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News
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News from Ireland
Pure in Heart
This was always something I felt deep in my heart to do. I felt a lot of young people were being led astray and I saw many of my friends getting hurt in relationships because of the casual attitude to sex outside marriage. It’s normal now for people to have sex within a couple of dates and move in together as soon as it becomes at all serious. It’s not really the young people’s fault because that’s what they see all around them, whether it is on the TV or in the lives of their older brothers and sisters, and even with the older generation too. Many of young people have never even heard the message of abstinence or that there is another way. There is a group of us who used to go to a youth prayer group in Dublin led by Fr Aidan Caroll at University Church. We felt called to do something about this situation and to try and make a difference. So we met regularly over a period of 8 months and prayed about what we might do. Eventually two of us, myself, who was studying law, and Edel Reynolds, who was a primary school teacher, decided we would take a year off to go into schools and promote the abstinence message. Fr Aidan was very supportive and has lots of connections. He told his parishoners what we were intending to do, and some of them helped to support us financially for a bit until we got going. We spend three months doing research and preparing a presentation that would be suitable for schools. There wasn’t any suitable Irish material in this field so we looked at organisations in the States who give talks like these and used some of their material and ideas as well as our own stuff. Eventually we put together a whole programme which was a combination of video material, music, talks and discussion on the subject which we hoped would work. We also had some commitment cards printed with a prayer for purity. Launching out was the difficult bit. It was a real step in faith for us because despite all the preparation and what we saw as a need, we weren’t sure of the reception we would get in the schools, either from the pupils or the teachers. But the response was unbelievable. We wrote to all the schools in Ireland, telling them about what we were doing, and then it was just a question of word of mouth, one teacher telling another how well it had worked in their school. Usually the kids were a bit giggly at first but within minutes they were hanging on every word we had to say. I think it helped that we were young and normal looking and yet believed in chastity ourselves. The teachers were delighted by what we were saying. I think many of them would have liked to say these things themselves but felt they were not equipped to bring up these issues and tackle them in a bold and contemporary way. Edel and I travelled all over Ireland. It was amazing, how many kids told us they had never heard stuff like this before. Once we were established it was the schools themselves who met our travel and living expenses. It was a bit hand- to-mouth but we survived. I had to go back and finish my studies, but Edel did a second year, with Mary Corley, another girl. Last year, unfortunately we didn’t have anyone suitable who could work full time in schools, but we have a growing team of young people who give their time at weekends and evenings to talk in parishes and on youth retreats. At the moment there are about ten of us, who have given a year’s commitment to the work. We meet every Thursday at our office which is based at Emmanuel House, where the Charismatic Renewal have their offices, and we have a time of prayer in the oratory there. Our vision is one day to have our own house, with a full time worker, where we can welcome young people and they can just drop by and hang out and talk about these issues in a low key way. We hope to start the schools ministry again this autumn and we are praying for more funds and the right people to come forward. Those who would like to know more about the work of Pure in Heart and what they have to offer should contact them at Pure in Heart, Emmanuel House, 3 Pembroke Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
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Along
with a decline in Mass going, Ireland is also in the process of abandoning
the practice of many traditional Catholic moral values. Premarital sex
is increasingly common particularly among young people and many, it
seems, no longer even know what the Church teaches in this area. ANNE
WRIGHT, a young law student from Dublin, three years ago, with a group
of friends, set up Pure in Heart, a ministry to combat this and promote
chastity among young people in Ireland. Below she tells her story.|
News from Scotland
New Moves in Glasgow Archbishop Mario Conti has appointed a new spiritual director/chaplain to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Glasgow. He is Fr Tom White, who is the vice chancellor of the diocese and based at St Mary’s church in Abercrombie Street. The Glasgow Charismatic Renewal office has been offered a new office space here. This is at ground floor level, which means it is much more suitable for those who are sick and come for healing prayer. At the moment it is just one room, but later, they will be given the whole ground floor to use as a charismatic centre. Eddie McDonald, the chairman of the Glasgow diocesan team comments, “The biggest prayer group in Glasgow used to be at St Mary’s in Abercrombie Street. It used to have about 200 people and was famous all over Scotland. So coming back here is like coming back to our roots.” Eddie McDonald, who currently is in the middle of a year of discernment and training for the diaconate, has stepped down from the Scottish National Service Team, but at the request of Fr Tom, has agreed to continue as chairman of the Glasgow team to help with the transition time. Eddie comments, “I’m really excited about the new move and what it represents and what I feel the Holy Spirit is saying through it, and Fr Tom’s vision for how Charismatic Renewal can serve the Church.” The Archbishop has asked that there be official statutes for the Charismatic Renewal to facilitate the relationship with the hierarchy and Fr Tom will be working on this with leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. A fruit of