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News from Ireland
Waterford Conference About 250 people came each day (350 overall) for this year's Waterford Conference, held for the second year running at Ard Ri Hotel in Ferrybank 1314th September 2003. Although most of the participants were local, some came from as far away as Dublin, Limerick and Northern Ireland. Some people stayed in the hotel itself and others in local bed and breakfasts, while local people came in for the day. It was such a success that organiser, Tom O'Dwyer has already booked the hotel for 28 - 29th August 2004 for next year's event. "It couldn't be better dates," he says, "the feast of St Augustine (28and the Beheading of John the Baptist (29to encourage us to be on fire for the Lord". Although the theme still hasn't been decided he feels it will centre in some way on the Eucharist. The first Waterford conference was organised during the early halcyon days of the Charismatic Renewal in Ireland, and was a regular feature in the Irish calendar. It fell into abeyance for over a decade or so in more recent times until it was resurrected by Tom, who is a member of the Irish National Service Committee, and his team. He commented, "People need to be brought together in a larger group for a longer period of time to give them the opportunity of being fed with the word of God and experiencing powerful prayer and praise and being anointed in the spirit." The theme of this year's conference was "God is Love", and the speakers were the international scripture teacher, Frances Hogan, Fr Matt Cunningham, the parish priest of Ballyneale, and Fr Eamon O'Driscoll OFM from Waterford. Bishop Thomas Lee from Waterford also addressed the conference. Music was provided by local musicians Gerry Cummins and Damian Stone. The message of the conference was to encourage people to make a fuller commitment to God and not to remain in their comfort zone. They were promised that if they stepped out in trust in the Lord, believing in his word and putting it into practice, they could expect the Lord to work powerfully with his people. Tom commented, "There is a great sense round here and I also sensed it at other conferences that I have attended recently, both at the National Conference at Maynooth and the two international ones in Budapest last spring and in Rome this autumn, that there is a new beginning in the air. God blessed his people in the early days, and there has been a certain amount of testing and trial, but we are now coming through this and God is calling us into a deeper dependence and trust in Him." Chat Show Opportunity Fr Pat Collins CM, who is part of the Goodnews editorial team, and is based in Dublin, has been invited to appear on The Dumphy Show, a well known Irish chat show on 21st November when the subject of evil will be discussed. Please pray for Fr Pat, that the Lord will use the Dumphy Show opportunity to spread the Kingdom. National Charismatic Conference For Ireland The Irish NSC gathered at the beginning of October to discuss plans for next year's national conference. The theme will be centred on the Eucharist, and the title will be "Gather Round the King". It will be held over the Corpus Christi weekend (11 - 13th June 2004) at Maynooth College, the same venue as last year. Inspired by the passage from 2 Cor 14, chairwoman Marie Beirne, is hoping that part of the conference will include a Corpus Christi procession with banners and incense. She comments, "For me it would be a way of focussing on the Lord and visibly gathering round our King, as Fr Raniero spoke about in his recent article. In doing this I believe we can spread the aroma of Christ to those around us." Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been growing as a devotion in Ireland in recent years and many parishes attribute the turn around they have seen in parish life, to the return to prayer brought about by this. Further details of the conference will appear in future editions of Goodnews. Other events coming up in this month are the Galway conference held at St Mary's College, Galway 89th November. The main speakers will be Fr Diamuid O'Riain OFM and Irish NSC chairwoman, Marie Byrne. There is also a new monthly Charismatic mass in Dublin at the Church of the Holy Family parish in Dun Laoghaire, which is the parish of Fr Martin Tierney. This will be held on the 1st Sunday of the month at 3pm and will be animated by the Community of Nazareth. Those in Castleisland area in County Kerry will also be pleased to know that there will be a Life in the Spirit seminar in the Castleisland church starting on 2nd November every evening at 7.30 for a week until 8th November. The seminars will be led by Fr Ronnie Mitchell and Fr Bob Douglas, two de Montford Missionaries, who are well known in Ireland. Further details of the above events and others see coming events on the back page under Ireland. Do You Want Goodnews For Your Parish Or Prayer Group? Irish readers who might be interested in getting Goodnews for their parish or prayer group should contact Aidan McMorrow from the Nazareth community, who distributes the Goodnews in Ireland for details. His address is Community of Nazareth, PO Box 9005, Glenageary, Co Dublin. Tel 01 284 9746. For individual subscriptions please contact Goodnews, Allen Hall, 28 Beaufort Street, London SW3 5AA.
