Nearly 600 attendees from around the Diocese of Syracuse and beyond filled the gym at Bishop Ludden-Grimes Jr./Sr. High School. Sun photographs | Chuck Wainwright
Ignite Conference once again empowers men of the Syracuse Diocese
By Deacon Tom Cuskey
Contributing writer
“Why are you here?”
Steve Nepil posed that question to the men gathered for Ignite 2026. The youth minister at Holy Cross Church in Dewitt gave an informal, pre-Mass icebreaker to the 18th men’s conference of the Diocese of Syracuse. Nepil reminded the nearly 600 attendees that “God moves very powerfully through these events.” Nepil said the questions posed — “Why are you here?” and “What can I do for you?” — are queries that Jesus himself calls us to answer.
The first diocesan IGNITE Conference was held in 2009 and has called men of the diocese together almost every year since, minus a one-year Covid-19 hiatus. This year’s event was held on March 21 at Bishop Ludden-Grimes Jr./Sr. High School on Syracuse’s west side. Vendors representing various products and services of faith lined the main hallway, and lines of men waiting to share in the Sacrament of Reconciliation stretched down and away from the true center of the event: the gymnasium/auditorium, where the real icebreaker for the day happens. That, of course, is Mass with main celebrant Bishop Douglas J. Lucia.
Bishop Douglas J. Lucia preached the homily at opening Mass.
“What might Jesus be inviting us to?” Bishop stressed in his homily that, during these times of divisive social and political landscapes, Jesus is inviting us to embrace openness in our lives to those around us. Bishop said an appropriate goal Christ suggests for us might be to open our ears and minds to others.
“How often do I listen to another perspective when I think I know what’s going on?” Bishop challenged attendees to consider this question, and he added that we must go deeper than simply embracing Christ to discern what He is calling us to in our daily lives.
An afternoon presentation was offered by Brandon Powell, a long-time evangelical Christian preacher who converted to and now channels that passion into his Catholic faith. He and his family embraced Catholicism in 2019. Powell addressed the conference between two presentations from the conference keynote speaker, Father Larry Richards.
In his morning opening talk, Fr. Richards invited attendees to “help us get out of the way” of the Spirit’s work in our communities and ministries. “The Spirit gives us strength to do His will, not [ours],” he reminded the men.
Keynote speaker Father Larry Richards mixed a blend of faith and humor during two presentations at Ignite 2026.
Father Richards was ordained in the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1989. In addition to his duties as a priest and pastor of the diocese, he is also the founder of The Reason for our Hope Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to sharing the Gospel by educating others about Jesus Christ. He has also presented at IGNITE previously. He had a special message to the younger attendees at the 2026 conference.
“Listen to God every day to learn how to be a man,” he advised the conference audience, adding that “if you’re not a man of love, you are going to hell.”
Father Richards also advised the group to write down their 10 life goals. No matter how old you are, he advised, “to be saved” should be on everyone’s list.
We asked a few of the attendees the question that opened this story: “Why are you here?”
John Anderson of St. Charles-St Anne in Syracuse replied, “How can I not [be here]? This is something special for me.”
George Reck of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bridgeport generally works weekends, so he took advantage of his first Saturday off in a long time by attending IGNITE. “It’s good to be with other men,” he said, “sharing and giving time to God.”
Dan Fleet of the linked Parishes of Christ the King and Pope John in Liverpool said that IGNITE is his path “to get closer to God. It’s motivation to make my faith stronger.”
In that vein, Ed Kirk’s motivation is to make the IGNITE Conference a stronger resource for men seeking to answer God’s call. The conference chair since its inception in 2009, Kirk led the team efforts that resulted in crowds in excess of 1,000 men attending the conference in earlier years. Venues such as the Oncenter and Onondaga Community College’s SRC Center were contracted to host. COVID-19 caused the event to be cancelled one year, and it has been a team push since to rebuild the numbers. While it is his goal to try to get back to those attendance numbers and serve as many men of faith as possible, Kirk is also grateful for the support IGNITE receives each year.
“There is a lot of noise in the world,” he shared, and providing a voice in that wilderness is his goal. “I am motivated to get men ignited so they can have what I have.”
