|
News News from the British Isles and around the world
|
|
A Couple of “Firsts”, A few Signs and Wonders, a Sign of a New Thing Steve Lavery reports on some recent events in Scotland
In spite of all this the Lord had different ideas. And I found myself there with all the other men. All I knew was that for some reason it was meant to be. At the moment of the first hymn and the praying the psalms I knew God had a reason. From that first time of prayer I felt the power in the praise make God’s presence felt in every Mass and prayer session. The time of praise was truly blessed, powerful and uplifting. If nothing else was to happen for me that weekend then that was enough. The full programme of prayer, talks and sharing groups kept the mind active and the inspiring words of the four speakers awakened the spirit. Fr. Jim McManus CSsR during his talks addressed issues such as poor self esteem, the male image, forgiveness and getting into the Word of God and living in the “Creative Word”. His workshop on forgiveness led some men to reconciliation. Fr. Richard Reid CSsR from St Patrick’s in Edinburgh addressed male spirituality and sexuality. Using images from the arts, Fr Richard called the men to be passionate, convinced and therefore convincing, and courageous. He spoke about sexuality and spirituality in a way that was extremely enlightening. Fr. Keith Herrera spoke very practically about working with young adults and shared ways he had found to work in getting them involved in parish life. Charles Whitehead set before the group a vision for men in a talk that was marked for me by its clarity. Over the weekend the depth of sharing within the small groups and the humility of those coming forward for prayer ministry was a privilege to witness. At a personal level, as the weekend progressed the reasons for me being there no longer mattered. What was happening to me was of little importance I just knew the Lord’s hand was on the whole event and whatever the Lord was to do He would do. As one participant said,“God is definitely in this. The talks spoke directly into my life at the moment, a divine appointment indeed!
ALPHA IRELAND Paddy Monaghan reports on the national Alpha conference which took place in Dublin in June Fr Pat Collins, challenged the 97 delegates at the recent Alpha conference at Clonliffe College, Dublin, which took place on Saturday, 16th June, to be serious about evangelisation. It was not an option for the churches in Ireland he said. Either they took evangelisation seriously or they would die, he said. Delegates had come from as far away as Derry and Wexford. Fr Pat commented that Alpha was one of the best evangelisation tools that he knew of and he gave an inspiring address on the principles behind Alpha, which he saw as a great opportunity for the development of faith in Ireland. John Lander, a former RUC man, gave an address on the practicalities of running Alpha. John and his wife, Barbara, are Alpha leaders from Belfast in a church that has now run 56 Alpha courses. John and Barbara said they had seen many people in Belfast whose lives had been transformed and changed through Alpha. One of the gripping stories at the conference was from Davood Kami, an accountant by profession who was a Muslim 8 years ago in Iran and is now a Christian. He attended an Alpha course in Iran and then was helping on a second one when people came to kill him – it is a capital offence for a Muslim to become a Christian in Iran. He barely escaped with his life, having travelled across Iran for 9 days on the back of a lorry. He miraculously got across the border because the breath detection equipment failed that day. He is grateful that Ireland gave him refuge 18 months ago. He has learned English and is now an Irish citizen and is planning to run Alpha in the autumn for a group of Iranians in Dublin. During the conference three seminars were held looking at “the Alpha Marriage course” (20 have been run so far in Ireland); “Making Alpha an integral part of Parish Life” and “How to run Alpha for the first time in a Catholic parish”. Alpha is now running in 163 countries world wide and has been translated into 70 languages with an estimated 33,687 courses running worldwide. Currently there are 125 courses which have been run in Ireland the Alpha team hope that there will be 1200 Alphas running in the country by 2010. For further details contact: Paddy Monaghan at alphairel
SPIRIT IN THE CITY Anne Marie Salgo, who works for four of the Catholic West End churches in London, tells us about the Spirit in the City, an initiative which the four parishes took to bring the gospel to the heart of the capital in June this year. The original impetus for our outreach came from the follow up to the At Your Word programme last year, when all the parishes in the diocese were asked to organise “Open the Doors” events for a weekend in July. There are four of the West End churches – St Patrick’s in Soho Square, Notre Dame de France in Leicester Square, Corpus Christi in Covent Garden and Our Lady of the Assumption in Warwick Street – who have been working together for a few years now. They thought rather than organise something on their own they would join together for a celebration of faith at the West End. The first Spirit in the City events went very well and it was decided to continue the idea this year. I was asked to co-ordinate this outreach as I have been working for the Church since I finished my year of mission training at the St Patrick’s Evangelisation School in 2004. I was given a lot of inspiration and ideas when I went to Brussels last November and saw the ICNE city mission, (the last one will be in Budapest this year 17th-22nd September, contact CASE for details if you are interested 0208 8458 3316) where there were activities all over the capital. We, however, just confined our activities to the central London area of the four parishes. It is a big challenge to bring the gospel here. Thousands of people come to the West End for entertainment and shopping. They reckon 200,000 a day pass through Leicester Square alone, yet for many people the Church is invisible because as Catholics we tend to stay inside for our services and practice our faith privately. We wanted to change this and really bring our faith out into the streets and make it accessible for people. We cannot remain silent and simply wait for people to come into our churches but we have to go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ with them. Prayer, teaching and evangelisation We had three main elements to the outreach and tried to use the same model that Jesus himself used. The disciples prayed together, Jesus taught them, they received formation and then they were sent out. Thus we tried to organise a balance of prayer events, teaching forums and opportunities for witness. Underpinning everything was 40 hours of Adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament. This was spread between the four churches, beginning
with Our Lady of the Assumption and ending at Corpus Christi, with two
all night vigils at St Patrick’s and the French Church, Notre Dame.
