A new year beckons, a time for new beginnings and reflection on our call from the Lord. This will be especially appropriate for me this year, as starting from mid- January I will be taking a three month sabbatical, which will include a 30 day silent retreat following the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius with the Chemin Neuf community in France. I have been working for the Goodnews for over 23 years and feel the need for a time of spiritual refreshment as I’ve become very tired recently and I need to have some space to look at my life and priorities. Please pray for me during this time and I will pray for you all. While I am away the editorial committee will share out my responsibilities and produce the Goodnews in my absence and I want to thank them in advance for the extra work they are taking upon themselves to give me this break. I will be back on 1st May 2008.

In this issue Michelle Moran, the chairperson of the English NSC, looks at the current state of Western Europe and the fact that we are living in a post Christendom society and asks what this means for us as Christians and how we are to respond in this situation.

Sometimes witnessing for Christ might mean standing up for our faith against the prevailing culture and being persecuted for it. Fr Pat Collins CM, tells the inspiring story of Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian family man, who was executed in the 1940s for refusing to fight for the Nazis. Dr Rohan d’Souza, a young gynaecologist from India, meanwhile tells his story, of how he was challenged on a retreat about the abortions he was doing, and how God used this to bring him back to the practice of his Catholic faith and a renewed love for Christ.

To be effective witnesses in our secular culture, however, we must be spiritually strong inside and Shirley Harrington gives us some useful tips to maintain our spiritual, emotional and physical health and to keep our light shining in the darkness. Someone who has kept his light shining very effectively is Fr Jimmy Collins, who celebrates his 90th birthday this January. We tell the story of his long and amazingly fruitful ministry as a priest and give thanks to the Lord and Our Lady for it.

God has been so effectively airbrushed out of our history by secularism that we can forget the way the Lord has worked through the ages bringing social renewal and transformation through the gospel message and the charisms of the Holy Spirit. Eddie Ensley, reflects on the situation in Europe in the 6th century at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire and the miracles and healings done by Christian missionaries at the time.

Fr Peter Hocken, in his article reflects on what he sees today as the four key areas to keep the Charismatic Renewal prophetic and ensure that it is not domesticated or tamed and remains effective. One of the priorities he sees is unity. This is underlined by Fr Chris Thomas, who stresses the importance of Christian unity and unity at all levels of our lives.

At the heart of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is Baptism in the Holy Spirit and Charles Whitehead in his article looks at it and what it means on an individual level and how it brings personal transformation to people’s lives. This is echoed in Greg Watt’s interview with Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana. The Cardinal talks about the Church in Africa and, among other things, the importance of conversion and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life. The power of personal conversion to bring social transformation is underlined too in our inspiring feature about the Cenacolo Community. They have recently opened a house in Kendal in Cumbria where drug addicts have their lives put back together again through prayer (especially Eucharistic Adoration), Christian fellowship and working with their hands.

Finally we have our usual regular items, with the latest news from Catholic Evangelisation Services and their new video on the Creed, the latest Agape Tapes and book recommendations from Goodnews Books, Sue’s inimitable Other Half and news from the Isles, including the death of Mary Tanner, one of the key people the Lord used to bring Charismatic Renewal to Britain in the early 70’s.

Kristina Cooper