NEW DAWN GOES TO IRELAND
The New Dawn Conference which takes place at Walsingham every year,
this year will be holding another New Dawn Conference in Ireland at
the end of July (dates to be finalised) at the Resurrexit Retreat
House in Co Kildare. Founder Myles Dempsey is working on the event
with Fr Jack Finnegan SDB. Among the expected speakers will be Sr
Briege McKenna. The Prince of Peace community have also been asked
to help a priest from Uganda to set up a New Dawn event in Kampala,
this summer. Last autumn there were also two New Dawn Days at Aylesford
Priory and at the Friends Meeting House. Myles hopes that these days
might be duplicated at other venues round the country, particularly
at marian shrines with local groups working in conjunction with the
organisers of New Dawn. For further details contact the Prince of
Peace Community, Redcliffe Convent, Aughton Park Drive, Ormskirk,
Lances L39 5QE. Tel 01695 581449 (PS the community have had a reprieve
and are still at the convent in Ormskirk although they have no long
term security of tenure)
SCOTTISH NSC TO HOST SPECIAL DAY OF RENEWAL AT CARFIN
The Scottish NSC are to host a special day of renewal at their national
shrine to Our Lady at Carfin on June 1st. The speaker will be Fr Jim
McManus. The very vibrant Glasgow diocesan team organise bi-monthly
weekends of renewal for the Glasgow area to which over 200 people
regularly come. The theme for their pre-Christmas meeting at the beginning
of December was "The Eucharist" with rich teachings presented
by Fr Jim Finn from Ireland. This emphasis on the Eucharist seems
to be something the Spirit seems to be encouraging in a particular
way at this time. The Eucharist was also the theme of last year's
Celebrate Conference and emerged as a dominant theme in the discussions
at the NSC/DSC consultation at Newman College last summer. It was
also the theme at the Network retreat at the House of the Open Door
Community this autumn, attended by 40 or so people.
REGIONAL PRAYER DAYS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
There are now 3 monthly prayer days for young people being organised
round the country in Bradford, London and East Anglia. The hope is
there will soon be one in the Midlands, one in the South West and
one in Southampton. The days bring together young people in the 18-26
age group who know each other through the various conferences - New
Dawn, Celebrate, Youth 2000 and Sion Summer Camp - and want to keep
in touch. The initiative is being heavily supported by the Sion Community,
whose university outreach worker, Alice Hall, is helping to get the
days established. The days attract between 10 and 40 people depending
on their location. About 120 people are involved. A Network Youth
conference is being planned for 1st-3rd November 2002.
CALLING ALL MUSICIANS AND WORSHIP LEADERS
All musicians and singers involved in leading worship, whether in
prayer groups or parishes are invited to come to a worship forum at
the House of the Open Door on February 2nd. The meeting is a follow
up to the two organised last year and is the brainchild of Peter Moran
and Eamon Pugh and others who got to know each other through the Celebrate
conference and other charismatic events. They felt it was important
for Catholic worship leaders to get together and share and encourage
each other. Chris Power, one of the group commented, "I have
learnt many things from other churches and groups, but I believe this
gathering of Catholic worshippers is quite special. There are aspects
of music ministry unique to Catholic leaders eg balancing parish service
(liturgy) with spontaneous worship (prayer meeting, day of renewal
etc). Sharing thoughts, skills and resources is very important."
MOVES AT THE EMMAUS FAMILY OF PRAYER
Agape, the home of Archie and Cathy Cameron and Maureen and Dave
Grimley, which the base for the Emmaus Family of Prayer at York Road
is no more. Changing family circumstances has led to selling of the
old house. The community's activities are now based at St Marie's
Church in Southport, where Fr Chris Thomas is parish priest and the
Sandymount Retreat Centre at Blundellsands, which the community run
for the de Montfort Fathers. Both are thriving. The Agape Tape ministry
is now based at Sandymount. The monthly Agape Mass will gathers the
community together continues at St Benet's Copy Lane, Netherton.
CELEBRATE 2002
Note that the Conference is fully booked with a waiting list!
TRAINING COURSE FOR THOSE CALLED TO INNER HEALING MINISTRY
Teresa and Martin Davies who have been involved in the inner healing
ministry for many years are running a training course to train others
in the ministry. The course which begins on January 19th will be held
in Kingston Hill Surrey. It will use the teachings of the highly respected,
John and Paula Sandford of Elijah House ministries, which brings together
a scriptural worldview with modern psychological insights. The teaching
will be done through training videos with the Sandfords but with Teresa
and Martin facilitating the course and small group work. Teresa comments,
"It is so different from much of secular client centred counselling.
