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News
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News from Ireland
DERRY CONFERENCE About 300 people from Donegal, Tyrone and Antrim as well as locals attended this year's Derry conference, which was held at St Columb's College, Derry on 23rd-24th April 2005. The conference, which takes place every two years has been going since the 1970s. The Theme was "Glory to God" and the speakers were Fr Seamus Kelly, who is in charge of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for the Derry diocese, Fr Damian Ryan, the chaplain to the National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal from Limerick, and Eddie Stones, a layman with a powerful healing ministry, from Clonfert. Morna Tracey, one of the organising team commented that numbers were slightly up on the previous year and there was a greater mixture of age ranges, with more young people and more men. She wasn't sure why this was, but thought that possibly the music ministry, who are responsible for playing at youth events at St Eugene's cathedral in Derry, might have attracted the extra young people. Interestingly not all the music group were involved with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal but seemed perfectly comfortable at the conference. Fr Damian's talk on the love of God went down particularly well with the participants, as did his powerful prophetic word which emphasised God's love, and how it is the power of this love which allows us to grow. There was also a call to pray for and train new leadership and an urging for people to use the spiritual gifts more. The fruit of the conference, said Morna could be seen in the rise in the numbers of people who decided afterwards that they wanted to go to the national conference in Athlone, which was more than double the usual number. She commented, "there was a desire among people for something more. People really want to know what God wants and the way forward." There are 14 prayer groups in the Derry diocese and over the last year, the prayer group leaders and the diocesan team have been meeting together with Mgr Pat Lynch from the Ceili community, to look at where they are and the future direction of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the diocese. It seems that God has already been listening to their prayers because two of the areas of marked for concern were the lack of young people and men, both of whom appeared in greater numbers at this year's conference.
As it took place at the end of June, Goodnews had
already gone to press by the time the national conference took place,
but don't worry there will be a report in the next issue!
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News from Scotland
Steve Lavery reports Quick phone calls to find out what is happening around the groups never ceases to surprise me. As they say "There's always more with God" and always new things happening. In Ss Peter and Paul's prayer group in Dundee the members gave out letters of invitation to the Life in the Spirit seminars, inviting them to experience the new life in the Holy Spirit. More than 50% of those who accepted the invitation turned out to be young people between the ages of 15-21. It goes without saying that this brought a breath of fresh air to the group. Their presence refreshed and invigorated the older members of the group, as they passed on to the younger generation their experiences of the Holy Spirit. Using the traditional seminar format, the group allowed plenty of time for personal testimony. One young man Paul, had a particularly inspiring story, and told the group on week five just how his life had changed. Just over a year ago, Paul was told by his doctors that he only had eight months to live, if he continued drinking the way he had been. An alcoholic since the age of fifteen, he saw no way of changing his life and had given up hope. One night in despair he said an Our Father, a prayer he had learned as a youngster. As it happened the Scottish Catholic Observer had been left in his bedroom, open at the advert page and as he looked at the paper, one advert seemed to light up for him. It said "Jericho, Alcoholic? We can help." He phoned them. The usual response to these calls is stop drinking and get back to us, but the people of Jericho said immediately "Come and join us". Two days later Paul was in Jericho House in Dundee. It was his birthday. After a year of support and sobriety Paul got his own flat in the city, but things were difficult and he felt oppressed every time he entered his new home. Taking a bus ticket out of his pocket Paul read out the time and date, telling the group he had bought the ticket in response to an invitation to attend a prayer meeting in Glasgow. The second bus ticket, timed four hours later, Paul said belonged to a new man. "I had been prayed with in the group and, wow, I was free. On the return journey I wanted to sing and tell everyone how I felt." Back in his flat in Dundee he now was wearing the armour of God. The fear had gone. Paul's life had changed. Glasgow: Renewal in Glasgow has seen tremendous growth in the young people's prayer group whose members have great plans to get into schools with the Gospel message. The enthusiasm of youth and their witness I'm sure will bring others to the Lord. Coincidently, that group have been speaking to the newly appointed youth officer from Dunkeld diocese, who in turn has just been speaking to one of the young people from St Peter and Paul's, in Dundee, so watch this space. Edinburgh: The year of the Eucharist is still a priority for the Diocesan Service Team in Edinburgh. Renewal in Edinburgh are continuing their monthly times of adoration around the city interceding for the deaneries, their priests and people. The National Service Team have organised a novena of adoration with each diocese giving a day of prayer leading to a National gathering of praise and adoration on Saturday, 20th August in Edinburgh. It is hoped that this will include an open air praise and picnic session in one of the city parks. As this is during the Edinburgh Festival it is aimed to bring the Lord into the heart of the celebrations. Dunkeld: The diocese gathered in the Caird Hall in Dundee almost filling the 2300 capacity city hall. The programme was in two parts; the first being a reflection of the Road to Emmaus in music, dance and drama, conducted by Fr Kevin Golden and the second half was a solemn Mass of Corpus Christi with Bishop Logan being the chief celebrant, joined by all his brother priests. During the afternoon, with the enthusiastic approval of Bishop Logan, the CCR handed out 200 copies of Goodnews magazine.The magazine was well received and there wasn't enough for all the people who wanted a copy.
