|
|
|
News
|
News from Ireland
Aidan, The Goodnews Man In Ireland!
Irish National Conference At Maynooth It will be important to book early for this year's annual national charismatic conference, which will take place at Maynooth over the Pentecost weekend (6th-8th June), as the venue is much smaller than the RDS. A maximum of 700 people will be able to attend, but the Irish NSC decided that this would be a more suitable venue in the light of what they feel the Lord is saying, as it will have more of a retreat atmosphere as well as better facilities and residential accommodation on site. The weekend will be an opportunity to seek the Lord for Ireland and the way forward for the Renewal. The theme of the conference will be "Let the Fire Fall". Fr Tom Forrest CSSr, who was behind the impetus for the decade of evangelisation, and who runs Evangelisation 2000 will be the main Speaker Marie Beirne To Speak At New Dawn Ireland Marie Beirne, the chairperson of the Irish NSC, will be one of the main speakers at the New Dawn-Ireland Conference held at Resurrexit House in Co Kildare. This will take place in the first week of July (Thursday-Sunday 3rd-6th July) and will be under canvas in large marquee erected in the field at the back of Resurrexit House. The first New Dawn Ireland, which was the initiative of Myles Dempsey and Fr Jack Finnegan, was held last year amidst a downpour of rain and oceans of mud. Despite the terrible weather and poor publicity several hundred people attended most of the conference, with about 800 people coming for the final Mass. This year Eddie Stones, who is based at Clonfert and well known for his healing ministry, will be leading the healing service. For further details contact: Prince of Peace, St Emilie's, Oakhill Park, Liverpool, L13 4BP. Website www.newdawn.org.uk NSCs Of Ireland, Scotland, England And Wales To Meet This month the members of the National Service Committees of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales will meet 23rd-25th May at the Sion Community headquarters in Brentwood. The meeting was the initiative of Tom Mullen, the chairman of the NSC in Scotland, but England was asked to host the event. This is the first time the NSCs have got together in such numbers and people are asked to pray for the event and what the Lord is saying.
|
Those
who would like to order Goodnews for their groups in Ireland should
contact Aidan McMorrow of Nazareth Community in Dun Laoghaire. Last
year when the Irish NSC decided to go into partnership with Goodnews
and encourage its distribution in Ireland, the Nazareth Community, a
Catholic covenant community was asked to help with this. Aidan, a married
man and father of three boys, who works from home in the financial sector,
agreed to take on the task…. And he's very efficient and doing
a great job. If you have any queries or would like to order Goodnews,
write to Goodnews, Community of Nazareth, PO Boxc 9oo5, Glenageary.
Co Dublin.
|
News from Scotland
Working Together to Evangelise the Youth of Scotland Various groups, individuals and communities have come together in Scotland to help support each other in the work of evangelisation of young people under the banner of YEN (Youth & Evangelisation Network). Among those participating are Ambassadors for Christ, the Augustinian Renewal Communities, Craig Lodge Community (Dalmally), Community of Saints Margaret and Columba (formerly COSMAC), Living Water Ministry, Living Scotland, Scottish International Relief (SIR), St Andrew's and Edinburgh diocese Catholic Charismatic Renewal.) The network were involved in the first of a series of youth events on March 2nd, which took place at St Margaret's Academy in Livingston. About 120 people attended from all 8 dioceses in Scotland. Inputs were mainly by the young people themselves. These included talks and refl ections on their own faith journeys, dramas, music and small group sharings. Archbishop O'Brien, who was unable to be present, as he was in Rome with the pope with the other Scottish bishops, sent a message of encouragement. Andrew Brookes, the event organiser and YEN co-ordinator Andrew Brooks commented, "It has been great to bring together different groups and ministries right across the country to prepare for and put on this event. I think we have all benefited from the contact with each other - as well as the people attending. We intend to keep meeting to pray together, support each other in youth evangelisation and to see what other practical ways we can help each other and further the work of the church in this very important area." The next YEN meeting for those interested is an all-day meeting on Saturday 10th Mary 2003 in the church hall of St Margaret of Scotland's parish, Drip Road, Raploch, Stirling. The day begins at 9.30 am for 10 am (includes celebration of Mass at 12 noon). Newcomers are very welcome. Further details from 119 B Arbroath Road, Dundee DD4 6HS International Youth Festival At Craig Lodge, Dalmally
|
The
team at Craig Lodge, who organise an annual youth conference under canvas
in the gardens of the retreat house at Dalmally are this year opening
up the event to young people outside Scotland. The event will take place
between 3rd-6th July. As well as praise and worship there will be healing
and reconciliation services and testimonies and celebration of the Mass.
