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News from Ireland
Call to Adoration of the Coming
King Marie Beirne, the Irish NSC chairperson and one of the main organisers of the conference commented, "I never cry in public but I could feel the tears running down my face at the sheer feeling that God was near. The whole atmosphere was o^^r u amazing and what came to mind was what Ralph Martin once said, "The Father is so pleased when Jesus is lifted up that he pours his spirit out in abundance." The theme of the conference was the Eucharist and the talks were given by Bishop Martin Drennan, the liaison bishop for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Ireland and Fr Ciaran McDonnell, who although Irish by birth, works for the Hexham and Newcastle diocese in England, where he is known for his healing ministry. Bishop Drennan spoke about Eucharist as remembering, while Fr Ciaran, who had been a member of the popular showband, the Drifters, gave his testimony and told how God had worked in his life and called him to the priesthood. He also spoke about the presence of the Lord. His second talk was Eucharist as "Food for the journey". Marie commented, "Fr Ciaran himself was the message. I was particularly struck by the way when we had exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, he stayed on his knees the whole time, despite the stifling heat." Since the conference many people had been ringing to say that they were so inspired by what they had experienced that they were now starting perpetual adoration in their parishes, or trying to find out where they could get daily Mass. Fr Damian Ryan, one of the members of the Irish NSC, after the conference received a prophecy in Limerick that "an avalanche had been started which cannot be stopped." This since has been confirmed by several other prophecies saying similar things and underlining that the conference would prove to have been a kind of watershed spiritually for Ireland. Marie commented, "One can make the arrangements
as good as one can, but one can't programme the presence of the Lord.
That is pure grace, and that is what we received this year in a special
way. Last year the conference was very joyful and it ended with everyone
dancing in the aisles. This year, that didn't happen, but there was
still a great joy, but it was somehow deeper." The surprise of the conference for Fr Ciaran was being reunited with former Drifters showband member, Frankie McDonald, who had been tracked down to play the trumpet solos. Marie added, "Frankie is not familiar with the Charismatic Renewal but had agreed to come and play the trumpet for the final Mass. He told me that he had never seen anything like it before and was particularly struck by the singing in tongues, and asked how people managed to harmonise so well and start and stop together without anybody appearing to conduct them!" For prophesies send SAE to Goodnews, Allen Hall, 28 Beaufort Street,
London SW3 5AA.
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News from Scotland
Scottish National Conference In Carfin  Two
hundred people gathered at the St Francis Xavier church at the marian
shrine at Carfin, outside Glasgow for the national conference on 5th June.
The national conference alternates each year between either a day at Carfin
or a weekend , organised somewhere | in the country. A marian | theme
was chosen and before the day began, Fr Laurence Bras sill OSA led the
rosary. Bishop lan Murray of Argyll and the Isles, the' new episcopal
liason between the National Service Team and the bishops' conference,
was the main speaker. He spoke on Mary, Mother of the Church and Mary
as the Model of the Christian.There were also two very powerful witnesses by Margeret Farrell from the Aberdeen diocese and Mary Bartlett from Dunkeld. Prayer ministry was led during the lunch break by Steve Lavery, another NST member. Ged Farrell from Aberdeen led the praise with music by Ronnie Johnson and her group Sion from the Edinburgh diocese. Tom Mullen the NST chairman commented, "The power of the Holy Spirit not restricted to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and I believe Mary has a lot to teach us about how, as charismatics we should respond to the Holy Spirit." At the day there were also presentations to Bishop Maurice Taylor, the recently retired episcopal advisor. Tommy McManus from Motherwell and Ellen Hawkes from Galloway, for their work for the Charismatic Renewal over the years. .The Scottish NST will be meeting at the end of October
for a weekend to review the role of the NST, its purpose, function and
leadership role, and how it relates to the individual dioceses. All
this is seen as part of the preparations for the big meeting in June
in Birmingham, next year in 2005, when leaders from England, Dalmally Annual Summer Youth Festival As usual the main teaching was provided by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from the Bronx in New York. This year the two friars were Fr Marius and Brother Columba. There were also lots of testimonies from the young people themselves, including Lisa McDonald, who was a full time member of the community at Craig Lodge, until she had a near fatal car accident a couple of years ago. Throughout the meeting the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. During the day this was in the main marquee and during the night the monstrance was taken to the chapel in the main house, where there was constantly someone keeping watch. One of the most moving moments was on Friday night when there were queues of young people going to confession until nearly midnight. For many this was their first experience of something like this. One girl had apparently rung home on the Friday, crying and hating it, but by the Monday, she was in tears because she didn't want to leave, and wants to come back for the Advent retreat in December this year. Lisa McDonald, one of the organising team commented. "A lot of them came, I think, just to get away for the weekend but you were starting to see real transformations over the weekend, and by the Sunday, they were lifting the roof with their praise." The theme was "If you only knew what God is offering you". Another of the highlights was the healing service with the Blessed Sacrament, when there was also an opportunity to be prayed with and receive prayer ministry. Once again this carried on until past midnight. Craig Lodge for the last year have, every month, been running community weekends for people who might be interested in joining the community and helping with their work. Four of the young people from the youth festival are considering giving a year to be with the community. Youth For Jesus Prayer Group In
Glasgow The group, which is called "Youth for Jesus" began with a healing service and later they consecrated the group to Our Lady. This was followed by the Life in the Spirit seminars. Fourteen of the group then went at the end of June to spend a week in Medjugorie. About 30 young people aged from 16-30 now come every Friday at 7.30pm to the church at Our Lady of Consolation, Inglesfield Street, Govan Hill in Glasgow. For further details ring either 07960 585820 or 07834 047376 David McGill has a Stroke
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News from England & Wales ENGLAND
The speakers included House Church leader David Matthews, who got off his sick bed to come and David Wells, the adult education officer for the Plymouth diocese, both amusing but challenging speakers. Music was provided by a new group of mainly teenagers called Calvary led by Rich Robson. Rain was intermittent throughout the day, so talks and workshops were held in barns, outhouses and part of the main house belonging to the Hutley family who own the Wintershall estate. One of the workshops was even held inside the back of sound equipment truck. Peter Hobbs commented, "It was a bit chaotic at times because of the weather, but we improvised and everybody really mucked in and co-operated and entered into the spirit of things." The youth stream was organised by the Guildford diocesan youth camp. The sun came out in time for the evening barbecue which
finished the Saturday evening. Another highlight for a 25 brave souls
was the early morning service, to greet the dawn on Wintershall Hill.
