Register for APCE pre-event with the Around the Table initiative
Participants are invited to live more deeply in an intergenerational world
Registration is open for the 2027 Association of Partners in Christian Education (APCE) Annual Event in Portland, Oregon, and participants are encouraged to reserve their spot early for the Around the Table Pre-Retreat Experience, a special pre-event offered by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Around the Table initiative.
The APCE Annual Event will be held Jan. 27-30, 2027, at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront and online. This year’s theme, “Can These Bones Live?: Rediscovering What Matters,” will bring together Christian educators, pastors and ministry leaders from across denominations for worship, learning and connection. Those interested in attending the Around the Table Pre-Retreat Experience should register early. APCE’s early-bird registration deadline is Nov. 15.
The Around the Table Pre-Retreat Experience will take place Jan. 26-27, immediately before the annual event begins, at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront. The retreat is designed for faith leaders, parents, caregivers and other adults seeking practical ways to nurture faith with children and youth in everyday life. The cost is $50 and includes Tuesday dinner and Wednesday breakfast. The retreat will be led by the Rev. Neema Cyrus-Franklin, director of the Around the Table initiative, along with cohort coaches, Kim Ness and Becky D’Angelo-Veitch. A board member of the Presbyterian Youth Workers Association, Ness has walked alongside young people for more than 30 years and currently serves as an interim director for faith formation in two congregations. D’Angelo-Veitch, whose current work centers on coaching, writing and teaching yoga, is a certified associate Christian educator with decades of congregational ministry experience.
The retreat serves as one of several optional pre-events and add-on experiences available to APCE participants. Other offerings include a NEXT Church-led workshop on change and transformation, tours of local sites, certification courses and other ministry-focused learning opportunities that require additional registration.
Participants in the Around the Table retreat will explore the initiative’s six Sabbath practices: Sabbath, prayer, storytelling, hospitality, service and retreat. The experience also launches a retreat-based cohort that continues with six 90-minute online group coaching sessions designed to help participants integrate these practices into their homes, congregations and ministry settings.
For Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) participants, the opportunity extends beyond the retreat itself. Congregations that complete the coached cohort experience are eligible for a $1,500 microgrant to support their ongoing faith formation work.
Cyrus-Franklin said the initiative is grounded in a vision of adults embodying the faith they hope to share with younger generations. “Around the Table is not another Sunday school curriculum. It is an invitation for us as mentoring adults to deepen our own practices of following Jesus Christ so that the faith in God we share with children and young people is a faith we are actually living,” she said.
She noted that Deuteronomy 6 serves as the initiative’s foundational Scripture. “We want to help adults practice the faith we hope to pass on,” Cyrus-Franklin said. The initiative emphasizes faith formation through ordinary, everyday relationships and experiences rather than relying solely on classroom settings or programmed activities.
According to Cyrus-Franklin, the need for intentional intergenerational engagement is increasingly important. “We live in a deeply intergenerational world, yet we often spend less and less meaningful time together,” she said. “Around the Table creates space for generations to practice faith together, to tell our stories, listen for where we have encountered God, and name the places where we have longed for God’s presence in difficult times.”
She said the initiative helps participants rediscover everyday moments as opportunities for spiritual growth. “Through storytelling, spiritual practices and coaching, Around the Table helps congregations and households rediscover those everyday spaces as places where faith can grow.”
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