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News News from the British Isles and around the world
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CATHOLIC MIRACLE RALLY Kristina Cooper reports on the Catholic miracle Rally that took place in London the 12th-13th of July. About 1150 people crammed the Friends Meeting House at Euston, London for the third Catholic Miracle Rally organised by the Cor et Lumen Christi Community the weekend of 12th-13th July 2008. Fr Pat Collins CM from Ireland spoke about Smith Wigglesworth and the various prophecies about a great revival that would come, and which he believed we were on the verge of. He also emphasised the importance of the New Evangelisation and the role of signs and wonders in this. (see his article in the centre pages of this issue).Other speakers were Fr Bernard Murphy, the leader of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal from America, who reminded people that nothing was impossible for God and spoke on Holiness and the Eucharist. On Saturday evening, founder of Cor et Lumen Christi, Damian Stayne, then led the healing service.
Cor et Lumen Christi now have a lot of experience in running healing services and miracle rallies of this kind and the healing evening was very well organised. The session began with the showing of a video that the community have taken of healings from past events, and people giving witness to what God has done. This helped build faith and expectation as people could see what had happened before and what could happen now. Damian himself shared various stories of healings he had witnessed. The most remarkable for me was that of a man who was healed while he was cleaning the loos at the Rimini conference some years ago. He was not even in the arena when Damian gave a word of command for sight to be restored and was healed of blindness in one eye. Damian then spoke about the importance of believing in the power of God and not limiting God’s action by our lack of faith. After his talk, he began by getting people to pray for their neighbours who were suffering with restrictive movements in their arms and shoulders. while they were doing this he prayed a word of command from the stage. He then asked those who were healed to come up and give witness. These were interviewed by his team first, before being allowed to go on stage to testify. The details of their healings were then noted down by members of the team with any contact details for possible follow up if necessary. Damian is very scrupulous that people don’t get carried away by the emotion of the event and claim more than has happened, and he was careful to get those who had been healed to clarify the extent of their healing. Although some of these were perhaps minor to the audience, to the person healed, who maybe hadn’t been able to lift their arms properly for years, they were significant, as was obvious in the delight of their faces as they praised God for what he had done. As well as people who had problems walking, some with crutches, Damian also prayed for restoration of sight and hearing, and the healing of tumours. People came up to witness to these as well, including one woman who had been blind in one eye for 5 years. Some were overcome with emotion at what had happened to them and couldn’t quite believe it.
Damian and the Cor Lumen Christi team reckon they have witnessed an incredible 30,000 healings over the last 5years, many of which, as they have got more organised, have been documented or recorded on video. The team have travelled all over the world, and in August 2008 they went to America for the first time to run a small Charism School for the Mother of God community in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Damian has also started to be invited to minister at other christian events. Last year he spoke at the monthly healing rally at Glory House, a black led church in Newham, East London and more recently, on Pentecost Sunday (11th May 08) he ministered at a miracle rally organised by Ground Level, a House Church network led by Stuart Bell in the Nottingham/Sheffield area. Graham Bell, Stuart’s brother, having met Damian, invited him to lead a miracle healing rally in Kirkby in Ashfield, which was held in a local leisure centre hall but sponsored by Ground Level. About 550 people attended from all the local churches as well as those of no faith. At the end 110 people claimed that they had received some form of healing and nine people came forward to give their lives to the Lord, two thirds of these were from a drug rehabilitation centre.
FOCOLARE MOVEMENT ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT Following the death of Chiara Lubich last March at the age of 88, the Focolare Movement has elected a new president. She is Maria Voce, a 71 year old from Southern Italy, who worked with Chiara revising the general statutes of the movement. She was elected by an almost unanimous vote by the general assembly of the movement made up of 496 delegates from all over the world on 7th July 2008. It is in the statutes of Focolare that the leader should always be a woman. Maria Voce, however, will also be supported in her new role by a co-president, Giancarlo Faletti and a general council of 18 men and 18 women. With these new elections the movement enters into a new phase of its history after the 60 year leadership of its founder. Chiara herself had often said that it would not just be one person who would replace her but a body of people, so guaranteeing the continuity of the charism of unity.
