News

New Chairperson For Irish NSC

A new chairperson was elected to the Irish NSC when they gathered last November at All Hallows. She is Marie Beirne, from Mohill prayer group, a large and vibrant prayer group, in Country Leitrim. She replaces Patricia Mitchell, who was chairperson for 7 years. Patricia will continue to be part of the NSC representing the Dublin diocese but will step down from the executive. Patricia had the difficult task of shepherding the Charismatic Renewal over the last few years, when they had to face many problems, including losing New Creation magazine and their full time worker due to lack of funds. She comments, "oI am very pleased with the new appointment. I feel it is a fresh start for us all." Patricia feels this is reflected in the theme for the NSC annual conference around Pentecost time which is 'Let the Fire Fall Again' and the NSC's hope that they will be able to persuade Fr Tom Forrest, the fiery Redemptorist to come as the main speaker. Patricia comments, "We heard Fr Tom was absolutely wonderful at the Limerick conference in October, full of fire, and we arc hoping he will do the same for us at the national conference."

Marie Beirne, the new chairperson, has been involved in Charismatic Renewal for 20 years and has been on the NSC for six years. She has one grown up son and was widowed two years ago. Known for her clear and inspired teaching gift, she travels all over the country, speaking to prayer groups and other gatherings. She comments, "'1 love to teach the Word of God. After my baptism in the spirit experience I felt led to study and learn more about the Scriptures and to share this with others. In the beginning it was just to my prayer group, but gradually other groups asked me to come to them. I just love the teaching of the Church and it is a joy to share it with others."

Marie comments, "In the prayer groups the charisms seem to be dying. I'm sure this is just through lack of teaching and encouragement, and I'm willing to do whatever I can to help people." Those who would like to contact Marie to speak to her about anything to do with the renewal or to come and visit their group, can obtain contact details from the NSC office, Dublin, Tel(003531) 667 0570.

NSC Formation Day On Prophecy

The NSC formation day on the gift of prophecy held on 23rd November attracted leaders from all over the country. North and South. One hundred and forty people packed the hall at All Hallows College in Dublin where the day was held. Teachings were given by Fr Pat Collins CM and Marie Beirne, the new chairperson.

Sr Helen Byrne, one of the NSC, who helped with the day commented, "The day was a great success. I had a sense that people were really hungry to grow in their understanding and knowledge of prophecy. There was a great sense of unity and joy. I feel it was this desire to hear God through the prophetic word that had brought people to the day. As an NSC we have been concerned that many of the charisms are dying in the prayer groups, and we felt we wanted to encourage their use."

"Sometimes we tend to think that tongues is the key to unleashing the other gifts but we received a new understanding during the day, that maybe in fact it was prophecy that was the key to all the other gifts and to spiritual growth. During the day as well as the teachings, we received many prophetic words. They were all calling us to listen, to use the gifts we had and reminding us that God would strengthen us in their use."

The Irish NSC Office And Administration

Following the meeting the Irish NSC are in the process of setting up a new structure which will not put the administrative burden on the chairman. Instead Sr Bridget Dunne, from Cork will act as secretary to the NSC and enquirers will be able to contact her at The Prayer Centre, 9 North Main Street, Cork 021 427 0362. The Dublin base continues to be manned twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays by Marian Moore from about 4-7pm and has an answer machine if people want to leave messages which will be followed up. The office number is 01667 0570.

New Irish NSC Members

Several new members have joined the Irish NSC, to replace Thomas Carey, Brian McCauley and Brother Dennis Skillington, who have all stepped down. They are Maire Ni Bhroin from Donnegal, Jim Corr from Belfast and Mona Tracey from Derry. Tom 0'Dwyer from Waterford has also been asked to join the executive committee for his business background.

Dr John Bonici Malia Coming To Derry In May

Dr John Bonici Malta, the Maltese doctor with a powerful healing ministry, will be one of the invited speakers at the annual Derry conference which will be held this year between 4th-5th May at St Colm's College in Derry. Other speakers will be Fr Seamus Kelly, Mgr Pat Lynch and Thomas Carey. (see coming events).

Want To Join A Community For Evangelisation In Ireland?

