|
|
|
News
|
News from Ireland
Is it the start of the Athlone Fire? There has been a prophecy going round Ireland for many years among charismatic circles that Athlone, which is the geographical centre of the country, would be the place where a great spiritual fire would start which would spread all over the country. It is thus interesting that this year two significant events are taking place in Athlone. The first of these, which is taking place January 28th-30th, 2005, is the Tine Conference for the New Evangelisation entitled "Called, Connected, Commissioned", a Catholic leaders conference for the New Evangelisation. The Tine network, which was the initiative of Mgr Pat Lynch of the Ceili community, draws together all those interested in evangelisation and has been meeting for several years now. Others on the core committee include Tim Nichols and Rob Clarke from Youth with a Mission, David 0'Connor from Koinonia Giovanni Baptista, Oria Nolan from the Nazareth Community and Sr Bridget Dunne from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. The conference has excited great interest, even from the bishops, and is almost booked up. It has drawn people from all over Ireland who are interested in evangelisation, including Youth2000, Legion of Mary, various communities and Focolare. About 150 people are expected to attend and the meeting, which will be held at Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone. The main speakers will be Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh and Bruce Clewitt (USA).There will also be lots of workshops on the different aspects of evangelisation. For further details visit www.tine-network.org The second Athlone based event is the Irish National Catholic Charismatic Conference, organised by the Irish National Service Committee. This will take place 17th-19th June, 2005 at the Athlone Institute of Technology. The theme will be "Come Holy Spirit" and refers to the reading in John 16.13 when Jesus tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth. Marie Beirne, the NSC chairwoman comments, "We felt that people were being drawn away by so many things in our culture today and the Holy Spirit wants us to be drawn back to Jesus. When people are secure in their relationship with him, these other things won't attract them, but they also won't be fearful of things either." The speakers are Fr Pat Collins CM, the well known author and retreat giver from All Hallows in Dublin and Fr Rufus Pereira, famous for his healing and deliverance ministry, from India. Marie Beime, who has an acknowledged prophetic ministry, will also give a talk. For the last two years the conference has been held at Maynooth, the seminary where in former times, many were trained for the priesthood and then sent out all over the world, as well as Ireland, as missionary priests. A bigger venue was needed this year and one of the reasons that Athlone was chosen, was the sense that now might be the time for the Athlone prophecy to be fulfilled. The Athlone venue can take 1100 people and there is student accommodation across the road available for those who want to stay overnight, as well as plenty of accommodation in the town. Those who would like more details can contact the Irish NSC office, PO Box 2434, Dublin 4, Ireland. Tel Dublin 01 667 0570 fax 668 9340. The office is manned Tues &Thurs 10.30 am to 1pm. CLUSTERING OF PRAYER GROUPS BRINGS BACK FIRE In response to a prophetic word from Ezekiel 37, the prayer group at Mohill, Co Leitrim, began this summer to organise bi-monthly cluster meetings for the prayer groups of the diocese. Marie Beirne, commented, "We had a sense that we needed to come together, so that the Lord could empower us anew, as in the image of the dry bones." When they started praying about it initially, one of the group had a picture of people with their hands in the air all over Ireland praising God. Each had a pearl in their hands, which she felt was a symbol of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. She noticed, however, that although they were still singing, some didn't realise that they had actually dropped the pearl. This she felt was perhaps because sometimes prayer groups did not bring people into the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, the key grace of Charismatic Renewal. After the initial couple of gatherings, the feedback from the cluster meetings has been very good. Often if a prayer group is small and doesn't have a music ministry, the praise and the use of the spiritual gifts can dwindle, but being together with a large crowd can stimulate people once again to use the charisms. One prayer group has already reported that attending the cluster group has brought new life to their group back home. The core team are discerning whether they should continue to move the gatherings round the diocese or choose a fixed central location for the meetings. LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARS AT CARRICK ON SHANNON IN THE NEW YEAR Acting on another prophetic word, the Mohill prayer group felt led to approach the parish priest in Carrick on Shannon, to suggest running Life in the Spirit . Seminars, in his church. The plan is to run them during the Monday evening weekday Mass, with the talks taking the place of the homily and a ten minute witness being given during the time for notices before the end of Mass. The priest Fr Brennan P.P., was only too happy to agree and the seminars will start on 31st January 2005 for seven consecutive Mondays at 8pm. DAYS OF RENEWAL ROUND IRELAND Elsewhere there are days of renewal and other events being organised round Ireland. At a recent meeting a picture was received of a map of Ireland crisscrossed with what looked like railway lines. This was interpreted as the links that existed between the prayer groups in Ireland. It was felt that the country was in a time of waiting for the Lord to act, and Lk in preparation for this, it was important to build bonds of unity between groups and people, so when the fire fell, it would be able to flow out through the network.