News from Wales
Spiro Sueref tells us about this year's national Welsh conference The annual Welsh National conference will take place this year as usual at Carmarthen from 23rd-26th August 2005. It will be run for four days instead of the usual three following requests by participants to increase it. This will give delegates more time to share and socialise with each other as well as giving more time for quiet reflection and personal ministry. We are created in the image of God, but so many of us are broken and overburdened and in need of healing and renewal. Restoring the image of God within us is an ongoing process that allows Jesus to shine out of us and into our daily lives. We hope this year's conference might help facilitate in this healing and renewal process with our speakers, Fr Jack McArdle and Ros Powell. Fr Jack is a priest of the Sacred Heart community in Dublin, a popular author, speaker and retreat leader. He has spoken many times at the Carmarthen conference and is known for his sense of humour and great gift of the Holy Spirit. Ros Powell, is a lay evangelist, wife and mother of two, from the Birmingham diocese. A Roman Catholic, Ros has ministered a lot with Women Aglow where she is known for her healing and deliverance ministry, and use of the prophetic gifts. She is particularly gifted in training and equipping others for the healing ministry and will be running workshops for ministry teams at the New Dawn conference in Walsingham. There is a really high expectation that the Holy Spirit will move at the Carmarthen conference in a new and exciting way, particularly during the healing service held on the Wednesday evening. For further details and booking forms contact the Booking secretary, Fran Graham or NSC chairperson Pat William - click here for contact details
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News from England
FIRST NORTHERN CATHOLIC CONFERENCE
Catholic Charismatic Renewal at the Plymouth Diocesan Festival of Organisations Tony Harris, the latest member of the English NSC for Catholic Charismatic Renewal reports The first Bank Holiday weekend in May 2005 proved a challenging and busy time for members of the Plymouth DST when the Diocese organised a festival of organisations at Buckfast Abbey Conference Centre as this clashed with the South West Conference at Brunel Manor , Torquay. Fortunately the two venues were only 45 minutes apart so commuting between events was possible and three DST members plus several conference participants involved with other organisations travelled the roads of Devon between Torquay and Buckfast on the Saturday (30th April). The Diocesan Festival was intended to bring together the various organisations within the Plymouth Diocese plus some national bodies in order to facilitate communication and networking between organisations and to present to the diocese, as a whole, the range and diversity of groups serving it. Seventy organisations took part although visitors tended to be limited to parishes closest to the venue where publicity had been most effective. The Plymouth DST saw this as an opportunity to promote not only Catholic Charismatic Renewal but also the CaFE programmes offered via Catholic Evangelisation. Thanks to an excellent position in the main hall and a television running CaFE videos, including the latest 'trailer' for youth CaFE, plus the Life in the Spirit video ' This Promise is for You', the three of us running the stand were kept pretty busy, explaining about charismatic renewal, dispensing back copies of Good News plus offering advice on running CaFE courses in parishes. There was particular interest in the youth CaFE project from people involved in working with young people. Whilst many parishes within the Plymouth Diocese were aware of CaFE and are using this resource others seemed blissfully unaware - but not anymore!! When the festival finished at the end of the afternoon we transported the stand and remaining resource material to the conference for viewing by conference participants. Given that the conference had an evangelistic theme those of us who spent time at the Buckfast event felt that the Lord had given us the opportunity for some practical evangelisation within a diocesan setting. SouthWest Conference 2005 Approximately 80 people attended this year's SouthWest Conference (30th April -2nd May 2005) which was held at Brunel Manor, a Christian conference centre situated on the outskirts of Torquay, Devon. The theme was: 'Proclaim to the peoples the message I have given you' Jonah 3. Speakers included David Wells, Fr Pat Collins, who gave three