Among the team taking part will be the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal
from the Bronx and John Pridmore and the Youth2000 Irish mission team.
For those who haven't been before the cost is only £15, while
regulars are asked to pay £30. This includes all food. Participants
are asked to bring sleeping bags as they will be sleeping under canvas
in a large marquee.
The
community, which has close links with Medjugorje, is hoping to construct
stations of the cross up the hill behind the retreat house, similar
to those up Mount Krizevec. The community which has strong Marian and
Eucharistic spirituality, has also recently opened up to the charismatic
dimension too, when last year the Glasgow diocesan service team for
the Catholic Charismatic Renewal organised the Life in the Spirit seminars
for them. They now hold a regular weekly charismatic prayer group as
well as their other prayer activities. For further details contact:
Craig Lodge, Family House of Prayer, Dalmally, Argyll PA33 1AR |
News from England
Cardinal Cormac Celebrates Mass For 2500 Charismatics In Westminster Cathedral
The Cardinal, who is very supportive about the role of the movements in the Church, spoke about the call to holiness, which he said was an essential component for evangelisation today. He said, "Thank you for your witness in the renewal and in your groups and the attractiveness of people who give themselves to God in this way. This is the evangelisation we seek. People today are moved by witnesses rather than words" He added, "I have need of your prayers and understanding so we can encourage one another to be holy and follow the path to holiness. I have to do my task and be faithful to what I have been given to do." Catholic Men's Group An offshoot of the annual Catholic men's weekends, has been a growing network of men's small sharing groups that meet monthly round the country. One of the most successful has been the group in Chertsey, Surrey. At the end of February they and the Catholic Bible School, organised a day of prayer and praise at the Notre Dame school in Cobham, Surrey called "Tune in to Lent". The speakers were Tom Burns, the Bishop of HM Forces and Fr Ged Kelly of the Sion community. The day was a great success. This year's men's weekends are 11th-13th July at Woldingham, Surrey where the speakers will be Nikol Baldeccino from Malta and David Wells and 18th-20th July in Stonyhurst where the speakers are Nikol again and Fr Chris Thomas from the Emmaus Family of Prayer. These weekends with their combination of inspiring talks, small group sharing and sport and bar facilities are an ideal event to bring Catholic men to, where they will be able to deepen their faith and grow in their understanding of what it is to be a disciple for Christ in the 21st century. For further details contact Men's weekends, Open House, Bullstrode Way, Gerrard's Cross, Bucks SL9 7QU Great Success Of Recent Life In The Spirit Seminars In Liverpool No sooner had Myles Dempsey and the Prince of Peace community arrived from Ormskirk to their new home at St Emilie's convent near Speke airport than they started their regular Monday night prayer meeting. The first one of these attracted about 80 people. At the end of February, they decided to run the Life in the Spirit seminar on Friday evenings. This attracted 150people. After Easter Myles plans to run Growth seminars to encourage people to grow in the spiritual gifts and christian maturity. The Prince of Peace community is receiving great support in their work from the local parish priests, especially Fr Brendan Rice and the sisters, who have lent them the premises where they live. Charismatic activity in the Liverpool diocese has been very quiet for the last decade but Myles feels, as shown by the turn out that, people are hungry for the Lord. For further details of what they are organising contact: Prince of Peace Community, St Emilie's Convent, Oakhill Park, Liverpool 13 4BP www.newdawn.org.uk English NSC To Film Life In The Spirit Seminars This Autumn The English NSC have felt called to produce a video series of the talks of the Life in the Spirit seminars. A team of four - Charles Whitehead, Eileen O'Kane, Barbara Mason and Michelle Moran from the Sion community - are working on the content. The talks will be filmed at the Sion community headquarters at the end of August and the filming and editing will be supervised by David Payne from Catholic Evangelisation Services, who have already produced the very popular CAFÉ teaching material. Eileen O'Kane, who has been the driving© Carlos Reyes Manzo/Andes Press Agency force behind getting the seminars filmed commented, "The seminars never go out of date, and we feel the Lord is asking us to film them so they can be used for small prayer groups who would like to run them but find it difficult to get speakers, and for groups who have done CAFÉ and are interested in the work of the Holy Spirit." Renew and CaFE The preparations for the Renew programme, under the title "At Your Word" are now underway in the Westminster diocese. David Payne, the director of Catholic Evangelisation Services at the end of last year was invited to join the core group planning team because of his experience with making videos for the CaFE (Catholic Faith Exploration) process. He and his team at London Colney have helped produce the introductory video for the Cardinal in presenting the "At Your Word" vision for the diocese. Catholic Evangelisation Services is funded by CREW Trust (Catholic Charismatic Renewal in England and Wales) and the teaching and evangelisation videos they produce are now sent all over the world and are being used to great effect in many parishes in Britain. Please pray for "At Your Word Lord" that through this coming together of Renew and CAFE thousands of Catholics will be truly renewed in their faith and be given a fresh vision to share the Good News with others. Connections Bear Fruit At last year's gathering of representatives from diocesan service committees round the country Roy Hendy from the House of the Open Door community received a striking prophecy about the importance of stirring up the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are always in danger of dying. As a fruit of this Roy was invited with his wife June to lead a weekend workshop on exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Hull at the end of January this year. Sixty people attended and the day went extremely well. Roy has been asked to run a similar workshop in Middlesborough in September (12th - 13th 2003) Please pray for this year's national DST's meeting, which will take place again at Newman College in Birmingham 28th-29th June 2003.