Between 100 - 200 people gathered together over the weekend
13th-14th November for the annual Galway conference, organised by Peter
Spelman and his team. Eddie Stones from Clonfert, who is well known
for his powerful healing ministry, was the main speaker. There was also
input from Fr Noel who works with Eddie and Fr Francis Cotter, a young
priest who has recently returned from the missions in Zimbabwe. Fr Francis
Cotter spoke forcibly about the corrosive power of the New Age, which
he saw in Ireland and called on people to be more discerning about what
was good and bad in all areas of their lives.
|
GALWAY
CONFERENCE|
News from Scotland
Listen, learn, discern, act" says NST 'Listen, leam, discern, act" were the key themes coming from the very important gathering of the Scottish rational Service Team for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which took place on 29-31 Oct 2004. The team met atNew Mains, the Pastoral Centre of the Motherwell diocese for a weekend of discernment about the future way forward and their vision for Scotland. Members from all the dioceses were present. Steve Lavery, one of the tearn commented, "Everything was soaked with praise and it made a huge difference to the rest of the meeting. It cleared away all the rubbish so that our Focus was right and the business side of the meeting went really smoothly." At the meeting procedures for electing members onto the team were clarified. It was decided that the chairman would be elected by the NST for an initial period of 3 years, to be reviewed every three years, and for a maximum of nine years. Representatives from the dioceses would be nominated by the dioceses themselves, and serve for an initial year. This could then be renewed every three years, as long as the DSTs wanted them to serve. The national team also decided to set up what will be known as the "Prophetic Response Team". This will be a special group of mature leaders with the right giftings who will gather and discern the prophecies that are being received in prayer groups and meetings throughout the country. In this way it is hoped that the NST will be able to get the big picture of what the Lord is saying to Scotland as a whole. Plans were also made by the NST to celebrate the year of the Eucharist. A novena of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be organised sometime in 2005 (dates to be decided). This will take the form of each diocese having its own day to organise an event, which will culminate at the end of the nine days with a national gathering in Edinburgh. Changes were also made to the format of the bi-annual national conference. Rather than being a teaching weekend it will now concentrate more on networking with each other, praying and listening to God, particularly through the reports of the Prophetic Response Team, talking in small groups and generally discerning what God is calling CCR to do. Steve Lavery comments, "From that conference we will set the agenda for the next two years. In the year in between we will continue to have a national day at the marian shrine at Carfin, which will be, as before, a teaching day." Young People in Dundee COSMAC, a community who work with young people, has just begun a new project in Dundee called "Music 'n' Munchies. This provides a chance to take part in and enjoy an evening of music, song, chat and refreshments with other young people in a Christian atmosphere and ethos. Fifteen or so young people came from parishes right across the city. The idea sprang from a discussion at a barbecue held with some of the young people back in September to look at ideas for activities for them. Since then there has been a "Music 'n' Munchies" evening once a month. Bishop Logan has given his backing to the venture. Organiser Andrew Brookes comments, " We are
up front about it being organised by Catholics and we begin and end
with prayer. At the same time we do not impose a heavily religious content.
We hope it is a non-threatening first step for young people to take
and for some, at least can act as a springboard for generating other
events and going further on a faith journey." Already a few of
the young people are meeting to leam and share about their faith and
pray together. (The events currently take place in St Vincent's Church
Hall on certain Sundays from 7pm for young people 16+.
|
|
News from England
WESTMINSTER CONSULTS THE NEW COMMUNITIES AND MOVEMENTS
A vision for the parish of the future was discussed in the light of the changing social situation in London and there was a discussion about what the priorities of the diocese should be. The communities and movements were also asked what expertise and gifts they had that could help the diocese. The findings of the day and those from earlier meetings with representatives from the parishes, and with priests and religious, will help shape a green paper being prepared . The meeting went so well that it was decided to hold another one, possibly in May, to discuss the green paper. CATHOLIC SIGNS AND WONDERS CONFERENCE IN CHERTSY The Cor et Lumen Christi community, who have become known in recent years for their popular charism schools, organised their second Signs and Wonders conference near their base at Chertsey, Surrey, from 26th-28th November 2004. The conference lived up to its name and there were significant healings during the conference. Two hundred and fifty people attended, one hundred more than last year. The theme of the conference was the importance of faith and revival, challenging the participants as to whether they were prepared to pay the price of this. The speakers included the well known Charismatic leader from Romford, Dave Matthews and Andy Smitherman, who has done a lot of research about revival in Britain over the past 100 years. There were also contributions from Duncan Mitchell from Cor et Lumen Christi and Damian Staynes, founder of the community, preached at and led the healing service. His message was that when we proclaim the gospel and step out in faith. God honours the Word with signs and wonders. And these were visibly in evidence. They included one woman who had come on crutches, because she had a broken bone in her foot who was healed. In a departure from the normal practice of praying for healing in teams, Damian, following the example of the great Pentecostal, Smith Wigglesworth, felt called by God to simply step out in faith and command healings for various ailments. Three people with sight problems were instantly healed, and a couple of people from deafness. All in all 28 people testified to instant physical healing. These healings were filmed on camera and the shock and
delight of those healed is evident. This is the first time, Damian said
that he had had the faith to step out in this way in England, although
while he was in Tanzania last year, he prayed for healing in similar
way and saw remarkable results. At a 3 day Catholic rally in June in
Dar es Salaam in 2004, 15,000 people over the 3 days testified to receiving
physical healing and 500 people committed their lives to Jesus for the
first time, including several Muslims. Many received the baptism of
the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues too. The organisers were so
delighted that Damian and the Cor et Lumen Christi team are being invited
to return for two more "Miracle" rallies in 2005.
