Ed Conlin's Many Presentations to Youth
One of the unfortunate results of the Servants of the Word’s promotion of Ed Conlin as a celebrity songwriter and speaker over two decades is that it gave Ed exposure to youth in so many locations
One of the unfortunate results of the Servants of the Word’s promotion of Ed Conlin as a celebrity songwriter and speaker over the past two decades is that it gave Ed a chance to travel outside of Detroit and interact with youth in so many locations.
We cannot fault the people or groups who invited Ed since the Servants of the Word had not advertised his past history or any restrictions. The purpose of this post is simply to show the numerous opportunities that his brotherhood gave him to touch so many young people.
As a result of their initial inaction, the Servants of the Word have had to deal with more than the stories of abuse that have come to light from someone who would have been a relatively obscure brother in 1998. Instead, after more than two decades of inaction, the brotherhood had to deal with the significant fall of a star member promoted in outreaches, events, and parishes throughout the world.
While the true extent of Ed’s travels and events working with youth cannot be fully documented, here are a few examples where Ed had opportunity for the spotlight in front of youth outside of known interactions in his home community in Detroit and YouthWorks Detroit:
2000s and 2010s - Ed participated in and acted as referee for numerous UCO men’s soccer tournaments, annual events where UCO and community women and children were invited to participate as “fans”.
September 27, 2005 - Ed spoke to University of Michigan students at University Christian Outreach in Ann Arbor, giving a talk titled Worship as Our Response to God’s Love.
March 12, 2006 - The Word of Life community in Ann Arbor scheduled Ed Conlin as a Children’s Program helper for 3rd and 4th graders.
July 10, 2008 - The Word of Life community in Ann Arbor advertised Ed collecting softball gloves for Sunday evening softball. It is unknown whether Ed participated in softball himself or only asked for gloves to donate.
February 3, 2009 - Ed again spoke to University of Michigan students at University Christian Outreach in Ann Arbor, giving a talk on Prophecy.
February 23 - 27, 2009 - UCO Ann Arbor invited students to Spring Recess in Detroit, which included an option to help Ed for the week. It is unknown whether any students participated in this activity.
October 7, 2009 - Ed spoke to Michigan State University students at University Christian Outreach in Lansing, giving a talk titled Job 19.
October 15, 2009 - Ed spoke at a Single for the Lord promotional event at Huntington University in Indiana. For this event, he traveled with at least two other Servants of the Word and one member of the Sword of the Spirit’s Bethany Association, a group of women living Single for the Lord.
February 2, 2010 - Ed again spoke to University of Michigan students at University Christian Outreach in Ann Arbor, giving a talk about Serving the Lord.
January 25, 2011 - Ed again spoke to University of Michigan students at University Christian Outreach in Ann Arbor, giving a talk on Worship.
April 13, 2011 - Ed again spoke to Michigan State University students at University Christian Outreach in Lansing.
November 29, 2011 - Ed again spoke to University of Michigan students at University Christian Outreach in Ann Arbor, giving a talk titled Made to Worship.
February 26, 2014 - Ed spoke at a Spirit Night at the Catholic Student Union at Florida State University in Tallahassee. No other Servants of the Word appear in photos from that night, so it is unclear if Ed traveled to Tallahassee alone.
November 27, 2015 - Ed hosted members of Juventutem Michigan at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit for a meeting, prayer, and tour.
February 24, 2016 - Ed presented his talk Made to Worship to the Light of Christ community in Grand Rapids, including students from Grand Valley State University and Calvin University.
April 1 and 2, 2016 - Ed may have attended the 2016 Michigan Catholic Young Adult Conference in metro Detroit as a friend of Juventutem Michigan. Confirmation of attendance is not available at this time, but communications state that Ed was “expected to be involved”.
[Correction] The photo below is from a 2011 UCO Lansing meeting, an event that has now been added to the timeline above. Thank you to the C O M M U N I T Y for the correction. It is unclear why the Word of Life Community chose to use this photo of Ed to promote Life in the Spirit Seminars on its website from 2016 to 2020.
[Original] Circa 2016 - Ed Conlin presented to youth in the Word of Life community in Ann Arbor. The Word of Life Community used this photo from 2016 to 2020 to promote Life in the Spirit seminars.
2018 - Ed traveled to Costa Rica. It is unknown if he interacted with youth outside of the household: https://siervosdelapalabra.org/noticias/retiro-de-casa-en-costa-rica
Circa October 2018 - Ed traveled internationally to speak to the Jesed covenant community in Monterrey, Mexico.
(3) Ed Conlin in Jesed Monterrey. - YouTube
October 21, 2018 - Ed attended the Families For Christ community assembly in Dallas, Texas. No other Servant of the Word is present in this photo, so it is unclear whether Ed traveled to Texas alone. Due to the clothing changes between the assembly photo and the home page photo, it is unknown if this was a single overnight stay or multiple trips.
Ed’s livestream recording does not appear with other ID recordings from that time period on YouTube: intentional disciples - YouTube)
[Update - It is now CONFIRMED that the ID 9:16 event mentioned below was a livestream interview. Thank you C O M M U N I T Y !]
December 5, 2019 - Ed spoke at a ID 9:16 event (Renewal Ministries) at the Catholic Newman Center at the University of Kentucky, again giving the talk on Blessed are the Poor in Spirit.
https://uknewman.com/uknewman-event/id-916-december-disciples-night
The Disciples Night event for Kentucky was also advertised as a live-stream elsewhere, such as St. Anthony of Padua in Fargo, North Dakota and St. Thomas Aquinas in Madison, Wisconsin.
https://stamadison.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/wb12012019.pdf
Ed had no shortage of opportunities to interact with youth as a representative of the Servants of the Word, even after the Servants of the Word supposedly placed some restrictions on his work after he left Belfast in 1998.
If you have more detail about any of Ed’s additional travels and events, please post them in the Comments below.