|
Cardinal
Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the primate of England and Wales, was surprised
by the huge turn out at the first Mass he officially celebrated for
the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, as 2500 people packed Westminster
Cathedral on 15th March. He had been initially scheduled to celebrate
Mass at the London Day of Renewal, but a mix up in the dates, meant
that this fell through so he suggested holding the event in the cathedral
instead. The delighted organisers thus decided to open up the event
to a wider group, but even they were stunned at the turnout, as apart
from posters in Goodnews there had been minimal publicity. The large
numbers, who came from all over the country, including a coach from
Liverpool, were a sign of the warm regard in which the cardinal is held,
despite the negative publicity he has been receiving in the press. He
was visibly moved by this and the prayer and laying on of hands he received
from Charles Whitehead, the chairman of the NSC and Fr Mike Gwinnell,
before the Mass began.|
International News
Building Bridges In Europe Kristina Cooper reports on the recent gathering of European leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, organised by ICCRS, which met in Budapest, Hungary 27th-30th March 2003 There was a strong call to unity and the building of relationships as about sixty people, from 21 European countries, gathered for three days at Manresa House, a Jesuit retreat centre outside Budapest. The place, which is built on wooded hillside an hour outside the capital, used to be a holiday hotel for communist party leaders but now welcomes all kinds of Catholic groups. The meeting, which was for members of European National Service Committees, was organised by the European ICCRS (International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services) sub committee. This subcommittee is made up of the European members of ICCRS and 5 elected members from the NSCs of Europe. Charles Whitehead, now an ICCRS advisor, had been acting chairman for this. During the meeting he stepped down from this position, while remaining on the committee and Michelle Moran, who is the North European representative on ICCRS was elected the new chairperson. The other members of the group are Kees Slijkerman from Holland, Laszlo Gorove from Hungary and Kim Kollins from Germany, Pierre Chieux from France. The other ICCRS representatives are Fr Michael Slavik from the Czech Republic and Oreste Pesare from ICCRS and Matteo Calisis from Italy. This group will be meeting in Rome in May to review the Budapest meeting and to discuss future regular meetings for NSC members and bigger conferences for leaders in the CCR. We were five representatives from England (Charles Whitehead and Michelle Moran Eileen O'Kane from the English NSC, myself (Kristina Cooper) and Marianna Baccaliere, our youth representative, who is one of the main organisers of the Oases monthly meetings for young people in London, Bradford, Taunton and Birmingham. Ireland sent two of the members of the executive of their National Service Committee - Tom O'Dwyer from Waterford and Barry Allen from County Galway. About half the delegates were from Eastern Europe, from as far away as Belarus and Ukraine, as well as Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. It was interesting that one third of these were priests, underlining the much greater infl uence of priests in eastern Europe, compared with the west, who had no priests among them. Other countries represented included France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Austria and Malta. Written Reports Available Each country had submitted written reports about the
situations in their individual countries beforehand. These ranged
from half a page to a 17 page analysis of the charismatic renewal
in Malta, examining various trends and asking provocative questions
about the future of the Charismatic Renewal in general. Information
about these reports can be obtained from Kees Slijkerman, the secretary
of the ICCRS European committee, who collated all the materials and
edits the euro newsletter (for his contact details email Although there were a few short reflections most of the time was given to prayer and listening and participants shared what they felt God was saying today about Europe and the role of Charismatic Renewal. Oreste Pesare, the director of the ICCRS office in Rome, said he had noticed in the last couple of years, what he called "a new grace for unity" and a desire in coming together on an international level, as demonstrated in the increased response ICCRS was seeing in people willing to participate in international conferences generally. He saw this as part of a work of the Holy Spirit which was mirrored on a secular level in the political coming together of peoples in the European Union. Spiritual Foundations of Europe Zoltan Kunszabo, a young leader from Hungary, said he was concerned however about the spiritual foundations of the New Europe and the way Christianity was getting more marginalised on the continent particularly on a political level and on the level of values. "The problems are bigger than we think." He said "Europe is dying. Fewer and fewer children are being born because of abortion and birth control and the population is getting older and older. In Hungary there is a big increase in drugs and there has been an explosion of pornography in the last few years which is a moral catastrophe." Same Social Problems From the various feedbacks it was obvious that all the countries faced similar social problems with youth alienation, drugs, attacks on family values, and the gap between prayer and public life of many Christians, including