The Lyke Conference is back.
After a two-year hiatus, the nation's premier Black Catholic liturgical event is scheduled for June 14-18, 2022 at the Hilton Embassy Suites in Grapevine, Texas.
The theme for the gathering is “Listen to the Lambs: Black Confirmation - Rejoicing in the Gifts of the Young”.
The news was announced by the organization Saturday on social media, reviving accounts that had largely been dormant since the most recent conference, in 2019. COVID-19 caused the cancelation of the next two year's events.
The conference—named after the late liturgist Archbishop James P. Lyke, OFM, the second of the three Black archbishops in US history—was founded in 2004 as an outlet where attendees could be trained in African-American patrimony.
That mission has endured now for over 15 years, organizing gatherings in every year except the two coinciding with the National Black Catholic Congress (2012 and 2017).
As in previous years, the 2022 event will begin with two days of specialized ministry tracks, this time around including music (Clarence Rivers Institute), preaching (Hush Harbor), dance (Sr Thea Bowman Institute), and young adults (Urudisha Nyuma - “Reclaim”).
Speakers announced so far include brother liturgists Richard Cheri, executive director of the conference’s sponsor, the Lyke Foundation; and Fernand Cheri III, OFM, auxiliary bishop of New Orleans.
They will be joined by M. Roger Holland II and W. Clifford Petty, two esteemed liturgists who are also some of the most recognizable Black recording artists in the Church.
Also speaking are Timothy Jones Jr., an organist and singer from New Orleans’ Black Baptist community, and Andrew and Terri Lyke, a husband-and-wife duo specializing in marriage ministry via their Arusi Network. (Andrew is Archbishop Lyke’s nephew.)
Other clergymen joining Bishop Cheri on the schedule include Fr Rodney “Tony” Ricard, an educator and public speaker from St Gabriel the Archangel Church in New Orleans, and Fr Joseph A. Brown, SJ, a liturgist and poet from the University of Southern Illinois.
Registration for the conference has not yet opened, but a link for hotel reservations is now live.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger, in priesthood formation with the Josephites, and a ThM student with the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA).
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