“I AM WITH YOU” PRIEST DIES

Fr John Woolley, the author of the phenomenally successful book of meditations, “I am with you” which he wrote while he was a hospital chaplain, died on 26th October 2008, aged 80 after a long illness. An Anglican priest, he had a great love for the Roman Catholic church and worked a lot ecumenically.

The “I am with you” meditations were words of encouragement that he received from the Lord for himself in prayer but he found they had wider appeal, especially for the patients in the psychiatric hospital he was working in. These prophetic words were eventually collected into a book, which became the first of several volumes. Such was their popularity that it brought about a whole retreat ministry called the “I am with You Foundation”. Ros Krauscher, who worked for many years with Fr John and his charity, commented, “For me he was a giant of a man because of his love and trust in Jesus our Lord. His gentleness, kindness and humility, his spiritual wisdom, his vulnerability and understanding of people’s difficulties, his perseverance and love of a joke (and jam buns) drew everyone to him. When it came to helping people his very presence served to bring Godly peace and hope.”

She adds, “Just before he died I opened a copy of “I am With You” and it fell open at the bible phrase “Bring the finest garment and put it on him, and celebrate.” What better tribute can be given to such a multi-talented and amazing man of God.” He leaves a wife, Edna, two daughters and a son.

CAFÉ ON THE ROAD… AND BEYOND

David Payne keeps us up to date on what Catholic Evangelisation is up to.

Since entering into our filming free 12 month season, life has been busy and fruitful. Liesel, I and Emily Davis from CASE(Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation) had the massive privilege of giving three one day retreats for the 250 clergy of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. The theme was “Priest as evangelist and catechist”. We really sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit, as we, with knees knocking, shared our suggestions for fresh evangelisation and renewal in their parishes.

Emily Davis gave some very inspiring input on the state of secular society and we spoke about the need for people to experience a deep touch of the Father’s love and to hear a clear proclamation of the Gospel. It is this which releases us from bad old “muscular” Christianity to try to live the gospel in our own strength. We encouraged them to create opportunities for parishioners to have a personal Pentecost experience, to be regularly topped up and to offer healing prayer whenever possible. We also showed several clips from our latest dvd “Alive in Christ” and what some parishes were already doing. We have since written offering this service to all of the bishops of England and Wales, so please pray for us.

I personally have also been on the road up and down the country giving parish and conference talks. I have sensed a growing hunger and openness to things of the Spirit and a deep desire for healing and release among many Catholics. At the end of most talks I have offered prayer ministry. This is often the first time the people in the congregation will have heard of such a thing, but the queues have been huge and I have had the privilege to pray for deep body, soul and family issues.

As a result, I have been challenged again for the need of a fresh anointing to be able to meet people in their need. The Lord allowed me to get some fresh input and training in November last, when I and a friend were lovingly sponsored by a couple to attend a leaders’ conference in (very wet!) Northern California. We visited the church of a 5th generation pastor called Bill Johnson. He is an amazing man, an international conference speaker and author of many inspiring and faith building books (everyone should read “When Heaven invades earth”, available from Goodnews Books). He is being described as the new John Wimber and certainly shares John’s appealing hype-free laid back approach as he empowers normal believers to move in the supernatural power of God in every day life. We had travelled a long way to catch a new vision of Charismatic Life in full flow and we were not disappointed. We had five glorious days in what seemed a near perfect church community and witnessed and personally experienced the mighty power of God. The whole DNA of his large church, school and mission training college (where 1000 mainly young people are trained to minister in the supernatural each year) is to see the Kingdom of God come through our prayers and loving ministry to the world around us. It is quite incredible to see in action. Even 12 year old children in the school were giving taped words of knowledge to the 800 visiting leaders. There is also an inspiring healing room ministry each Saturday, which attracts 70-80 non church goers each week from the town. Here many are healed, especially from cancer, deafness and more. Members of the church are regularly out on the streets where they are prophetically led to pray for healing and deliverance. No wonder they have four services packed with 1000 people every Sunday.

We received some profound teaching and ministry and I have returned refreshed with renewed hope of what the Lord wants to do through us all in his beloved Charismatic Renewal. As they say in California “Bring it on Lord!” For more details of how you can book us for your parish/group/school inset days please call 0845 0509427 or email me at david(at)faithcafe.org

GLASGOW CCR ORGANISING SPEAKERS TO GO INTO SCHOOLS

The Glasgow diocesan service team for CCR who organise regular CCR events decided to spread the graces they were receiving and last year started organising visits for their invited speakers to local parishes and schools.

