News

Ireland
Scotland
Wales
England
International

News from Ireland

IMPASSIONED CALL FOR UNITY AT NATIONAL CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC CONFERENCE AT ATHLONE

Kristina Cooper reports on this year's conference which took place in Athlone from 17th-19th June 2005.

The gymnasium of the Athlone Institute of Technology was filled with praise and worship, and prophecy and healing, as over 1000 people attended this year's national conference organised by the National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Ireland. Athlone is the geographical centre of the country and there was a famous prophecy given by some visiting American Christians some years ago, that one day a fire would start from there that would sweep across the land and bring revival. An Irish woman at the conference too, told how over 20 years ago, she had had a vision of such a conference taking place in Athlone.

The theme of the conference was "Come Holy Spirit", but the most powerful message to emerge was a strong call to unity, both within groups and with other Christian denominations. This was the topic of the talk by Irish NSC chairwoman Marie Beirne, as she urged the Catholic Charismatic Renewal to take concrete steps to work for unity among the denominations, admitting that she herself had not done this as much as she should. She also commented, that she felt that the reason for the demise of groups was lack of unity among the people themselves and urged people to be reconciled with each other if praise and worship and use of the gifts were to be anointed.

Fr Pat Collins CM, another of the speakers, was almost in tears as he recalled how God had used a Church of Ireland minister Rev Cecil Kerr, whom he called a saint of God, to baptise him in the Holy Spirit all those years ago. He recalled the wonderful early days of the CCR, when Protestants and Catholics had worshipped and praised together in the North, while the bombs exploded outside. What had happened to this wonderful spirit of ecumenism that they had had then? Something had been lost he felt, since the Charismatic Renewal had lost the strong ecumenical dimension it had had in the beginning. As he spoke, a wave of agreement seemed to ripple across the crowd, as people broke into spontaneous applause.

This sense of getting back in touch with one's roots, seemed to pervade several of the talks. Fr Rufus Pereira from India spoke of the power of Pentecost and his own experiences of being baptised in the Holy Spirit. He told what it had been like being in Rome in 1975 for the first international Catholic Charismatic Renewal conference, where the CCR first received papal recognition and Pope Paul VI called it "a chance for the Church and a chance for the world." He also shared stories from his past of the power of the work of the Holy Spirit transforming people's lives and how a young leper he prayed with many years ago, not only was healed but went on to become a powerful lay preacher at the famous Potta retreat centre in India.

"Key is Holy desire"

Fr Pat examined various aspects of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Key was the importance of Holy desire he said and he reminded us that we would only get as much of the Spirit as we longed for. "How much do we want the Spirit?" he asked. Looking at the state of society, particularly the loss of faith in Europe and Ireland itself, with all its resulting problems, he urged the participants to cry out to the Holy Spirit, because God alone could change things. He quoted from the papal encyclical Ecclesia in Europa, and shared some frightening statistics which underlined the spiritual crisis the Church was in. In Ireland in the early 1990's for example 80% of the nation still practised their faith. Now it was less than 50% and in some areas less than 10%. Seminaries all over the country were closing down. In All Hallows where he had studied, there had been 220 clerical students in 1970. There were now none and his order, the Vincentians, had not had a vocation for 15 years. He saw this as perhaps a necessary purifying of an arrogant church, but now was the time for change.

The solution he said was to pray in earnest for the Holy Spirit to sweep across the land and to reach out and work with other Christians. He reminded the audience, however, that renewal doesn't happen by itself, and it takes the sacrificial offering of people's time and resources for the kingdom of God, and the giving up some of one's leisure activities. Once again, his appeal for sacrificial giving of oneself for the Lord and the work of the kingdom, seemed to stir a response in the audience, and there was a sense, that a new beginning and a new time was on its way.

This was echoed in some of the little snippets of news picked up in the hallways of the conference. There was a great buzz of activity and news of the success of the cell movement in some parishes. One hundred and seventy five delegates had recently attended a parish cell conference in Callan, Co Kilkenny in May this year, reported Paddy Monaghan, the founder of the Evangelical Catholic movement. He has been appointed the new co-ordinator for Alpha in Ireland and was full of enthusiasm for the course and its future now a new National Alpha Office has been set up. He also told me that the Scripture Union for the first time in its history had appointed a Catholic as its director in Ireland. The new man, Jim Donnan, had been working with the bishops in Ireland to produce "Luke, the book" a very successful biblical resource, which was now being used effectively in primary schools. A smiling Peter Bradshaw was also there, for United Christian Broadcasters, the Christian radio station, with stories of conversions of high level prisoners.

LOGS AND OIL Vision for IRELAND

Sr Alphonsus, a Catholic nun from Drogheda received the following vision in Limerick in 1974 at a bible week attended by 500 people.