Mgr Pat Lynch, the founder of the Ceili Community at Knock, which runs parish missions and does work in schools, is looking for priests, lay people and religious who feel called to proclamation evangelisation to come and join the community in their work, short or long term. Fr Pat, who comes from Buncrana in County Donegal has a lot of experience in collaborative lay ministry with his work with the Sion community, which he set up over 15 years ago. All those who join will receive training. For further details contact: Mgr Pat Lynch, Ceili Community, Ave Maria, Ballyahaunis Road, Knock, Co Mayo.

Ireland's Internet Christian Magazine

Tim Nichols, who used to work with Youth with a Mission in Ireland, and who maintains the Irish NSC web site on www.ccr-ireland.org has also set up an internet magazine on www.irishchristians.org. This has articles, a Christian events guide, links, a Jobs guide and Bulletin Boards.

Avila Prayer Group

Although the residential part of the Avila retreat centre in Dublin is now closed, the rest of their activities, including the very popular and vibrant prayer group which meets on Wednesday evenings at 8pm, will continue as before.

Back To Basics

Steve Lavery Reports
Prayer group leaders from all over Scotland gathered in the premises of the Risen Christ community in Glasgow last autumn for the third leadership day organised by the National Service Team of Scotland. The impetus behind the days had been Pope John Paul 11's call to the Church 'to launch out into the deep'.

The theme of the day was 'Back to Basics' as it had been felt this needed to be emphasised if charismatic prayer groups were to become the 'schools of prayer' that the Holy Father has been asking for.

The main talk was given by NST chairman Tom Mullen. Unlike some teaching days the whole of the morning session was given over to praise and listening to what the Lord had to say. It was a truly blessed time and the theme emerging from the words shared was to be 'bold', 'unafraid' and 'light in the darkness.'

The afternoon sessions had been prepared by Tom and a team from the Edinburgh diocese and they called on leaders and core groups to look at their roles within their groups. This was presented as ten commandments for prayer group members and another ten for leaders. The presentation helped those present to evaluate their level of preparation, personal prayer commitment and so on.

Lengthy prayer ministry followed this. The refreshed audience was then given an update on how the Scottish Charismatic Renewal web site was progressing. The team from Dundee led this session. The web site is not just a list of groups and information about renewal but has built in the opportunity for prayer requests, which then will be forwarded to every group across the country. Those present were asked to write down a short witness which can be posted on each page of the web site.

When the website comes online it can be visited at: www.catholiccr-scotland.org.uk

Glasgow News

Fr Stan Fortuna, the Franciscan priest from the Bronx, impressed the pupils from Glasgow Catholic secondary schools, with his straight talking about sex, chastity and the gospel and his music skills, particularly his ability to 'freestyle' (improvise rap songs on the spot). Fr Stan visited four schools and Glasgow university where he performed a concert at the University Union during his week's visit last November. This culminated with a Day of Renewal at which he was the main speaker.

The Living Water Community, mentioned in last month's issue of Goodnews, a Scottish based youth evangelisation team, supported Fr Stan and performed a selection of mimes and Scripture based sketches.

The Glasgow diocesan service team (DST) are trying to help start a regular Glasgow youth group. The group had their second meeting for this at Ayre Hall in the Archdiocese offices.

Glasgow is known for the major speakers it brings in from all over the world to speak at their days and weekends of renewal. The DST, however, have decided that for their January meeting this month they should use local gifted speakers instead of always looking outside. The programme for 2003 will be the usual format of weekends of renewal every second month, and regular healing services hosted by various prayer groups in the diocese. The DST are hoping to arrange a retreat at Craig Lodge House of Prayer in Dalmally, Argyllshire, so they can listen to what the Lord is calling them to do as a team.

The Service team also hope to visit all the prayer groups in the Glasgow area to see if they need any help and encouragement. One of the other highlights of the year is an ecumenical weekend following last year's very successful meeting. Eddie McDonald, the chairman of the team, commented, 'The motto of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Glasgow is 'Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of His Word and the praising of His name'. This is the former motto of Glasgow city, which was dropped when it became a multi-faith city. We think it is important to keep this vision for the city alive.'

