TOBIA: A Short History

Over the last several years, there have been many Theology of the Body and Love and Responsibility study groups springing up around the country. Through my family’s recording ministry, Our Father's Will Communications, I was blessed to speak with and meet some of the leaders of these various study groups in my travels beginning in 2000. In August of 2002, Jen Messing from the St. Paul, MN Theology of the Body study group came to Denver to meet with our TOB study group, network and discuss what was going on regarding the theology of the body in the Twin Cities area, and to relate ideas for furthering the spread of the theology of the body. This meeting was sort of a "pre-TOBIA" meeting.

In preparation for her coming I contacted a few other people around the country that I knew had study groups going and were also evangelizing with the pope's message. I wanted to find out what exactly they were doing in their areas. (That is when Peter McFadden in NY convinced us to join him by holding a “Pope Day” in Denver to celebrate Pope John Paul II's 24th anniversary of election to the papacy.) My primary contacts at that time were Peter McFadden in NY; Monica Ashour in Dallas, TX; Jen Messing in St. Paul, MN; and Dave Sloan in Atlanta, GA.

In the Fall of 2002, further conversation with Peter McFadden and Jen Messing led to the decision to get together in January of 2003. The group in Dallas (TOBET - Theology of the Body Evangelization Team) graciously agreed to host the meeting. The weekend was a combination of social, prayer and meeting time so that people could meet others from around the country, network, and brainstorm. We first introduced our respective groups and briefly explained what we were doing in our particular area.

Then we broke out into groups and discussed how we could implement the theology of the body in several different areas including pro-life, marriage prep, singles/young adult ministry, teen ministry, curricula, parents teaching TOB to their children, and the media. We then discussed whether we wanted to form a resource network for our groups and what that would entail.

A list of each group's talents and abilities was compiled. After the meeting a list serve e-mail list was created so that we could communicate with each other in an effective way. For example, if some one needed information on the theology of the body and teens, they could send out an e-mail asking for it and whoever had things to offer in that area could respond. This list serve has since been switched to a Yahoo Groups list which is open to TOBIA members.