We tried to make things a mixture of old and new. The Eucharistic processions
we organised proved very effective as we carried the Blessed Sacrament
between the churches in full pomp and ceremony. People couldn’t help but notice and we had great conversations as we handed out bookmarks and invitations to other events on the programme. It was amazing to see the different responses to this. In Hungary, where I am from, processions are very common, but here in London people’s responses were very strong because processions like this are not common in the city. Some people didn’t know what was going on and asked us. Others fell on their knees spontaneously as we passed, while some people were very negative and heckled and jeered at us, although we were not trying to be confrontational. Different charisms shared As well as the prayer, we had street outreaches each day when we set up a ‘Faith Garden’ on the street and handed out cards, invitations and sweets and engaged people in conversation. The St Patrick’s Evangelisation School students led these outreaches in a very experienced way, as it is part of their training during the year. Generally we were very blessed to receive the support of all kinds of groups and communities. It was great that each one was able to bring their particular charism. Members of the Neocatechumenal way for example brought their guitars and drums and helped animate one of the processions with their distinctive songs while Soul Food, the young adult charismatic group ran a special evening of prayer and praise at Our Lady of the Assumption. We were also helped by the SPEC team and the Westminster Cathedral prayer group, Youth 2000, the Bard School arts group, the Missionaries of Charity, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, Rise drama group, Verbum Dei and CASE. It was really great the way everyone worked together. Music in the Streets The culmination of the festival took place on the Saturday when a stage was erected in Leicester Square and there was a whole programme of events with drama, music and poetry featuring acts as disparate as the Christian rock band, Crossbeam, the musician Tim Balfe, a French Scouts’ group, an African Choir and the artistry of mime artist, Steve Murray. We also had Elizabeth Wang paintings around the square to show that Catholic faith is part of culture and the arts and an exposition of different Catholic ministries and charities in the Faith Expo. (*including Goodnews mag!) As well as the platform events, there were opportunities for people to meet for prayer and discussion in small tents about all kinds of issues from ‘Why Do I Need God?’ to ‘Faith and Sexuality’; or even go for confession and meet a priest in the middle of Leicester Square. In the evening the entertainment moved to Soho Square where the St Patrick’s Gospel Choir, that animates the 5pm Sunday Mass at St Patrick’s gave a sensational concert. People were amazed that we were Catholics doing this. Throughout these three days the churches were really present in the West End. Because we were out in the public squares people had to take notice. In the coming year we are hoping to build on this, not just to organise another event next year, but to look at ways how we at the West End churches, can welcome people into the Christian community. We want to be open and respond to the needs of all who come in their thousands to the bars, shops and theatres in the area because we believe that, deep in their hearts, they are looking for the love of Christ. Those who would like to know more can contact Anne Marie
via www.spiritinthecity.org
|
|
|||
 |
||||
|
|
|
eircom.net
“I
don’t care what you say, I know Jesus is alive and I have
seen His work. The blind can see, the deaf can hear and I saw
the crippled hold up their crutches and walk.” This was a
young man’s witness to friends after returning from The Signs
and Wonders Conference and Miracle Rally held in Glasgow led by
Damian Stayne and a team from Cor et Lumen Christi Community from
7th-8th July.
About
a thousand people packed the main hall at the Athlone Institute
of Technology for the 40th anniversary celebrations of the CCR
in Ireland over the weekend of 22nd-24rd June this year. The general
feedback was it was the best conference ever and there was a palpable
sense of anointing over the weekend through the talks given by
Frances Hogan, Fr Tom Forrest, Marie Beirne and Bishop Martin
Drennan and through the praise and worship and the opportunity
to be prayed with for healing. The theme that emerged was very
much one of Fire. Frances Hogan stressed the importance of the
purifying work of the Holy Spirit and the fire of Pentecost, and
Fr Tom Forrest, still on fire for the gospel at 80 years old,
was an example of how the transforming work of the Spirit can
animate a person for the whole of their lives. Bishop Drennan,
quoting Joshua, urged participants to choose whom they would serve
and really commit to the Lord.