People often ring up the Goodnews office asking where they can go for healing prayer. Most healing prayer that is available through the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is associated with prayer group meetings and days of renewal, the times of which are not always convenient for the sick. The prayer group, at the Priory of Christ the King in Cockfosters, however, still operate their twice weekly sessions on Mondays and Thursdays after the 11.30 Mass. There is also a monthly healing day on the first Friday of the month at St Peter's Catholic Church, on New Road in Woolwich (tel 0208 854 0359) and the Westminster Cathedral prayer group which meets every Friday at Westminster Cathedral Hall at 7.45pm has healing prayer after each meeting and a special Mass for healing on the first Friday of the month.

The only full time healing centre we know about, however, is the Christian Healing Mission at 8 Cambridge Court, 210 Shepherd's Bush Road, Hammersmith, London W6 7NJ. This is Anglican based but very ecumenical, and has a Roman Catholic nun as part of the voluntary team of helpers who come to pray for healing. The premises are very tranquil and have the feel of an upmarket but kindly doctors' surgery. Those with problems, physical or psychological can make an appointment at a time that suits them during the day or sometimes outside office hours. They will then receive healing prayer by people in pairs. Fr John Ryeland, the director, spent many years with his family as a parish priest on a council estate in Essex, and found his healing ministry to be an important part of what he could offer to the people. The centre is very low key and holistic. No charge is made, but donations are welcome to help with the running costs of the centre. The centre trains volunteers who would like also to learn how to pray for healing, and also run various courses. Ring 020 7603 8118 or check out their web site www.healingmission.org

Welsh Crisps

Neil Tully, the former chairman of the CCR in Wales wrote to remind us of the right tide of the Welsh renewal which we got wrong in the last issue. The right words for the acronym for "CRISP" is CATHOLIC RENEWAL IN THE SPIRIT OF PENTECOST. He explained how they got their name. "Bishop Langton Fox invited me with the National Service team of Wales to his house, to meet and to prayerfully discern an appropriate name for the CCR in Wales. Fr Gerry Monaghan, one of the group suggested "Catholic Renewal in the Spirit of Pentecost". There was much laughter when we realised we were all salted C.R.I.S.P.S (Mark 9.49-50). This was back in the early 80's and yet how prophetic the title proved to be for is this not the prayer of the Church today - that we might be renewed in the Spirit of Pentecost?"

Worship Forum

The worship forum is a network of Catholic musicians, worship leaders and singers, who meet several times a year to share resources and support each other, under the auspices of Crew Trust. The last meeting, on 1st November last year attracted 28 people. The theme of the day, which was led by Mike Stanley and Jo Boyce of CJM, was liturgy, and the group looked at various hymns and liturgical guidelines. The group tries to organise venues round the country and the next meeting on 1st February 2003 is at the Schoenstadt Shrine in Manchester. Schoenstadt, which has a strong Marian spirituality is one of the lay movements of the Church founded in Germany during the first world war.

Gerry Markland, one of the members of the worship forum has been involved for many years in Schoenstadt.

All Night Prayer And Praise

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Shrewsbury diocese for the third year running organised 24 hours of prayer and praise at St Theresa's church in Chester for the last day of the Churches calendar. The marathon prayer session began with the 7,30 evening Mass on Friday 29th November and finished with the 6.30 pm evening Mass on Saturday 30th November. Some people came for an hour or so, while some stalwart souls brought sleeping bags and stayed the whole time. All kinds of different prayers were used during the time from prayer and praise, to healing prayer, Taize chants, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Divine Office of the Church. Mothers Prayers was also there and there was a reconciliation service. The aim was to help people to enter into the riches of the prayer life of the Church.

Irenaeus Project

Fr Chris Thomas, a member of the English NSC, and part of the Emmaus Family of Prayer, has been released from parish duties by Archbishop Patrick Kelly, to undertake a new spirituality and growth project, called Irenaeus. Now instead of people needing to come to a specific retreat centre, Fr Chris will come to them, providing whatever spiritual input is needed, whether it is a parish retreat day or weekend, or an evening reflection for a small group of some kind.

Although he only began last autumn, already his diary is full, which he sees as confirmation of the deep hunger there is today for spirituality. For further details write to Irenaeus, 31 Rosemary Lane, Formby, L37 3HA.