It's all about knowing God's law and plan for our happiness and how
we and others in our lives cause this to be messed up, and bringing
God's healing into this." The course costs £115 for the
first section made up of six one day sessions (mainly on a Saturday)
and £78.50 each for the following two six sessions. All course
materials are provided.
LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARS FOR PENTECOST
Last year many groups put on the Life in the Spirit Seminars in the
period between Easter and Pentecost. The seminars are an ideal vehicle
for RCIA groups that often traditionally finish with the Easter vigil,
and could be used to provide deepening and encouragement to people
to open their lives up more to the action of the Holy Spirit. There
are various Life in the Spirit Seminar courses available. Write to
Goodnews Books, 60 Wickstead Avenue, Luton.
NEW IRISH DIMENSION FOR GOODNEWS
This spring Goodnews readers will benefit from an extra four pages
as Goodnews gets a new Celtic dimension. Following the sad demise
of New Creation, the catholic charismatic publication in Ireland due
to financial problems, last summer, Goodnews will henceforth incorporate
Irish news and events and feature Irish writers and be will be made
available in Ireland. Please pray that all the details are prayerfully
discerned in away that will benefit all.
NSC/DST CONSULATION FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Following the very helpful consultation between the NSC and representatives
from the various diocesan service teams round the country, there will
be another NSC/DST consultation at Newman College in Birmingham 21st-24th
June 2002.
Common themes that emerged at last year's meeting were the problem
of communication in large dioceses and need for the training of leaders.
There was also a sense of new life breaking out in various places
and a call back to prayer to seek God's discernment for the way forward.
In this adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the Eucharist played
a big part.
MEN'S WEEKENDS - NORTH AND SOUTH - THIS YEAR
This July there will be two men's weekends, north and south. See
coming events. Fr Ernest Sievers, the German missionary priest who
is one of the leaders in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Uganda,
which has experienced a huge revival in the last few years will speak
at both conferences.
CATHOLIC EVANGELISATION SERVICES TASTER EVENING
Chris Power, NSC member from Rochdale, shares his experience of running
a taster evening for parishes of the videos produced by Catholic Evangelisation
Services
The video courses now coming on line from the Catholic Evangelisation
Services (Drink from the Wells of the Church; Guilt Free Parenting
etc) are proving to be an excellent resource. Our community has used
them in different situations and we wanted to promote them further
so at the end of October we arranged a taster evening of the materials
for parishes. We wrote to all the deanery parish priests inviting
them and any interested parishoners to come along. We also advertised
it widely through the host parish.
For the evening itself we borrowed notice boards; made a display
from the flyers and arranged all the video boxes on a table for people
to look at. A spotlight on the board added a finishing touch. (There
were also quantities of flyers for people to take away and order the
materials!) Offering glasses of wine or tea and coffee created an
informal atmosphere.
We showed clips from all the video sets, using the sample videos
where possible and showing them on a large screen TV. We had spent
some time preparing this and placing the different sets in the order
that we thought made sense. We tried to show the deeper or more serious
clips earlier on and we ended with a suitable clip from David Wells.
Different community members introduced the different sets and explaining
what they were about and how they could be used. We also had some
bible/catechism quiz questions from time to time to add a bit of interest
and fun to the proceedings!
The materials were very well received and orders were placed to purchase
some of the sets. There was a favourable response, and people were
impressed with the teaching. As a result we are advertising across
the whole diocese asking parishes who are interested to contact us
and we will host an evening for them. We have already had enquiries.
We have found it worth asking your parish priest to buy one of the
sets that you think could be used (eg "Exploring the Catholic
Church" for the RCIA group). If you explain the value and flexibility
of the materials and the fact that they are very useful for adult
catechesis you might find yourself surprised at Father's willingness
to buy! (In parish terms they are quite a cheap resource) If you get
a set through the parish you are quite likely to be able to purchase
other sets!
Errata
In the last issue we mentioned that St Michael's Catholic Small School
in Truro was looking for a head teacher after Christmas 2002 - this
actually meant January 2002 - sorry for any confusion caused. Those
interested should contact St Michael's Catholic Small School, St George's
Road, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3JD