World Youth Day, which this year took place in Sydney, Australia 15th-20th July, is often a pivotal moment in the life of the young people who go. Even more than anything that is said, the fact of being in such a huge mass of young Catholics gives them a new confidence in their faith and a new enthusiasm to share the gospel. Part pilgrimage, part cultural youth festival and part prayer rally, this year’s WYD gave the young people the opportunity to meet people from the local church too, staying with families or sleeping on the floors of schools and church halls in 400 locations, for the five days leading up to World Youth Day itself.
This year two thousand young people from the UK and 600 from Ireland, were among the 225,000 who came from 200 countries from all over the world (including 100,000 from Australia), making it an even bigger international event than the Olympic Games in 2000. The theme this year was “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses.” Personal blogs, Zenith, EWTN Catholic television and the XT3 web-site, meant that even those not able to go were able to be part of what was happening. In a moving moment during the WYD Day vigil the Pope and all the bishops extended their hands and prayed over the young people for the grace of the Holy Spirit. Four special adoration tents were set up round the site of the vigil, and these were full all night with praying young people. Other young people huddled in blankets and dozed under the stars. One young girl from Papua New Guinea said, “We don’t mind being cold, because we are happy to receive the Holy Spirit. It is very special for us to come together with so many from round the world to share our faith, but most importantly , we are here to meet the Pope and receive his message, so we can be witnesses when we go back home to our country.” Audrey Echevarria(23) a local, commented, “There is a fair amount of hostility in Australia, especially in Sydney, but knowing that not everyone dislikes Catholicism gives us courage to be able to speak about our faith in public”. Over 400,000 people gathered for the final Mass where the Pope challenged them, “What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God or even rejects him in the name of a falsely conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given the ‘power’ which the Spirit is even now prepared to release with you?” The next WYD will be in Madrid in 2011.
A Journey of the Christian Faith Colin and Madeline Windsor have worked for the Mission in Hounslow Trust, established in 1993 for the relief of sickness and poverty, and to share the Christian message within the London Borough of Hounslow, from the outset. Among many other things, they run a drop-in centre for the homeless. Called to spread the word of God more widely they responded earlier this year with a “Journey of the Christian Faith”, a 6 week evangelical tour of the UK starting in Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis on 1st June, travelling south to Penzance in Cornwall, and finishing in London on 12th July. Colin calculates that they have reached 5 million people on their journey having visited some 40 cities and given interviews to 23 radio stations and many newspapers and magazines. The response on the streets was not always as they had hoped, but this just showed them how important it is for Christians to go out and be witnesses for Jesus. Hearing their story I thought of Mt. 9:38, The harvest is rich but the labourers are few. Colin and Madeline, among the few of today, may not have seen much fruit from their labours on the streets, for fruit takes time to grow. Yet they have sown some seeds without which there can be no harvest. To find out more, see http://journeyofthechristianfaith.org.uk
It was meant to be the finale, but this year’s Life of Christ, the imaginative 5 hour retelling of the gospel story ended on such a high that author, producer and Wintershall Estate owner, Peter Hutley, has committed himself to running the show again in 2009. The spectacular, open-air performances, which took place during the last week of June 2008 in the grounds of the Surrey estate attracted more than 14,000 people on its 6 day run. The success of the show is due to the combination of a colourful and engaging voluntary cast of over 200 people, of all ages, who come from all walks of life, from nuclear physicists to tree surgeons, portraying a wonderful story in a stunning natural setting! There are also real flocks of sheep and lambs, horses, donkeys, doves and even fish. “More people attend each consecutive performance of the Life of Christ than any show at the West End theatre,” says Ashley Heerman, the director of the play. Next year’s dates are 23rd-28th June 2009. For further information contact Jules Robinson 07977 447551 or email juliarobinson(at)freenet.co.uk or visit the Wintershall website www.wintershall-estate.com/
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