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News from Scotland
Glasgow Service team for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal had the biggest crowd they had had for some time for their autumn weekend conference held as usual at the parish of Christ the King in Glasgow from 5th-7th September 2003. Over 300 people attended, and Eddie McDonald, the chairman of the service team commented, "I have never experienced anything like it. It was an incredible weekend. We had more people, collected more money and were able to give away more money to charity than we have ever done." He attributes this blessing to the fact that the service team felt led to consecrate the weekend to Our Lady.The theme of the weekend was "Unless the Lord build the house, the labourers labour in vain". The team hadn't told the speaker, Fr Pat Deegan, a parish priest from Manchester, of the consecration to Mary, but he independently, when he prayed about the theme, decided to talk about Mary in the context of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. "He really taught us about Mary" said Eddie. Next March, the service team have invited Fr Bob Faricy, the American Jesuit, to come and develop this theme of Mary and the Holy Spirit.The importance of the role and intercession of Mary continued for Eddie after the conference. Together with Nan Downie and Scottish NSC chairman, Tom Mullen, he attended the ICCRS International Consultation and Leaders' Retreat in Rome 18th-25th September. While he was there he was very struck by the fact that the ICCRS conference too had been consecrated to Our Lady, and when he returned to Scotland, he felt a deep desire to go to Medjugorje, the marian place of pilgrimage in Bosnia Herzogovina, and resolved to do so when he had raised the money to go. Within a couple of days of being back, however he received a phone call from a man he only knew slightly but who had heard the Glasgow conference tapes and who offered him a free place to Medjugorje a few days later. Seeing the hand of God in this, Eddie accepted the offer and went to Medjugorje in October. He took with him a letter inviting Bishop Joe Grech, the Australian bishop, who had been a speaker at the ICCRS conference in Rome and had impressed Eddie, to come to Glasgow. He hoped to ask the intercession of Our Lady to help this visit happen. When he took the letter up the mountain, he found a group of Australians praying there who were involved in Charismatic Renewal themselves and had been in Rome with him. They happened to be personal friends of the bishop and promised to deliver the letter by hand to him! While on the mountain Eddie also felt he received a personal word and clarification for a new direction for his life, which he is going to pray about. He commented, "We mustn't turn our charismatic prayer meetings into rosary groups," he said, "but I feel the Spirit is speaking to us very strongly about the power of the intercession of Mary, which is a real gift for the Charismatic Renewal, which we must take notice of."
The gathering were encouraged to think in God's way according to the Word of God and to murmur that Word continually. A warning was given at this point to be aware of cynics and to avoid their company. The Word he said must be the constant guide and is a way of life. Fr Laurence went on to call the prayer group members to surrender their lives to the Lord and not limit God within the bounds of their "small thinking". In the afternoon Father Laurence, quoting from the encyclical on the laity reminded the audience that the People of God were called to be missionaries and that the call does not disappear just because you get a little older. In fact reading from the document he challenged the older members present, to be witnesses to their faith, and to reach out, refusing to take refuge in nostalgia. Father Laurence called them to be "practitioners of prayer" and to use the gifts of the Holy Spirit as listed in 1 Cor. 12. Towards the end of the day just before the closing Eucharist Father asked the Diocese, "Where are the miracles?" "If they are not there," he said, "then pray for the gift of miracles." After an enlightening and challenging day, and days like that can be quite tiring, the community gathered for a supper. All the energy had not gone as the celebration ended with reels and strathspeys danced to lively Scottish country dance music as the prayer group members and families celebrated 25 years in traditional style.
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"These
were great events and I believe many seeds were sown," said Gerry
McLaughlin of the DST "the rest is up to the Lord as to who will
harvest." To end the year of celebration the DST invited Fr. Laurence
Brassil OSA, who introduced Charismatic Renewal to the diocese, to lead
the day. Many of the participants in the first seminars run by Fr. Laurence
were still there to celebrate with him. In the morning session he reminded
those present that they were loved by God and that they had to "Drive
down their roots deep into Christ" to 'be rooted and built on Him'.