New Vision For Men's Weekends

James Parker one of the organising team for the annual Catholic men's weekends shares some of the upcoming changes for the weekends.

Changes are being brought about with regard to Ministry to Men. We again plan to have two weekends in 2003. As before, these will take place in the South at Woldingham School, Surrey from the evening of Friday 11 to Sunday 13 July and in the North at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire from the evening of Friday 18 to Sunday 20 July (don't forget to put these dates into your diary before booking your summer holidays, and remember to tell your friends so that they can come too).

Prices have barely changed. Speakers will include Fr Chris Thomas, David Wells and Nikol Baldacchino, a key member of renewal in Malta. We also expect the local bishops to join us.

To make the weekends more accessible and to allow breathing space at the end of a week's work, there will be no main session on the Friday evenings. Instead a prayer meeting will be offered, as will the usual bar. Main sessions will begin on Saturday mornings with the weekends being likely to finish late afternoon on the Sunday rather than after lunch as in previous years. We hope this format will encourage more men to come as there will now be the option of arriving early on the Saturday morning and only being away for one night.

Many have said that our gatherings should have a more defined character and be more easily identifiable. Following much prayer and discernment the organising team have come up with the name 'Harvesters - a Catholic Men's Network'.
We see ourselves as an informal national network of Catholic men with an ecumenical dimension. We welcome any adult Christian male interested in the high calling to be Christ-like, from dads and husbands to single men and priests.
We also hope to further develop the way in which we might serve the different small groups and men's gatherings as they increase in number across the country. So watch this space!

See Coming Events for other mens meetings

Pilgrims On The Move

The Pilgrim Community which has been based in Matlock, Derbyshire for the last 14 years are on the move this year. They have been using premises owned by the Presentation Sisters, but the sisters now need the accommodation for caring for their own elderly and sick so the Pilgrims will need to find new accommodation by June 2003.

They are looking for premises with about 12-15 bedrooms that would also have space for meetings rooms -preferably an old convent or possibly a presbytery with other nearby accommodation. The community which has 17 members is made up of consecrated adults, young married couples and single people, some of whom are volunteers spending a year with the community.
Fiona Mansford, one of the leadership team, says the community, which is dedicated to promoting the new evangelisation and the proclamation of the gospel, is in a period of discerning exactly how they might be called to live this out, in a concrete way. The community grew out of a youth mission team that did evangelisation work in the Nottingham diocese but over the years has grown and developed, as their members have married and they have been exploring different ways of living out their calling.

Those who might be interested in working with them, or who have a building that might suit their needs should contact them at the Pilgrim Community, Presentation Convent, Chesterfield Road, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 3FT.
Website: www.pilgrimscommunity.com

Network - Making Connections With Those With A Heart For Youth

Network, began about a decade ago when a group of catholic charismatics working in youth ministry in the Church and in leadership roles in the new charismatic communities, came together under the guidance of the National Service committee to look at ways they might help and support each other in their work and on an individual level. Some have moved on to other things but others have come in to replace them. The vision has remained the same: To keep groups and communities and individuals connected to what's happening in parishes and among the emerging youth initiatives. Network organises an annual retreat weekend in the autumn and a more informal relaxed 'meeting' where those with children are welcome at the beginning of the year called the ''Gathering'. These are friendly and informal get togethers that enable people to network and generally share their experiences of living the gospel and reaching out to young people. At the next 'Gathering' on 7th February 2003, which will be held at the House of the Open Door community, they will be looking at the possibilities for mentoring young people and hope to establish some sort of talent bank of resources to serve the Church. Those who are interested in the work of Network or the upcoming Gathering in February or feel you have something to contribute, contact

Westminster and the CaFE... Connection!