those in the Charismatic Renewal. On the positive side, although in western Europe prayer groups seemed to be declining in numbers and their members getting older, it seemed the fruits of the charismatic renewal were being recognised much more by the of ficial church. The expertise and practical experience of many of its people in ecumenism, evangelisation, youth discipleship and formation was being drawn upon by the Church in many countries. Examples of all kinds of coming together on many levels were shared. In Austria, for example, members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal were the Catholic representatives in the Round Table, a ground breaking initiative, which brings Christian leaders from the main six denominations together for deep personal sharing three times a year. In Austria too, where Fr Peter Hocken is based, members of the Charismatic Renewal were playing a key role in the delicate building of bridges with the Messianic Jews, who are seen as being an important eschatalogical sign in the restoration of unity for the whole body of Christ. The prophetic nature of the present Pope was underlined by many of the participants at the conference and there was a call to give him complete support in his various initiatives, particularly the New Evangelisation, the call to prayer and the puri fication of the memories of our countries and our Church. Salvatore Martinez, the leader of the Rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo in Italy, said, "We must show him that he can count on us and that he is not alone." The formation that the Pope was calling Catholics to, stressed Oreste Pesare, was not simply theological formation, but formation in Christian character - the wisdom of the Cross, so that as a people Christians would act as a counter sign in the society. In the prophetic words from scripture that were shared at the conference and in the more general refl ections, there was a strong call to unity and brotherly love, as the primary call of Christians. It was discussed as to how this might be made more practical and several suggestions were made. As it was impossible to be in close relationship with everyone it was suggested that two countries might twin with each other. This was taken up by England, who decided to pair up with Croatia and Slovenia, two of the smaller countries from the former Yugoslavia. The English NSC will explore in the future how this might be made more concrete. Prophetic Sign The coming together of the National Service Committees of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in May at the Sion community headquarters in Brentwood, was also felt to be a prophetic move, and a sign of the work of the spirit in bringing together countries that had a common history, but who also had hurts in their past. There was a call for some kind of repentance and reconciliation to take place in such cases so that true unity might be built. News of several exciting European initiatives was also shared. These included Catholic City wide missions in four of the great capitals of Europe beginning in May this year in Vienna, followed by one in Paris in November 2004, and later ones in Brussels and Lisbon. The missions are the inspiration of the Emmanuel Community and a result of the close relationships the community has with the four cardinals of the cities involved. Pierre Chieux from France, believes that the Paris City wide initiative, will be a great catalyst for unity and will draw many groups in the Church in France together. Primacy of Prayer The primacy of prayer and intercession was repeatedly underlined throughout the meeting as it was God's power and not human effort that ultimately brought results. Darek Jeziorny, one of the European committee from Poland, shared how, that he had never made as many mistakes organising any conference as he had last autumn for the European meeting at Czestochowa, yet everything had gone fine. " I saw that my mistakes do not disturb Jesus and success doesn't depend on me," he said. Oreste Pesare underlined this, "The Church today needs people who come back to the cenacle, to receive a new strength of the spirit to go out and evangelise. The Gift of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is to bring the power of prayer in to every moment of everything that we do. Most of all the Church today needs people of prayer who are able to listen to God and to do his projects, not their own." Promotion of Pentecost Novena Europe Wide This call to intercession for Europe is obviously one that is deeply felt and Kim Kollins from Germany shared that when she called a meeting for those interested in intercession at Czestochowa, instead of the thirty she expected, over 200 people turned up. The participants at the Budapest gathering took up her challenge and agreed to promote novenas of prayer to the Holy Spirit between the Ascension and Pentecost for a new outpouring of the spirit on Europe. This is a renewal of the original Pentecost novena called for by Blessed Elena Guerra at the start of the 20th century for a renewal of the Church, the unity of all Christians and the renewal of society. At the end of the meeting, one of the delegates from Spain shared that he felt that the meeting had been one of prophetic witness as those present were like living links in a chain linking the peoples of Europe together through love and friendship. Maria de Lourdes Goncales Neto a delegate from Portugal, underlined this and added. "We were very nervous when we came here because we didn't know anybody but now because we have come here for the first time we feel we in Portugal belong to Europe, to something bigger than our country - our country is now your country too".
|
)|
|