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News from Ireland
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INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FORUM IN MAYNOOTH Eimear Felle from the Emmanuel Community reports on the International Youth Forum held in Mayooth at the end of April this year. The Emmanuel Community in Ireland, held its second International Youth Forum this year at Maynooth in Kildare. The idea for the Forum was to create the atmosphere and fun that was enjoyed at World Youth Day 2005 last year in Cologne, Germany. As organisers we wanted to create a retreat weekend that would be smaller but in a similar way show the youth what a WYD would be like, and encourage them to participate in future ones. We chose Maynooth College as our venue as it has a beautiful setting of gardens and walks. Every day after lunch we set aside two hours for recreation as it was a great way for people to get to know each other and we felt it was important to have a balance between prayer and fun. We had wanted it to be international - and it was. We had people from Slovenia, Australia, Scotland, France and Germany. It was terrific to see such an interest from afar and it made our work all the more worthwhile. The topics covered in the talks were relationships, vocation and understanding God and participants were encouraged to ask questions and discuss these issues further. We also had small sharing groups. These gave people the opportunity to talk about things that might have been troubling them or other issues they had. This sharing all brought people closer together. It being Divine Mercy weekend on the last night we had Adoration and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It was a lovely way to end the weekend and made it all the more special. All in all it was a wonderful Youth Forum and a great success. Lots of friends were made and everyone seemed to take something from the weekend away with them. We hope to do another Youth Forum in Ireland before World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, so look out for further details of this. This summer there is another International Youth Forum organised by the Emmanuel Community in Altotting in Germany from 1st-6th August. For details of the Emmanuel School of Mission in Rome see Coming Events.
Catherine Corkery, a wife and mother with grown up children is part of the Adult Faith Development group at the cathedral parish in Longford. She explains how they have been using Alpha for the last four years as an effective tool for evangelising and building faith. It was Sr Angela Clarkson, our parish sister, who first heard of the Alpha course. Her brother is a missionary priest in South Africa and very involved in evangelisation. It seemed every time she rang him he was away on an Alpha weekend. This got her interested and then she found that there was an Alpha course running nearby in Mullingar. I was a friend of hers and part of the group that went along to see what it was like. I was very impressed with it all and the way it fostered friendship and very gently unfolded and encouraged people to grow in their faith. Afterwards I joined her and the rest of the group in running the first Alpha course at the parish centre in 2002. We did a couple of courses, attracting about 25-30 people each time. The participants of one of the courses got on so well, that they didn’t want to stop meeting and asked what they could do afterwards. We had heard about the parish cell system that was pioneered by Fr Michael Hurley in Ballinteer and we knew there were cell groups in Callan in Kilkenny which had been going for 10 years, so we asked them to come and advise us. They were a great help and gave us lots of resources to help us get started. It went very well and after a short time we had to divide and form a second group and then another one. After three years we now have about 30 people involved in three cell groups which meet in people’s homes fortnightly. Sr Angela has always wanted something for the people of St Michael’s Road, the area where she and two other sisters have been living for the past 15 years. She persuaded the rest of us this year that instead of doing another course at the Cathedral we should do one in the Lanna Aoibhinn Community Centre, St Michael’s Road. Elaine Keogh, the co-ordinator of the centre was really keen on the idea as she had been wanting to do something like this too for some time. She gave us great assistance at every stage of the project. The initial problem was how to advertise the newer Alpha and get people to come. The area is a very old part of Longford, with a mixed population, some newer housing, mixed nationalities etc. In the end, six of us went out around the area, in twos, door-to-door, handing out leaflets and inviting people to come. We knocked at about 300 homes, explaining what it was about. At the previous Alpha we had just served tea and biscuits but this time we wanted to make it more of an occasion. With lots of local support we were able to serve hot meals each night. The hall looked really lovely and we had fresh flowers on the tables etc. It made all the difference and people bonded very quickly. It made me realise how important the meal component of the Alpha course is as it sets the tone and helps people to relax and make friends. About 30-35 people attended the course, some of whom would not have been regular church goers. They had a lovely time and really enjoyed the food and the company as well as the talks and opportunity to share about their faith and their lives. We used the videos of Nicky Gumbel’s talks for most of the course apart from the Holy Spirit Day when we invited Marie Beirne, the chairperson of the Irish NSC, to give the talks and help with the prayer. In the beginning we weren’t quite sure how people would react to a public school educated English man like Nicky, but we needn’t have worried. His talks are so engaging and the stories he told so relevant to people’s lives, that everyone took to him quite easily and they loved Marie! For some people on Alpha, the course was a revelation, and they came to a new love and appreciation of the Scriptures and God working in their lives. I think there’s likely to be a cell group formed in the area as a result this autumn. As helpers we got a lot out of it too. The people were wonderful and it’s great to be involved in something where you can see people growing in their faith in such an obvious way. It has also been very good for ecumenical relationships in the town and we have received a lot of support from other Christians in the town helping out in various ways. For further details of Alpha visit www.alphairel@eircom.net
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