The Springfield Deanery will serve as hosts.

Featured speaker will be Father Jeff Vomund, pastor at St Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist Parish and St. Louis Catholic Academy Elementary School in North St. Louis since April 2006. He will “invite you to live from a deeper place, to be embraced by, and choose from God’s infinite presence,” according to convention organizers.

Convention attendees will have the opportunity to attend an informational sessions by Vicki Compton, director of the diocesan Office for the Missions, on “The Problem of Inactive Catholics and What We Can Do About It.” Also presenting will be Jeanne Thompson, pastoral associate at St. Mary Parish in Trenton, and Rebecca Woodhull, National Council of Catholic Women board member, State of Illinois province director and member of the Springfield in Illinois Diocesan Council of Catholic Women.

Organizers hope the “topics will energize attendees to spread the word about our Catholic faith, and the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, which in turn will strengthen parish and deanery councils.”

There also will be time for spiritual enrichment, renewal of friendships, making new friends, viewing displays, and finding out what works in other parishes and deaneries.

A silent auction, attendance prize and raffles will be part of the day’s excitement. Raffles tickets can be purchased before or during the convention, for pot-of-gold and a 78-inch by 93-inch quilt hand made and donated by Loretta Moser and Mary Glaus of the Jacksonville Deanery.

Parish and deanery CCW presidents will have raffle tickets.

Registration is $40. The deadline for registration is Thursday, Sept. 23, when the fee will increase to $47. A registration form can be clipped out of the Catholic Times newspaper, the DCCW newsletter Catholic Women in Focus, obtained from parish or deanery president or on the DCCW website www.dccwspringfield.catholicweb.com.

For further information contact Fran Wilkinson, DCCW president at (618) 585-3291 or e-mail .