"She saw a map of Ireland and wooden logs being brought from the Northern Ireland lo a point in the centre of Ireland. Then she saw oil from the south being poured on top of the logs and fire coining down from the sky setting the whole pile ablaze. This blaze then spread very rapidly throughout the whole country both north and south until the whole of Ireland was on fire. This great blaze then swept to England, Scotland and Wales and on to the rest of Continental Europe. The interpretation that Sr Alphonsus gave was that the logs represented the evangelical protestants who have been steeped in the Word of God but without the baptism in the Holy Spirit can become legalistic and harsh. The oil represented the "born again " baptised in the Holy Spirit, Roman Catholics who were now full of zealous ness for God but lacked a foundation in the Word of God. Each on their own have little effectiveness but as they come together, so God's anointing will fall on them and the fires of renewal will sweep Ireland, spread to England, Scotland and Wales and to rest of Europe. Ireland would become again (after 14 centuries) a light to the nations."

In the light of the conference in Athlone and the strong call to unity we received I would like people to consider and pray about this prophecy. (Marie Beirne)

News from Scotland

CRAIG LODGE and the Charisms

Callum Mc Farlane-Barrow, one of the founders of the Craig Lodge Community at Dalmally in the highlands of Scotland, explains how the community, which is marian and eucharistic in orientation, has been led in recent years to embrace the charisms too.

Since we started as a community we have always held retreats at the house. A few years ago Eddie Stones from Ireland came to speak at one of the marian conferences we were organising. He prayed over the whole community as individuals. Afterwards he said he felt that the Lord was urging us as a community not to just invite outside speakers to give talks but that we should begin to share and minister ourselves. In preparation for this, he suggested that we do the Life in the Spirit seminars. Thus we invited the Diocesan Service Team of Glasgow to come and run the seminars for us in July three years ago.

It was a wonderful experience and there was a powerful release of the Holy Spirit in our community as a result. Several of our members, received gifts of the Holy Spirit including prophecy and healing. As a result of this we have a weekly charismatic prayer group on Wednesday evenings in the house, as well as running monthly community retreats ourselves. Anyone who comes to the house knows that prayer ministry is always available if they need it.

"It was Our Lady who led us into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal"

The way we see it, it was Our Lady who led us into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. It's her house and it is she who has led us every step of the way. This should not be surprising as Mary and the Holy Spirit are spouses to each other. Our Lady was the first to receive the Holy Spirit and she was the first evangelist. We feel her guidance in so many things and I wish others would realise what a blessing she can be in guiding us in our faith and our life.

A lot of our own family are part of the community. Two of them, our children Magnus and Ruth, work full time for the charity Scottish International Relief which they run from a corrugated iron shed in the yard. This has really grown over the years and there are six people working there now, including Eileen, another member of the house community. Three years ago Magnus was in Malawi where he got very upset at the poverty he saw there. He felt he must do something about it. He realised the key for the children was to at least make sure they got one meal a day and continued their schooling so they could get out of the poverty trap. So he launched what we call "Mary's Meals". It is really incredible but for ?5 a year a child can be fed with one meal a day.
This simple idea has just grown and

grown and now through SIR we are feeding 25,000 children a year, not just in Malawi, but other countries too. Mary is really blessing our work and last year we raised ?1million through the help of our supporters. We have also been recently joined in the work by Milona von Hapsburg, who used to be Fr Slavko's interpreter. While she was visiting the community she felt a real sense that God was calling her to help Scottish International Relief, because what we were doing touched her heart so much. She wept for an hour it struck her so hard. Since then she has worked with us to spread the word about Mary's meals. The community will now soon have a small house in Medjugorje, where a few of our members will live, so they can promote Mary's Meals, among all the pilgrims there.

There has always only been a few people in the house community (3-4 people) but we have a wider community of families who have settled nearby in the village. A lot of the community are also our own family including our granchildren. With all these children we run a weekly children's rosary group. It's amazing that those as young as three know to be silent in the chapel. Our other son Mark, also runs a men's evening once a week.

We have always prayed that if it is God's will the community would expand and last October we suddenly were sent an influx of people, which brought the house community up to 10 people. One of these was Brother Paul, the Marist brother, who is 91 years old and recently became a full time member of the community. He is a wonderful witness to the young people as he is always there for his hour of adoration and is the first to get up to do the washing up or to meet guests. All this is making us excited about what the Lord is going to do with us in the future and where he is leading us.

The community runs both regular retreats throughout the year and is open for private retreats and visits.Contact: Craig Lodge, Dalmally, Argyll PA33 1BR Tel 01838 200216

News from England

Signs and Wonders in the City

Kristina Cooper reports on the Signs and Wonders Course organised by the Cor et Lumen Christi Community in London 9th-10th July 2005 where she saw people's hearing and sight healed, and those with mobility problems able to run and jump.

Only days after terrorist bombs exploded killing dozens of people in central London, almost 700 people overcame their fears to attend the Signs and Wonders Conference organised by the Cur ct Lumen Christi community at the Friends Meeting Honse opposite Euston Station, near one of the hot spots. Fear of future bombs had kept a further 300 people away, highlighting the shadow that lay over the capital in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

There was a great sense of expectation, however, as the conference opened with participants coming from all over Britain, and some individuals as far away as Australia, South Africa, India and the Czech Republic. There was also a sizeable group from Ireland. Charismatic Renewal is known for its healings and miracles, but in Britain, as in the majority of western countries, the charisms seem to be becoming less and less common. To help encourage people to grow in faith, the Cor et Lumen Christi Community have been running "Charisms Schools" and "Signs and Wonders" Conferences over the last few years, of which the London meeting was the culmination.

