletter arrived as e-mail and were fitted into the newsletter with a minimum of retyping.  Such a handy means of communication will doubtless help to keep the movement strong.

            To help our readers make the most of these new means of communication, the newsletter presents two articles, one by Father Vincenzo Ronchi on the Scalabrini Lay Movement’s e-mail list and one by Teresa Petraglia on the forthcoming web site.  Thanks to Father Ronchi and Teresa (and her son David!) for their hard work on these issues.

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slm@Topica.com

            E-mail is an affordable and convenient way to stay in touch. That is why I thought of creating an e-mail list for all the members of the Scalabrinian Lay Movement.  The list I created is called Scalabrinian Lay Movement (SLM) and can be found at:

 http://www.topica.com/lists/slm.

            I found out about www.topica.com through other lists I was already receiving. Topica is a free Internet service that allows people to find, manage and participate in e-mail lists easily. Topica makes e-mail lists accessible and easy to use, so easy that even I was able to do it. I sent out an invitation to join the list to all the members of our movement and others who might

have been interested. Those who responded were added to the list. Every time an article or message is posted on the list, all subscribers receive it via e-mail, usually within minutes.

            slm@topica.com is an open discussion list.  It accepts postings from anyone who is a subscriber.  Anyone of you can distribute material, send messages and share comments with the same ease with which you send e-mail. I know sometimes we find it difficult to make time to read so many messages. Even more difficult is to sit down and write about a special encounter, an interesting reading, or a provoking thought. I do believe, however, that if we put together our  experiences we greatly enrich each other and form a stronger bond among us. Many of the articles that some of us have posted on the list so far would make important additions to the material of the teaching units. I personally save printouts of all the messages. If you have not subscribed, or you know someone who interested in joining our list, there are two ways to subscribe.  The first way is to visit www.topica.com. Once you've found the Scalabrinian Lay Movement among the groups listed, click on it and then join the list by clicking on the button at the bottom of the list information page. The second way is to send an send a blank e-mail message to

 slm-subscribe@topica.com.

            Only subscribers can post to the list. There are two ways to post. Subscribers that are Topica users can post to the list using the Topica web site.  However, the easiest way to post messages to our list is by sending e-mail to: slm@topica.com. The message you send will be delivered to all subscribers immediately.

            Please, advertise slm@topica.com among the new members of the Scalabrinian Lay Movement.