|
|
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Evangelising the Cities of Europe Kristina Cooper reports on the recent city wide mission which took place in Paris in the week leading up to the feast of All Saints (23rd October-Ist November, 2004) last year.
The four men were Jean Marie Lustiger (Paris), Christoph Schonnbom (Vienna), Jose da Cruz Policarpo (Lisbon) and Godfried Danneels (Brussels), later to be joined by a fifth, the Cardinal of Budapest. The first of these city missions took place in May 2003 in Vienna with the help of the Emmanuel Community and the Austrian Catholic Action and other groups and movements. It was a resounding success. Two thousand people attended the congress, almost half of whom came from overseas, particularly the other participating cities. One hundred and ten parishes took part with 1400 different missionary initiatives from cafe-debates to visits to schools, street theatre and concerts. Schonnbom was delighted with the results and commented, "Mentalities were changed. Christians said to themselves, "Mission is possible"." The Paris mission, which took place at the end of October 2004, was entitled "Paris Toussaint 2004" as Cardinal Lustiger had decided to position it in the run up to the feast of All Saints. It thus became part of his ongoing strategy to reclaim this traditional French feast, which in the last decade has risked becoming submerged with all the paraphernalia and parties associated with Halloween. Ingrid Bezard, a Parisian librarian commented, "For the last three years the Church has arranged special events - Christian rock concerts and activities on the eve of All Saints - to remind people what this time of year is about, and to distract from Halloween, which really has no tradition in France, and is just a merchandising opportunity driven by retailers." The theme of the Paris week was to look
at the human search for happiness and share the Christian understanding
that this is to We were all billeted with local Parisian families in the various parishes of the city, which was a very enriching time for us all, as we got a chance to experience normal parish life as well as the special events arranged for the week. The parish I stayed in even had a link with St Vincent de Paul, who is the patron saint of my parish in London. As a result of the trip we are now considering setting up some kind of twinning between our two churches. As well as the main sessions in Notre Dame in the morning, there were workshops and events for every spiritual taste. These ranged from philosophical debates, Parisian style in cafes, to helping to feed the homeless. Those of a more cultural bent could listen to concerts of sacred music or the recital of the gospel of John by a well known French actor. There were also prayer vigils, and reflections by well known personalities like Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, as well as the more in your face street evangelisation and preaching. One of the most significant events that bound everyone together was the opportunity offered in all 150 churches in Paris for people, to come and write their prayers in special Books of Life. An estimated 300,000 people did this. Many of these were not regular church goers. These books were then taken in procession by each parish to Notre Dame Cathedral were they were received by the Cathedral administrator and entrusted to Our Lady's intercession.To feed and house so many people must have been a logistical nightmare but the diocese of Paris rose to the challenge. It seemed as if the whole city, not normally known for its warmth, suddenly became a place of welcome and smiles, with Paris Toussaints banners festooned everywhere. Even the secular newspapers remarked on
the wonderful atmosphere "It's like World Youth Day for Adults",
said David Wills, a pastoral assistant in a parish in Netting Hill
in London, who was one of the English group. The experience gave us
all a completely different perspective of the Church in Paris and
made me, at least, long to have something similar back home in London
|
How
do we evangelise the secularised, post-Christian, multi-cultural,
multi-faith metropolisses of Europe? Four cardinals were chatting
about this in Rome in the lead up to the Jubilee year and their reflections
led them to decide on a joint venture to do city wide missions in
their dioceses. Their goal was to encourage their people to share
the gospel in creative ways through international congresses on Evangelisation,
backed up by all kinds of local parish based initiatives.
|
|