Then they needed a revolution in their thinking. |
News from England & Wales
Birmingham Family Conference
Life In The Spirit Seminars On Video Many people within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal have had their faith brought alive by attending at some point in their lives a Life in the Spirit seminar. Feeling that this could be an important resource for the Church at large, a team from the English National Service Committee, last summer filmed a new video version of the seminars called "This Promise is for You". The audience was made up of participants of the Sion Community discipleship course. A striking feature of the filming process was that while the talks were being recorded, a team of people from the community were in constant prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the community's chapel. The six talks, which cover God's Love, Salvation, the Gifts of the Spirit and Spiritual growth, were given by Charles Whitehead, the chairman of the English NSC and Michelle Moran, the director of training for the Sion Community. The talks were interspersed with short personal testimonies from a variety of people. An accompanying manual is being prepared by Barbara Mason and Eileen O'Kane, two other members of the English NSC. A worship tape with appropriate songs will also be available. It is expected that the videos and teaching material will be ready in the new year. It is hoped that the availablity of the videos will enable small groups to run the Life in the Spirit seminars in their own homes. The success of the CAFE videos, produced by Catholic Evangelisation Services, has shown that people are very receptive to teaching material on video if it is well done. Look out for details in the next issue of Goodnews. Interested In Peacemaking? CHIPS (Christian International Peace Service),
founded by visionary Roy Calvocoressi, is a small Christian peace organisation
that works in grass roots situations of confl ict and attempts to build
peace through relationship and gospel living. Every year they run training
days and weekends where they share their insights. These are invaluable,
even for those who don't feel called to go overseas, but can be put
into practice in your families, parishes or where you live - wherever
confl ict happens. A manual written by Dr Keith Lindsey is also available
from CHIPS, Bix Bottom Farm, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 6BH.
See Coming Events for further details.
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Fr
Vincent Blackett from Barbados was the main speaker at this year's annual
Charismatic Family Conference held at Newman College in Birmingham in
mid August. The theme was "Be Empowered". The power of the
cross emerged very much as a theme in different ways from the other
speakers too, who included Roy Hendy, Pastor Paul Millar and Kristina
Cooper. As with the majority of English conferences there was a full
programme for children and young people. Another great draw was the
vibrant music ministry, led by Kath Boyle and made up of 14 people,
complete with violins and banjos, who practise all year for the event.
About 350-400 people, including 150 residential guests, attended the
conference. These were mainly from the Birmingham area, but further
afield too, attracted by the intimate venue that Newman College offers,
with all the accommodation and facilities on site. This year for the
first time there was a large group from Yorkshire, who decided to come
to Birmingham when their conference at Spinkhill had to be cancelled
due to problems with the venue. |
International News
What Is The Spirit Saying Kristina Cooper reflects on what she felt the Holy Spirit was sayingat the International Leaders' Consultation and Retreat organised by ICCRS (International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services) from 18th - 25th September 2003 at Castelgandolfo, outside Rome.(International Catholic Charismatic Renewal 1. The Role And Intercession Of Mary This was an event that almost didn't happen! ICCRS had budgeted and planned for six hundred delegates, but by the closing date in July, they didn't even have 300 definite bookings and were considering cancelling the meeting. At this point, Allan Panozza, the Australian president of ICCRS, decided to take a bold step of faith, and making a formal entrustment of the gathering to Our Lady, extended the deadlines to 25th August. The bookings came fl ooding in, and topped 1150 people from 73 countries attending for part or all of the 12 planned days. This recognition of the help of Our Lady was symbolised by the formal enthronement of an ikon of her, at the beginning of the meeting, where it remained for the duration of the gathering. A Swiss delegate told me, "This is a very charismatic way of honouring Our Lady. Giving her, her place but not focussing on her." This marian presence was significant in other ways too. The actual conference was held at the Mariapolis centre belonging to the Focolare Movement, who provided background support, just as Mary did in the life of Jesus. This and the informal conversations I had with various delegates, made me feel, that the Spirit was reminding us in Catholic Charismatic Renewal that we should not overlook the role of Mary in our desire to be faithful to Christ and open to the Spirit, because she only wants to help us in this. 2. Deepening Catholic Identity Of The Catholic Charismatic Renewal One American priest, a canon lawyer from New York, who was baptised in the Holy Spirit in 1975 but had never really participated in the Charismatic Renewal events since then, said he was struck by how Catholic the spirituality of the conference was compared with the early days. This was emphasised by the two hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every day so that participants could reflect on and appropriate the content of the talks and presentations. This power of Christ hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, was something that many of the delegates I talked to were finding. With political and social situations deteriorating in many parts of the world, many were feeling a call to intercession in front of the Blessed Sacrament, for their countries, in initiatives like "The Burning Bush" launched by Kim Kollins, an American convert living in Germany. 