Following the meeting of all the priests of the Westminster diocese at Bognor Regis at the end of the year, the Westminster diocese have agreed to adopt a diocesan wide renewal process to be called 'At Your Word Lord'. This is based on the Renew programme from America, which was used in the Arundel and Brighton diocese a few years ago, when Cardinal Murphy 0'Connor was the bishop there. However following the suggestion by many people that the CaFE resources produced by Catholic Evangelisation Services (funded by our charity CREW Trust) would be a very useful addition to the American material, David Payne, the director of Catholic Evangelisation Services, has been invited to join the newly set up core group of 'At Your Word, Lord'. The CaFE resources which feature such speakers as Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM, the papal preacher, and a host of other brilliant communicators, have proved very successful all round the country. David Payne asks that people would pray for this open door, that through this coming together of Renew and CaFE thousands of Catholics will be renewed in their faith and given a fresh vision to share the Good News with others.

CaFE
The Catholic Faith Exploration videos (CaFE) are doing extremely well and Catholic Evangelisation Services reckon that following their training days in 2002, 350 parishes in England are doing the course. Many others are being done abroad, particularly in Australia and South Africa, which produce the videos under their own licence. The Catholic Evangelisation Services team expect numbers to grow even more in 2003 with their planned training days in the Southwark diocese (January 25th, February 8th 2003), Northampton (January 11th), Nottingham (March 1st) and Clifton (March 29th). Those interested in attending a training day on how to use the CaFE process and videos in your parish contact Catholic Evangelisation Services, PO Box 333, St Albans, Herts AL2 1EL tel/fax 01727 822837 website www.catholicevangel.org

Please Help Us Promote Goodnews!
This autumn we received news in the office that Ruah, the newsletter produced by the catholic charismatic renewal in South Australia, is ceasing publication after more than 20 years. We felt a special link with this little publication as they often reproduced some of our articles in Goodnews, and it was always interesting to read what was happening in South Australia. The editorial team of Margaret Hankel and Marie Ralph felt that they had done their work in helping to bring Charismatic Renewal to the notice of the Church and as there was no one to carry it on, that this was a sign that the Lord was asking them to close it down.

As you are aware over the last year we have tried to make Goodnews more of a magazine than a newsletter, and included general spirituality and teaching articles, to make it more appealing to a wider group of readers and help people to grow in the spiritual life.

Publication's as we are only too well aware, are very expensive and time consuming to produce, particularly for charities with a small budget. We have been very blessed with Goodnews that we are still able to continue. We feel that God wants us to use Goodnews to bring the knowledge of the charisms and baptism in the spirit to the wider Church, and show that it is just a normal part of Church life. To do this, however, we really need the help of all our readers. You can help in many ways simply by taking out a gift subscription for a friend perhaps, or asking your parish priest if he would be prepared to take Goodnews on a sale or return basis in the parish. With sale or return, you don't have to return unsold copies, but simply pay us for those that you do sell. We have about six thousand readers, so imagine, if everyone bought a gift subscription for one other person, we could double our circulation overnight. Please contact the Goodnews office about this on 020 7352 5298, write to Goodnews, Allen Hall, 28 Beaufort Street, London SW3 5AA. A gift subscription is still only £11 a year in England and £16.50 overseas for one year.

Please use our Coming Events page to advertise any events you have coming up. This is a free service to support both those who are running events on a low budget and is also to help our readers know what is going on around the country.

Dates For The Diary 18th-30th September 2003

ICCRS (International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services) is organising a series of international meetings which will dovetail into each other next autumn from 18th-3 0th September 2003. These will begin with a two day gathering of key national leaders to discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the Charismatic Renewal. This will be followed by a five day retreat led by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa and others at the Focolare run retreat centre at Castelgandolfo (outside Rome). This will be for diocesan and regional leaders. The gathering will end with a five day pilgrimage. Further details from ICCRS - www.iccrs.org or ICCRS, Palazzo della Cancelleria, 00120 Vatican City, Europe. Tel 00 3906 69 88 75 38

 

Cardinal Ratzinger Affirms Charismatic Renewal

In a recently published book called 'God and the World' in which journalist Peter Seewald, interviews Cardinal Ratzinger, the Cardinal, who is head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, talked about the Church's need for ongoing renewal. He said, 'She {the Church} does certainly need outbreaks of living spirituality. Forms of that kind, in which a new passion for faith emerges that is not politically contrived but has developed from within, have been important for the Church in every age. We have seen how in the 16th century the renewal did not come from institutional authority but through people who were gripped by God and created new movements. This is happening today in a great variety of forms - the charismatic movement is one of them - and this is, you might say, the consolation the Lord sends us by showing that the Holy Spirit is present and still powerful'.

