About Tri-State Tres Dias

Tri-State Tres Dias (TSTD) is an Evansville, Indiana community devoted to providing a Christian renewal experience. Intended benefits of the experience include personal spiritual growth for the individual and deeper involvement of the individual in his/her home church congregation. The parent organization with which TSTD is associated is Tres Dias International.

Tri-State Tres Dias is a volunteer organization. We have been holding Christian renewal weekends for more than 36 years and are one of 100 communities worldwide. Over 4,000 people have attended a TSTD weekend. Many church’s strongest lay leaders are part of our community in the Tri-State area.

Local History

A small group of Christians from Mount Vernon, Indiana attended an Episcopal Cursillo in Owensboro, KY in the mid-1970’s. Subsequent to their week-end experience, they decided to form a local Ecumenical Cursillo community under the authorization of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis. The two men primarily responsible for the founding of this community were Father Bob Webb (Episcopal) and Father Joe Dunne ( Episcopal, who was formerly a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest).

In 1976, the Tri-State Episcopal Ecumenical Cursillo #1 was held at the Sarto Retreat House in Evansville. During the first several years only one set of week-ends (one for men and one for women) was held per year. However, soon a long waiting list developed. As a result, two sets of week-ends began – one set in the Spring and one in the Fall. An occasional summer week-end was held for women only so that the waiting list could be shortened.

In the mid 1980’s it was made clear that in order to continue the sanctioning by the Episcopal Church, our group of Christians would need to limit its strong Ecumenical nature. A committee explored all similar movements to see if our community of Christians could find a natural ‘fit’ with our essentials, while maintaining our valued Ecumenical mixture. A recommendation from the committee was followed by personal discussions and visits with the small, but International, Tres Dias movement. As a result of this information gathering, prayer and consideration, our Tri-State Episcopal Ecumenical Cursillo was approved as the Tri-State Tres Dias Community in 1988. Not only have we continued our Ecumenical policy, but it has expanded to include people from additional local churches and continues to grow. The denominational barriers have been eliminated as we all worship our One Lord!