this growing relationship is that the Archbishop was the main celebrant at the Pentecost vigil Mass at St Mary’s, which was animated by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. This is the first time for a decade or so that the archbishop of Glasgow has led a charismatic event in the diocese. The prayer group at St Helen’s parish in Cumbernauld, Glasgow ran a very successful baptism in the Holy Spirit course from Easter to Pentecost. They used the “This Promise is For You” videos produced by Crew Trust. About 30 people from the parish attended all together, many of whom had had no experience of the Charismatic Renewal before. Eddie McDonald, who helped with the praying over session, said he had been sceptical at first at the idea of using the videos, but the content had been excellent and the whole event was very anointed, with people coming into tongues and many other spiritual phenomena being manifested. CaFE (Catholic Faith Exploration) in ScotlandEvangelisation and catechetical material, produced by Catholic Evangelisation Services (CES), a ministry which grew from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, is proving successful in Scotland. Just before Easter, a representative from CES was invited by Bishop Logan to lead two evenings. One was in the pastoral centre in Dundee and the other at St John’s Hall in Perth, to show the material to clergy and laity involved in formation. The materials have already been used positively in several parishes in the diocese including St Bird’s, Monifieth, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Broughton Ferry, and St Vincent’s, Dundee. There was feedback at the two evenings about how it had gone in these parishes. It is hoped more information evenings and training days will follow. For more details contact Andrew Brookes 119B Arbroath Rd, Dundee DD4 GHS Tel: (01382) 462463 Email: andrew.brookes@actualrealities.org.uk or Catholic Evangelisation Services direct at PO Box St Albans, Herts AL2 1EL Tel:(01727) 822837 Called To Serve
The main teaching input was by Fr Laurence Brassill OSA.
He called on those in leadership to aspire to be holy and aim for the
higher gifts and really believe that miracles really are possible. There
was a real anointing on the day and there were a flurry of prophecies
calling on people to drink deep of the Water of Life, to seek silence
and come into the presence of the Lord and be ready to serve God’s
people. At the Mass at the end of the day, each leader and core group
member was prayed with and commissioned by the NST to go out and co-operate
with the work of the Spirit that was sweeping the land.
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Fifty
people from as far apart as Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh
gathered together at the Diocese of Dunkeld pastoral Centre on Saturday
24th April for one of their four annual meetings arranged by the Scottish
National Service Team for prayer group leaders and core group members.
People reported some of the great things that were happening across
Scotland. The Edinburgh DST are continuing to take their days of renewal
to different parishes across the diocese. The Dunkeld DST is running
weekend Life in the Spirit seminars in various towns. The next one of
which will be in Perth. Motherwell reported a new spirit of unity and
Glasgow is active as always.|
News from England
After a long period of negotiations the Catholic Bible School which is based at Nutbourne near Chichester, is to buy the chapel situated next to the school. The chapel, which now is used as a Mass centre, and its car park, currently belong to the diocese of Arundel and Brighton. The building will be converted to create a number of additional rooms with their own kitchen and toilet facilities. This will enable a wider range of courses and programmes to be offered and open up the school to larger groups than can be accommodated at the present time. “We now just have to raise £110,000” said Geoff and Gina Poulter, who are the current directors of the school, and took over from Joan Le Morvan and her husband a couple of years ago. They have launched the “Building the Future Appeal” to do this and have six months to raise the funds. More details can be found on their web site www.catholic-bible-school.org or they will be happy to send you details if you contact them at Catholic Bible School, Nutbourne House, Farm Lane, Nutbourne, Chichester PO18 8SD. New Director for St Patrick’s International School of Mission
As a result of doing the school last year, several students are taking new directions in their lives. One is hoping to get further appropriate formation and move into education and promotion of the Church’s teaching about the theology of the body, others are hoping to pursue further theological studies. Fr Alexander Sherbrooke, the parish priest at St Patrick’s says, “The school is now moving into its 3rd year and we have learned a lot along the way in helping young people to develop their spiritual lives and to help to equip them to be effective disciples for the New Evangelisation”. The new term starts in October 2004. Those interested in knowing more or participating should contact: Fr Alex at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, 21a Soho Square, London W1D 4NR Tel 020 7437 2010 fax 020 7287 9844. More details are also available on their web site www.stpartricks.uk.com Do You Want To Grow in the Spiritual Gifts? Charism School in Brentwood in July 17th - 18th 2004 “Potta” Style Retreat in Southwark
Many British Catholics from the Indian community have been to Potta and experienced conversion or healing which has made them enthusiastic promoters of the ministry. Last summer there was a three week tour by Fr Matthew Naickomparambil the founder of Potta, and his team, where meetings were held at various cathedrals round the country. Three thousand people attended the day organised at Aylesford Priory. Unlike the very lengthy days, common at Potta,
where the day starts at 7am and doesn’t finish till late at night,
the Southwark event, will be comparitively short – 1.30pm to 5.30pm
for five days (13th-17th September 2004). Fr Vallooran, who hopes to
inculturate as much as possible the Potta experience, has requested
that speakers be also drawn from the English Charismatic Renewal. He
will celebrate and speak at the Masses which will culminate each day.