Ecumenism In Johannesburg

Charles Whitehead, the English NSC chairman, spent a week in South Africa, last November, where he was one of the main speakers at the national Catholic Charismatic Conference to celebrate their 30th anniversary of new life in the Holy Spirit through the Charismatic Renewal. He was very impressed with what he saw and was particularly touched by the exhuberant singing of the Africans from Soweto and other townships. He commented, 'As they worshiped God with their white brothers and sisters, they showed how things can be when the Lord is at the heart of what is happening.' Charismatic Renewal in Soweto began through an interracial prayer group that met to pray about the injustice of apartheid over 30 years ago.

A further sign of reconciliation at the conference was the fact that the multi racial Catholic Charismatic Conference was held in a Pentecostal Afrikaans speaking (and therefore entirely white) church outside Johannesburg, called The Word and Life Auditorium at Boksburg. The pastors there had offered the modern premises to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal without charge and went out of their way to offer their support.

The other main speaker at the conference was Mark Nimo, a lay evangelist from Ghana, who was in Scotland, for the Glasgow conference last September. The final act of the conference was a very moving Agape meal at which the head Pentecostal pastor of Word and Life and a Catholic bishop presided and preached.

Ecumenical Prayer Summit In Rome

'Prayer and Reconciliation the key to evangelisation'
A small gathering of leaders, who are part of the European Ecumenical Consultation, met in Rome for a prayer summit to pray for Europe last October, in a meeting organised by Kim Kollins and Pastor Peter Dippl. Participants prayed for the specific problems of the countries of Europe and there were several inputs. One of these was from Fr Peter Hockcn, now living in Vienna, who shared about the importance of reconciliation as a precursor to evangelisation. He underlined the significance of the Pope's call to the Catholic Church to repent of its past sins and the example the Pope gave both by the repentance service he held at the beginning of the Jubilee year and his personal act of repentance at the Wailing Wall later on when he went to Israel.

The second main talk of the meeting was from Dan Juster, an American theologian and a leader and pastor of the Messianic Jewish movement, which has grown hugely in the last decade, particularly in Israel. He spoke about the key role that he felt the Messianic Jews were called to play eschatalogically in bringing the Jewish nation to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah. The Messianic Jews are in a very difficult position and often end up being rejected by both Jews and Christians, as they hold on to their Jewish traditions while acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah. Dan Juster pleaded that the Christian Church not ignore the Messianic Jews, which orthodox Jews sometimes expect.

The special position that the Catholic Church sees the Jewish Faith as having is underlined by the fact that relations with the Jews is part of the remit of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity rather than the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with non Christian Religions. As part of the Rome summit the leaders went to visit the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity where they had a dialogue with a senior Vatican official from the department.

Kim Kollins for a number of years has felt the Lord prompting her to call people back to the Upper Room, for a new empowering of the Spirit and has been promoting the idea of Pentecost novenas between the Ascension and Pentecost. More of this in the next issue of Goodnews.

Night Of Light In Pakistan

The Cor et Lumen Christi community were delighted when they received a phone call from Pakistan, to let them know that following the article in Goodnews about their Night of Light initiative to reclaim Halloween, a group of Catholics in Pakistan had held a Night of Light in the local cathedral. Five hundred people attended. They had a party for children, a party for teenagers. Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament until midnight. They had wanted to stay there all night but had been warned by the police that it would not be safe, because of religious tensions in the country at the moment.

Catholic Charismatic Renewal In Nigeria

It's always the bad news about countries that hits our newspapers, but good things are always happening too. We received a letter recently from Ukachi Goodwin, the national chairman from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Nigeria, telling us that they are hoping that half a million people will be attending their national conference this September and asking for our prayers. When we get the dates we will be putting them in Goodnews, for any Nigerian readers resident in the UK who might like to make it back for the event, or those who might be visiting the country and would like to drop in. With people travelling so much more these days, we will hope to have details of some of the major conferences in different countries so those planning holidays abroad might take in a charismatic conference and meet local Christians as well instead of just sticking to the normal tourist spots.