Buttimer Institute of Lasallian Studies

The Buttimer Institute of Lasallian Studies is a comprehensive formation and education program that studies the origins of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Lasallian Mission. This intensive three-week, three-summer formative program is lived in a community focused on study, prayer, liturgy, and a sharing of experiences with others engaged in Lasallian ministries in various sectors of the English-speaking world.

Through the reading and examination of the original writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle and his contemporaries, participants are able to touch the energy of the Institute’s beginnings and become animators themselves of the Lasallian heritage in their own ministries and communities. Founded in 1987, this program has introduced nearly 500 participants to the life, works, spirituality, and educational vision of De La Salle.

Huether Conference

The Huether Conference began in 1972 as an informal discussion on educational matters among seventeen Christian Brother administrators, the Huether Conference has now become a significant education conference drawing over 200 participants annually from the United States, Canada, and abroad.

Organized annually around a particular educational theme, the conference includes prominent guest speakers, workshop sessions, exhibits from Lasallian enterprises and institutions, prayer, liturgy, and an awards’ banquet – all directed to a deeper understanding of the 300-year Lasallian tradition.

A prominent feature of the Huether Conference is the presentation of the Distinguished Lasallian Educator Award at the closing banquet. Established in 1989, this annual award honors an educator in each of the Districts who exemplifies the ideals of Saint John Baptist de La Salle, Patron of Teachers.

Lasallian Leadership Institute

Established in 1997 to expand the partnership between colleagues and the Brothers in the Church’s ministry of education, the Lasallian Leadership Institute is a professional, comprehensive formation program for leadership within Lasallian institutions and ministries throughout the United States/Toronto Region.

The Institute functions on a three-year cycle that includes one week each summer and two weekends – one each during the fall and spring following the summer session. It assists participants in integrating and promoting the Lasallian heritage in their personal and professional lives As a result they become themselves catalysts for future development of this heritage within their respective communities.

Coming together as a community, participants are introduced to the central features of the Lasallian heritage, to a study of the Lasallian world today and its relationship to contemporary understandings of spirituality, education, management, and community leadership.

Lasallian Social Justice Institute

The Lasallian Social Justice Institute is a formation program for Lasallians, designed to complement the Buttimer Institute and the Lasallian leadership Institute, although not a course or workshop. It is intended to ground Lasallians experientially, practically, and spiritually in the Church's option for the poor and in Lasallian association for the educational service of the poor.