Speakers will include Kristina Cooper, Ros Powell, Anne Lyden and Michelle
Moran from the Sion Community.
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Bobbie
Sidhu, an experienced Catholic teacher in her 30’s, has given up
her job as a science teacher, to lead the St Patrick’s School of
Mission, based in Soho, London. The nine month school is aimed at young
Catholics between the ages of 20 and 30. It offers formation in the
Catholic faith and training and equipping in evangelisation, particularly
to young people and the poor. It also provides spiritual direction and
help in discerning vocation. At the heart of the formation, however,
is prayer. This is what the students say has been the key to their spiritual
growth and transformation.
Archbishop
Kevin McDonald, the new archbishop of Southwark, has opened up Southwark
cathedral this September to a “Potta” style retreat given
by Fr Augustine Vallooran. Fr Augustine, is one of the leaders of Potta
ministries in Kerala, a hugely successful Catholic Charismatic retreat
centre, where every week thousands of people come for charismatic retreats,
empowerment and healing.|
International News
Austen Ivereigh, the assistant editor of the Tablet, who is also
a member of the St Egidio movement, was at the ecumenical meeting
of movements in Stuttgart on May 8th this year, and reflects on its
significance in helping create a soul for Europe. It was pretty extraordinary. Some 10,000 people gathered in a huge hall in the German city for a day of testimonies, speeches and celebrations, while another 100,000 watched it on a live TV feed. They represented 175 movements from all over Europe and from across the denominational divide - Catholics, Lutherans, Evangelicals and Orthodox. It was the first such meeting ever: it took a year and 1,000 people to organise. But mostly it took the Holy Spirit! The Movements Together for Europe
That such a meeting could take place at all is down to a new connectedness
in the late 1990s among and between the charismatic movements within
the Churches. An ecumenism of hearts The regular meeting of movement leaders was known as the “Directors Encounter”. Its coordinator, Gerhard Pross, director of the YMCA in Esslingen, was clear that the unifying action of the Holy Spirit was behind it. The result of the meetings, he said, had been an “ecumenism of hearts”. What had the movement leaders learned from these encounters? First, that they needed to exercise self-denial, putting aside their particular way of seeing things and trying, at all costs, to see things from the perspective of the other. Second, thet they needed to acquire a shared vision, the will of Jesus in John 17:21 – “that they may all be one”. The directors were aware, said Pross, that God wants to gather together his people at this time in history. But this did not mean that they would lose their identity as movements, rather that this identity needed to placed in the context of the other movements. “Reciprocity is necessary – no one has everything”, he said. The charisms of the movements were mutually self-enriching, as became clear when they worked together. This experience of unity – Focolare’s charism in particular – is one that the movements were keen at Stuttgart to proclaim as a model for Europe, and in turn for the world. Focolare’s founder, Chiara Lubich, ambitiously proclaimed “a united Europe with a vocation to world unity” . Recognising that we need each other Cardinal Kasper, president of the Vatican’s Christian unity council, reminded the gathering that the ecumenical movement was born from the impulse of the Holy Spirit. “When the Spirit of God begins something, he always brings it to completion,” he said. “Therefore, there is no reason for discouragement”, in spite of what he called occasional outbreaks of “ecumenical fatigue”. The movements, he said, were carrying on the work of the monks and saints of early Christian Europe building up a “spirituality of communion”. This was not a matter of exchanging thoughts or arguments but gifts; it is a process of enrichment and growth by recognising that “we, too, have need of others”. “Without such a spirituality of communion,” he went on, “institutional communion would become a mechanism without a soul”. Cardinal Kasper did not say it, but it is hard to imagine the historic 1999 Lutheran -Catholic meeting at Augsburg - where after 500 years the two Churches agreed on the doctrine of justification by faith – without the prophetic, Spirit-led unity first forged by the movements. The day also included a chance for some of the movements to say who they were. There was also an Anglican presence: Nicky Gumbel spoke of watching Alpha over the last 11 years grow dramatically through the world. In between the speeches and the testimonies was a good deal of music and some spectacular performance from performing arts groups.. They seemed to sum up best of all what Stuttgart was about – a celebration of the unifying action of the Holy Spirit forging a new Europe, one with a big heart and a deep soul.
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“Together
for Europe” had two purposes: first, to proclaim, on the eve
of the anniversary of the historic declaration in 1950 which gave
birth to the European Union - and just a week after its enlargement
from 15 to 25 states - that the Union has a deeper spiritual mission
to itself and to the world; secondly, to demonstrate and to deepen
the new unity among the movements in Europe.|
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