talks on aspects of evangelisation and led a healing service. Other contributors were Geoff and Gina Poulter from the Catholic Bible School and the mime artist Steve Murray and Fr Trevor Jordan, who celebrated the final Mass. One very popular acitivity was a 'meditative drumming' workshop run by Hy Cobb and Jacky. Bishop Christopher Budd came and celebrated the Sunday Conference Mass and enjoyed a brief drumming tutorial.He publicly expressed his thanks to all those involved in renewal who served the Church and diocese in a wide range of ministries. On Sunday evening after a party style buffet meal there was a time of 'Listening to God' during which participants were invited to record words of prophecy and/or respond with a brief written prayer to particular things that had spoken to them during the weekend. At the end of the evening these were collected and prayed over by the DST and were integrated into a time of reflection, sharing and testimony on Monday. This proved to be a very powerful and uplifting time. Participants left like Jonah, resolved to respond more positively to the call to evangelise. Tapes and CD's are available through Agape Ministries.
The Hereford Conference which took place for the first
time last autumn was such a success that another one will take place
this year (21st -23rd October 2005). The event is based on the Celebrate
conference model, although it is non-residential, with special streams
for children and young people. The theme will be "Thy Kingdom come"
and it will be held at St Mary's High School, Lugwardine, Hereford.
Among the speakers will be Sr Maria Natella OP, Roy Hendy from the House
of the Open Door, David Wells and Fr Matthew Jones and Charles Whitehead.
Archbishop Peter Smith will celebrate the closing Mass on the Sunday.
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Liverpool's
famous Adelphi Hotel was the venue for the first Northern Catholic Conference,
which took place 20th-22nd May 2005 attended by between 500-600 people.
The organisers included Lord David Alton, members of the Prince of Peace
community, Fr Jimmy Collins and his Advent Healing team and Frankie
Mulgrew, the young northern comic. The team had originally hoped to
hold the conference in a holiday camp like Celebrate, but the fact that
a guaranteed payment of ?50,000 was needed, and that they had no idea
how many people would respond made this too big a risk for them to take.
The turnout and general support for the weekend, however, means that
this might be possible in the future, particularly if others involved
in Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the north feel it might be something
they want to get involved in. Because of the venue it was impossible
to run a children's ministry, but there was a small youth stream for
the over 14s run by Fr Stephen Prichard and the Liverpool Youth mission
team. The music was led by Inner Sanctum music ministry. Frances Hogan
was the main speaker and gave a talk on the Eucharist and a reflection
on the significance of the marian apparitions of the last 200 years
and what she sees as their eschatalogical significance. Fr Jimmy Collins
spoke about the heritage of the Catholic martyrs and the grace that
their martyrdom for the Christian faith in England. Lord David Alton
challenged listeners to bring the gospel into society. There was also
a comedy night led by well known northern comics Don MacLean and Frankie
Mulgrew's dad, better known as Jimmy Cricket. |
INTERNATIONAL NEWS CHARISMATIC LEADERS DISCUSS ECUMENICAL HOT TOPICS IN ROME by Kristina Cooper A small group of 35 leaders, including theologians, pastors and academics, from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and those from a non-denominational Charismatic background, met at the end of May 2005 in Rome to discuss some of the issues that divide them in an informal conversation organised by the Centro Pro Unione, an institute in Rome, that works for furthering ecumenism. Among those who took part were Kevin and Dorothy Ranaghan, the founders of the People of Praise community in the USA, Charles and Sue Whitehead from the UK, Giovanni Traettino, the bishop president of the Evangelical church of Reconciliation in Italy and permanent co-ordinator of the International Apostolic Fellowship, Priscilla Reid, co founder of the Christian Fellowship Church in Northern Ireland, Dr Eric Belcher, vice president of Christ for the Nations and Dr Stanley Burgess, the author the New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements and the Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, Johannes Fichtenbauer, chairman