About Us
The first TEC was held in Lansing, Michigan Oct. 9 - 11, 1965. Fr. Matt Fedewa, who was teaching at a local Catholic High School, developed the weekend format. This involved entering into the culture of the youth, building mutual personal relationships, and through community witness, ritual and sacramental encounters, invited them to become "joyful listeners to the Gospel" while the faith vision of the Church is shared with them. Based on the Paschal Mystery, the central core of our faith, he designed a three-day format that helped the youth experience their faith in a new and exciting way. Today TEC is active in over fifty-eight dioceses throughout the United States, the Bahamas, Canada, South America, and Europe.
TEC was brought into the Owensboro Diocese in 1976 after Fr. Bob Willett and Fr. Steve Dunn had observed a weekend in Belleville, IL. With the help of the Belleville TEC community and several local youth ministers, the first weekends were held in October at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Paducah. Belleville sent teens to be the resources and several key leaders. They supported us with wheat letters and attendance at the Reunions. The first year of TEC in Western KY saw rapid growth with 8 weekends a year. When a core group of adults had been formed, the first manual was put together and a Board of Directors was formed as we were incorporated as a non-profit organization. Fr. Steve Dunn served as the first Diocesan Spiritual Director. Other Spiritual Directors were Fr. Hank Cecil, Fr. Larry McBride, Fr. Henry Weider, Fr. Freddie Byrd and Fr. Mike Williams.
Our TEC Center has been instrumental in passing on the movement to three other Dioceses: Evansville, IN, Atlanta, GA, and Shreveport, LA. Many of our adult leaders have also been members of the National TEC Conference, the central unifying and monitoring agency. This group assures the valid and authentic functioning of the movement and facilitates its relationship with NFCYM since 1994 and the NCYAMA since 1996.
In 1983 Western KY TEC hosted the annual TEC Convention on the campus of Kentucky Wesleyan University with almost 600 Tecites from across the U.S. in attendance. Throughout our 27 years we have had 150 weekends with an average attendance of 25-30 youth, impacting almost 4,000 lives.
In 2006 WKYTEC hosted the first National TEC Congress in Owensboro on the campus of Brescia University.