Marino Restrepo from Colombia who has an amazing testimony of being held hostage by guerrillas before he was baptised in the Holy Spirit, was the first one to take part in this initiative. In October, as well as speaking at the Glasgow CCR weekend he also spent four days going into schools and sharing his story and speaking about the Catholic faith. In the evenings he also spoke at prayer groups in Motherwell and Paisley.

Grace McBride, the chairperson of the Glasgow team commented, “It was a great success and as the word got round other schools rang up wanting him to come to them too, but by then it was too late. But they have booked him for next year. “ She adds, “I went with him to a couple of schools and the head of RE at one of them said, “This is what the kids are crying out for”. She wants us now to bring other speakers too. So we have an open door. I am delighted as I have felt the Lord for some time prompting that we should be reaching out to schools and to young people.”

Fr Thaddeus Doyle, the editor of the Curate’s Diary in Ireland, came the following month and spent five days going into schools as well as visiting parishes in the evening and doing the CCR weekend for the Glasgow team.

As well as weekend retreats the Glasgow CCR have also organised three all night prayer vigils which has been very successful. As they hold their CCR events in the Pro Initiative Halls, they have been led to pray in particular for the Pro Life cause in Glasgow.

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINARS (LSS) IN BALLINTEER DUBLIN

A hundred people attended the LSS organised at the St John the Evangelist parish in Ballinteer, Dublin late last autumn. The parish has been using the parish cell system first devised at St Boniface’s in Florida and promoted for the last 20 years by the parish of St Eustorgio in Milan. As the key focus of the cells is evangelisation, it was decided to hold the seminars to encourage more people to be baptised in the Holy Spirit.

The prayer and preparation was huge and included a big advertising campaign, targeting shops, supermarkets, doctors’ surgeries, as well as local churches, and fliers hand delivered to 4000 homes. Over half of those that attended had never heard about the LSS before. Speakers for the course included Fr Pat Collins CM, Dympna Sheehan, Anne Loughman, Sr Miriam Duggan, Fr Eamon Cahil, and John Waters, a well known journalist from the Irish Times.

“TOWARDS JERUSALEM COUNCIL II” LAUNCHED IN THE UK AND IRELAND

One of the most significant developments of the last 40 years has been the rise of the Messianic Jewish Movement. This has meant that for the first time since the first century there has been a Jewish expression of faith in Jesus Christ. There are currently over 100 Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel, reflecting the different countries of origin and different language groups, as well as over 250 Messianic congregations in the US. Other countries where the Messianic Jewish movement is growing rapidly are Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. There are also well established, if small congregations in England, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, 30 in Germany, as well as new congregations coming into being in Latin America. Drawing inspiration from the first Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) when for a brief time the Body of Christ included both Jewish and Gentile expressions, “Towards Jerusalem Council II” (TJCII) is an initiative for the full reconciliation of Jewish and Gentile believers. This began in 1996 and has been gradually growing and now involves representation from charismatics and evangelicals, as well as those from the Roman Catholic church and other of the historic churches.

The belief of the group is that through the healing of this original division in the body of Christ, grace will flow for the whole Church to help prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. Fr Peter Hocken, a Roman Catholic priest from the Northampton diocese, currently based in Vienna, is very involved in the process and was one of the main speakers, along with the Messianic Jewish leader, Dr Dan Juster, at the launch of TJCII in Britain on Saturday 15th November at a day conference held at the Christian Life Centre in Birmingham. There was a similar meeting held in Dublin on 13th November organised by Paddy Monaghan. For further details of this prophetic moving of the Holy Spirit log on to their web site www.tjcii.org.uk

HARVESTERS’ TEAM IN AFRICA RUNNING MEN’S WEEKENDS

Roy Hendy and Tom Gorman from the House of the Open Door Community and Gerard Pomfret from Goodnews Books went out to Tanzania at the end of the year (16th-27th November 2008). The team go annually to run men’s events and support local Christian initiatives and are sponsored by Harvesters the Catholic men’s network that run annual men’s weekends in England and Scotland. Sixty men from Uganda and Kenia attended.The team took with them over £10,000 that they had raised to share with various local initiatives.