of the European Network of Charismatic communities (Austria), Fr Peter Hocken, the English theologian and historian of the charismatic renewal, and Pierre Chieux, the chairman of the NSC for CCR in France. Currently although the Vatican does have a dialogue with the Pentecostal tradition, it doesn't with the non-denominational charismatic movement, as there is no recognisable structure for them to relate to. The aim of the meetings has been to help facilitate in the future the possibility of formal dialogue with the Vatican. This was the third in a series of meetings organised by the Centro Pro Unione, which were the inspiration of Kim Kollins, who has been a key figure in building ecumenical dialogue, particularly in Europe. The meetings in Rome have been very informal and the emphasis has been as much on prayer and fellowship as on the academic papers that were given. This time these looked at the different understandings of the role of "apostle" today. In the Catholic tradition this tends to be confined to the bishops and the importance of their continuity in handing on the faith, whereas among the non-denominational charismatics, "apostles" are usually charismatic leaders, who create their own following and influence due their spiritual and personal gifts. Fr Jim Puglisi, who is the director of the Centro Pro Unione, said the aim in ecumenical dialogue is to get to the stage where participants are not only able to listen to each other, but also to be personally challenged in their lives by what they have heard. This certainly happened over the few days together for those who took part as new insights and experiences were gained. Priscilla Reid from Northern Ireland commented that it was because of the warm relationship that had developed between the participants that she felt that serious issues were able to be looked at. It was decided that the group would continue to meet bi-ennially. CELEBRATE GOES TO HOLLAND The very popular Celebrate Catholic Family Conference organised by Charles and Sue Whitehead and team every year in Ilfracombe in Devon, is spreading. Hans Peter and Verena Pache who are leaders in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal from Austria were so impressed that they decided to run a similar style conference in the summer in Schladming, a ski resort. This has taken place twice and is becoming a bi-annual fixture. Now the idea has been picked up by a group from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Holland and the first Dutch Celebrate will take place in July 23rd-29th 2005 at Helmond. Among the invited speakers are Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche, David Payne, Charles and Sue Whitehead and Heddy Visser from Kerygma Teams. Steve Murray the popular mime artist will also be there. There is an extensive children's programme, which seems to be attracting many people from Catholic parishes. For further information look on the web site www.celebratefestival.nl NEW DAWN CONTINUES TO SPREAD IN AFRICA If the Celebrate concept is being taken up in Europe, New Dawn, the other big Catholic Charismatic conference in England has spread to Africa. There have already been three New Dawn conferences run by the Ahuiire Community in Mbarara in Uganda. The first Ugandan New Dawn conference attracted 6,000 people and the second, 16,000 and the third, which took place in January this year, attracted 35,000 people. Seventy thousand are expected for next year's January conference which will take place 12th-15th January 2006. At the end of April this year founder Myles Dempsey travelled to Zambia, to discuss the possibility of having a New Dawn conference in the Western province of the country with one of the bishops who is very keen for one to happen in his diocese. To his amazement when Myles arrived he found himself being greeted by New Dawn banners, and being ferried round to a whole series of impromptu "New Dawn events", where he ended up praying with people for 5 hours at a time. He comments, "It was like the Acts of the Apostles, when Philip went to Samaria. I have never seen anything like it - particularly all the evil spirits that seemed to come out of people." He was accompanied by Josa Horta-Costa, a leader from the CCR in Portugal where there are plans for a New Dawn in the near future. Myles is also in discussion with people wanting to run New Dawn conferences in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ghana. This summer there will be a small New Dawn retreat in Ireland 1st-3rd July at Resurrexit House, Co Kildare.
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