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News from England
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TEENS LEAD WORSHIP AT WALK’IN HOPE Getting the right music ministry is always difficult for any conference, but Walkin Hope, the North East conference now in their 3rd year, have grown their own. The teenagers (11-17 years old) who have been coming to their events and other northern ones over the past few years, have become so proficient at leading music that it was they who led the praise and worship at this year’s May conference (12th-14th May 2006). Clare Pickthall, the organiser said “They were so on fire with the Holy Spirit and so pleased to be serving in this way that they brought a special dimension to it all. We all agreed it was the best conference so far.” The last two conferences had been held at Minsteracres Retreat Centre over the Bank Holiday weekend in the summer, but this time the organising team decided to bring it into Newcastle city centre to make it more accessible for people with limited funds who didn’t have their own transport. Two weeks before the event, only 32 people had booked on and things looked bleak, but Clare says “When it comes down to it you have to trust. We can only do our bit and we have to leave God to do the rest.” They needn’t have worried. On the day over 300 people from small children to old people turned up to the Blackfriars Hall. Peter, one member of the team persuaded his parish priest to organise a coach, and fifty people came from the parish in Sunderland. “Others just came off the street, “ said Clare, delighted, “including quite a few refugee families.” The team had made a point of publicising the conference with the Refugee Centre in the West End of the city. The key to the turn-out, said Clare, was that instead of concentrating on advertising literature as they had done before, those on the core group personally contacted people they felt would benefit and encouraged them to come. The fact that it was donation only also made this easier to do. Clare also went to see the local bishop and told him about what the team was doing and he agreed to send out all the publicity material free of charge. Over the last few years there has been a growing network of people doing things in the north of England of which Walkin Hope is just one expression and this also helped with numbers. Clare comments, “Mike Mulroy and Maggie Dullaghan have been running Inner Sanctum Weekends and days and then Hilda and Mike Hedly, a lay couple who have charge of a parish in Wycliffe, have been running Springs days and a family week in North Yorkshire in the summer. Then there’s Frankie Mulgrew and his crowd in the North West who started the Northern Catholic Conference. We all feel called to support and help each other out and this has caused a real sense of community and family among us all.” The main draw, as usual was Fr Stan Fortuna the Franciscan Friar from the Bronx, who has supported the event since the beginning. As well as doing several talks he did a concert which drew in the crowds. Other speakers included David Payne from CaF?, Andrew Fava (Cor et Lumen Christi) and Fr Sean Conaty. Rosemary Theobalds led the children’s ministry and Andy Stayne led the prayer ministry. Two of the Franciscan Friars from Bradford also came to help lead prayer. The theme of the conference was “The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”, a theme which touched many and made mime artist, Steve Murray’s mimes particularly appropriate. THE NATIONS BRINGING RENEWAL TO THE CHURCH IN LONDON London is very much a city of nations and it is noticeable that many of the newest arrivals to our shores are also very committed Catholics, including charismatic ones. One young South American called Jorge Negrete came to the Goodnews offices, a couple of weeks ago wanting to know if we could help him find a Catholic church which he might be able to use for some of the events he was organising on behalf of his Catholic Charismatic Community “the Misionarios de Jesus” MdJ. Apparently over the past couple of years Spanish and Portuguese speaking prayer groups have been burgeoning in the capital. Jorge and his friends regularly organise events with international speakers for 800 plus people! Apparently there are 850,000 South Americans in London at the moment, the majority of whom are not being reached by the Church says Jorge. Jorge and his team have managed to reach the people they have by using community radio and advertising their events there. Because of visa restrictions for speakers coming from Latin America however it can be difficult to give a lot of advance warning of exact dates and venues. He hopes eventually to start a Spanish speaking magazine and have a Christian radio station in the capital.
A growing band of intercessors are congregating at Our Lady and St Gregory’s parish in Soho to pray for the capital. The ministry was set up on Ash Wednesday this year and have committed to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament between 5-9 pm every evening during the week and 11 am to 5pm at weekends. They eventually hope there will be sufficient intercessors to have 24 hour prayer at the church. The international group, which is led by Joseph Dasan, had their first retreat weekend 20th-21st May. The speakers included Mgr Keith Barltrop, Charles Whitehead, Ros Powell, Enda Devine (London Day of Renewal chairman) and Gabriele Sedda (Goodnews office). Their next weekend will be 1st-2nd July 2006
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