3. Baptism In The Spirit And The Charisms For The Whole Church At the opening consultation, English NSC Chairman, Charles Whitehead, gave a marvellous exposition of the call of the Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in the Catholic Church, which resonated with many delegates. The tape ministry had never seen anything like it, selling 700 copies of the one talk. (Edited version of this talk is available as a separate booklet in this copy of Goodnews - extra copies available from the Goodnews Office, Allen Hall, 28 Beaufort Street, London, SW3 5AA. Send large SAE). In the talk he underlined that Baptism in the Spirit, the grace of the Charismatic Renewal was for the whole church. He said, "The purpose of CCR is not to have more and bigger groups, so that we build a big organisation. We need to simply help other people to experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the same way we have." He added, "Charismatic Renewal does not have a monopoly of this grace. It does not belong to the CCR. It is God's grace bestowed as He chooses and He will bestow grace outside the CCR and when he does we should be delighted." The goals and the aims of the CCR were the same as those of the Church he said, which were the conversion and salvation of all people and to see them united in effective assemblies of the people of God. As the grace was for the whole Church, it also meant that the CCR could not be identified with any particular part of the Church, and would include liberals, progressives, conservatives and people who held all kinds of theological and social positions. He emphasised the prophetic nature of the Charismatic Renewal and reminded delegates not to compromise on their calling by avoiding speaking about those things that others in the Church perhaps found uncomfortable like tongues, prophecy, miracles etc. He also underlined the particular role of the CCR in spiritual warfare and intercession. He commented, "We understand the negative spirits, as well as the Holy Spirit. We have a role and task to defend the Church against the power of the evil one, which those who are not aware of the spiritual battle cannot do." This was also emphasised in one of Fr Raniero's talks when the Palpal Preacher said one of the calls of the Charismatic Renewal was to "build a wall of prayer round the Church." 4. Gowing Relationship Between The Ecclesial Movements And Communities Another point of interest at the conference was the sign of the growing relationship between the ecclesial movements. This was symbolised by not only the fact that the event was taking place on Focolare premises but that two of the speakers were Chiara Lubich the founder of the Focolare movement and Andrea Riccardi, the leader of the St Egidio Community, who explained their spiritualities and how the Holy Spirit had led their work. Chiara Lubich explained how in the early years of their foundation they never mentioned the Holy Spirit, but in retrospect, looking back they could see that everything had been inspired by the Him, but He had chosen to remain hidden. The presence of Cardinal Stafford and Bishop Rylko from the Pontifi cal Council for Laity, were added reminders of the communion that Charismatic Renewal has both with other movements and the hierarchy of the Church. 5. Go Out Into The Deep - Even If It Is Risky And Uncomfortable! The continuation of the Pope's strong calling to the whole Church in his letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, to "go out into the deep" and to accept the call to holiness resonated throughout the conference, both in the talks on this theme by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap, the retreat master and in the other presentations. I was particularly struck by a story told of Alan Panozza, the ICCRS president when he told how when he was a boy, he used to fish from the pier near where he lived, which he really enjoyed. Then one day he was taken by a friend in a boat outside the harbour, where the waves were high and it was very windy. He had been quite afraid, away from the safety of the pier, but he noted that here they caught a lot of fish, and he urged participants to be prepared to leave their comfort zones to do the Lord's will. This was underlined in the homily given by Fr Michael Slavik, from the Czech Republic. He said, "We lack credibility in many parts of the world because of our lack of interest for poor people, for poor countries, for the unemployed, for victims of AIDS, for victims of war and conflict, for abuse of the environment due to the desire for profit." He also touched on the problems inside the Church, concluding "I would not like to name all our present problems and all the places where they occur in the Church. But the mature Christian should know that the situation is alarming. Mature Christians should ask themselves What shall we do?" God was calling on people he said, who would "stand in the crack in the wall". He explained that, "The crack is the weakest point of defence and also this is the direction of the attack of the enemy. Maturity means not to stay in the safety of the shelter of our private spiritual and charismatic life but to enter into the painful areas. It means being prepared to suffer."This call to be willing to embrace suffering ran like a gold threat throughout the meeting. It was underlined for me in informal conversations with delegates on coaches and at meal times, when I heard about the violence in South Africa, the growing fundamentalism in India and the poverty and war situations in Africa, which served as a reminder that some might be called to give their lives for their faith. This call to martyrdom was also brought up by Alan Panozza. And in a world where there is so much fear of death, be it from terrorism or horrible viruses, as Christians we are all called to be brave and to witness to the joy of faith, because we believe in salvation and everlasting life. This is the Good News we have to share with the world! Copies of the talks given at the conference are available from Good News Books
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