Speakers for the event included Fr Pat Collins CM from Ireland and the retired Anglican Bishop David Pytches, who was responsible for introducing the ministry of John Wimber and the Signs and Wonders type ministry to Britain back in the 1980s and 90s and Damian Staynes himself. The participants were not disappointed. Fr Pat Collins laid a solid biblical and theological foundation for the importance of signs and wonders as integral to the gospel, drawing on biblical texts and Church teaching, and quoting some of the early Church fathers, like St Irenaeus and St Hilary of Poitiers, and later scholars such as Thomas Aquinas. He commented, "It is one of the mysteries of the Church that by the 5th century the charisms of power were beginning to disappear. "This, he said, saw the start of what became known as Cessationist theology, whereby it began to be taught that the charisms of power had been there for the starting of the Church butl were not needed once the Church had the sacraments and the priesthood.

This debate had been renewed during Vatican II and there was a big argument in the writing of Lnmen Gentium whether the Cessationist view would prevail or not, but Cardinal Suenens, triumphed over Cardinal Ruffini, and the possibility of the power charisms being used by the Holy Spirit was written into the Church's constitution. Since then both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have acknowledged the existence of the power charisms operating in the life uf the Church, "What the New Testament describes as visible signs of the coming of the Spirit is no longer ancient history but this history is becoming a burning reality today." said Pope Benedict recently. One of the blocks to the Holy Spirit operating in people's lives, however, was persona] sin and Fr Pat then led the participants in a time of repentance.

During the afternoon a 20 minute video was also shown of healings that have happened at Cor et Lnmen Christi charism schools over the past couple of years. Not surprisingly the miracles in Africa were the most astonishing. All this helped to build the faith of the participants. In the evening session Damian challenged the participants about expectant faith. The problem with many in the charismatic renewal, he said, was that we were trying too hard in our own strength to heal people and failing. Talking about miracles, he commented, "We believe miracles are possible but we don't have the faith to make them happen, and we need to repent about this. and ask for a greater gift of faith, not just try harder." There is always a mystery in the healing process and whereas he had prayed for many people who had been healed, his own wife, over whom he has prayed many times, suffers from benign tumours in her brain and has not been healed. Damian led the time of healing by identifying certain illnesses or conditions and asking people who suffered from these to stand up and be prayed with. Abont half those prayed with claimed to have received some kind of healing. Tony Bull, a member of the Antioch community in West London, a former athlete, said he had been unable to run for 20 years, but proved his healing by racing out of the hall. Others did the same, bringing almost a nursery atmosphere into the place, with people jumping and hopping and running and stretching. Another lady, was healed of a cataract condition. She had had one cataract operation, and was due for another on the other eye, but after prayer her second eye became totally clear too.

Afterwards I interviewed some of those who had been healed and heard their stories, of backs and all kinds of painful conditions healed and hearing restored. This included one woman who had a hearing aid for 30 years but now no longer needed it. The final day finished with Mass and another talk by Fr Pal Collins, when he stressed the importance of expectant faith, if we are to see miracles happen. He gave several examples from his own life of the power of relying on divine providence. The day concluded with more prayer for healing and a talk from Damian encouraging people to repent for their lack of faith and to have the conrage to be saints of the New Millennium.


FR RANIERO AT EUCHARISTIC CONFERENCE AT NEWMAN

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM, the papal preacher, was one of the main speakers at the Eucharistic conference, "Walk with Me", organised by the diocese of Birmingham, Nottingham and Northampton which took place 14"'-17"1 July 2005. Four to five hundred followed the whole congress and about 1400 people came on the Saturday, and 4000 people attended the final open air Mass in the grounds of Oscott seminary. The idea was the initiative of Fr Julian Green, parish priest of St Peter and Paul's, Pype Hayes, Erdington, Birmingham. He received the prompting for this last year at the annual Youth2000 Prayer Festival at Walsingham, where hundreds of young people gather for prayer, teaching and Eucharistic Adoration. He was helped in the organisation of the event and its general running both by his own parishioners and by Youth2000, demonstrating how effective parish/ movement collaborations can be- Other speakers were Fr John Edwards, the well known Jesuit retreat giver and Fr Bernard Murphy, the new leader of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from the Bronx- Although it wasn't officially a national eucharistic conference, participants came from all over the country, even Ireland. The bishops of the three participating dioceses. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Bishop Philip Pargeter - Auxiliary - (Birmingham), Bishop Peter Doyle (Northampton) and Bishop Malcolm McMahon(Nottingham), were all present and either spoke at Masses or gave talks. Throughout the congress, there was adoration of the Blessed Sacrament day and night. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor also came to celebrate Mass one evening. The aim of the congress is to stimulate devotion and appreciation of Jesus in the Eucharist, both at Mass, and in the reserved Blessed Sacrament. Fr Julian is hoping there will now be a national Eucharistic congress in 2007.