Peter Hobbs comments, " One of the great things for me was the
blessing of the place itself. It is extraordinary. I'm sure it is a
fruit of the way the owner Peter Hutley has given over the use of his
wealth for the work of the Lord. He gives you the sense that anything
is possible." A similar event is planned for next year. Main organiser Clare Pickthall, whose inspiration it originally was, was really pleased with how it had gone. "We had families, widows, single people, little kids, big lads. It turned out to be a real family event and was a complete mixture of people." Many of the people, including Clare's own mum, were new to Charismatic Renewal but were swept along with the exhuberance and music. "Everyone was walking around with huge grins on their faces and really enjoying it." The main speakers were Fr Stan Fortuna CFR, the rapping Franciscan from the Bronx, and Myles Dempsey, who had impressed Clare when she had heard them at the New Dawn Conference in Walsingham two years ago. What she had experienced at New Dawn had made her determined to replicate something similar more locally. After initially meeting lots of closed doors, she had
eventually approached Fr Mark White, the superior at Minsteracres and
asked if he would be interested in hosting such a conference. Little
did she know, that only a short while earlier Les and Anne Conroy, a
couple who had been involved in Charismatic Renewal in the North East
for many years, had told Fr Mark they had had a vision of the fields round Minsteracres, covered in tents. This seemed a confirmation of that prophecy, so Fr Mark readily agreed. While Clare sorted out the programme, Jo Turner, a social worker, took over the site management. There was a separate programme for children, but the teenagers opted to join the adult programme, although on the Friday night they had their own hang out time at the youth centre. As well as the main talks in the big marquee, there were all kinds of workshops and smaller sessions developing the theme of hope using drama, music and art. Among those participating were Beyond the Barricades (a dance group). Kingdom. Corn (a children's dance group), the Minsteracres retreat team, Steve Murray, a mime artist, YMT, the Hexham and Newcastle Youth Mission Team, and the Irish band, Emmaus. Clare comments, "All the people contributing knew each other and had worked together before, so it added to the family feel and made it all very smooth to run. It was exhausting but worth it. My daughter, Jessica, said to me afterwards, "this weekend has made me realise that God is for every day, when we are in church and when we are enjoying ourselves too!"
WALES Brentwood Charism School The numbers at the cathedral for the healing outreach were not as high as expected, but the praise and worship was wonderful and once again there were several healings. Eileen O'Kane of the local organisers commented, "One of these was David Jolly who has been in a lot of pain for a number of years with lots of things wrong with his hip replacement. He was completely healed of pain that night and when I rang him the next day, he told me that he had stopped taking his pain killing tablet, which was now causing him withdrawal symptoms, but his doctor had told him these would disappear after a week or so." Eileen, said she was surprised by the amount of totally
new people who were there. She had imagined the charism school would
have only appealed to those involved already in charismatic renewal,
but in fact the teaching and structure was such, that she realised that
the weekends were appropriate for anyone in the Catholic Church interested
in learning about the charisms. One woman whom she had talked to had
never been to anything charismatic before, but had absolutely loved
it. (See coming events under Cor et Lumen Christ community for details
of next charism weekend.) "This Promise is For You"
arouses interest in Wales Initial feedback from those who attended the seminars was excellent. They were enjoyed so much by those attending that some expressed a desire to stay in touch as a group. In response to this a follow-up day, has been arranged for these groups to further the community spirit that was developed over the six weeks. Spiro Sueref, one of the leaders of the group commented, "We would certainly recommend that all parishes should list these among their video library collection and should contact their NSC regional contact should they need advice or an experienced person to help them plan and run these seminars in their parish." New "Goodnews" Magazine
Co-ordinator All details of Prayer Groups and Coming Events in Wales should in the future be forwarded to NSC Wales, 42 Mur Gyn Rhiwbina, Cardiff CF14 6NR. New Menevia DST
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Three
hundred people showed up for the first Walk'in Hope, a Catholic Charismatic
Family conference, which was held at Minsteracres outside Consett in
the Hexham and Newcastle diocese over the weekend of 9th -11th July
2004. About 50 people camped and about 90 stayed in the Minsteracres
retreat centre, while the rest came on a daily basis.|
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