Autumn is upon us, soon it will be Christmas. How time flies. How our lives speed by. One becomes more aware of this as one gets older. It’s a call to all of us to look at our lives and priorities and to ask ourselves are we making the right choices, given our lives will soon be over and eternity awaits us.

One man who was born with many gifts and talents who gave his whole life in service to the Lord was Bishop Ambrose Griffiths OSB, monk of Ampleforth, former bishop of Hexham and Newcastle and beloved member of the English National Service Committee for Catholic Charismatic Renewal for over 15 years. Fr Ambrose as he preferred to be called, died just as we were going to press on 14th June 2011, so all we could do was announce his death. In this issue, however, we take the opportunity to remember the man. His whole story is that of a life well lived, and of someone who was a faithful pastor to the end. We have contributions from Pat Kennedy, Teresa Smith, Bishop Séamus Cunningham of Hexham and Newcastle, Charles Whitehead, Michelle Moran and his brother Canon Anthony Griffiths.

We also have the inspiring testimony of Dannie Firth and his family, who had lapsed from their faith but discovered the power of the Word of God to change their lives and to bring them comfort and consolation in hard times. From their experience has come the Wednesday Word, a wonderful resource to reach out to unchurched families through the Catholic School network and help them to read the Word of God together as a family. We enclose a free copy of the Wednesday Word for you to look at. Maybe this is something you might like to show to catechists and teachers whom you know or to family members, who might have lapsed from the faith.

David Payne and the CaFE Team have been working hard to produce a wonderful series about the saints for parishes and CaFE groups for the autumn. The initial feedback has been fantastic (see insert for details). “Celebrate-ers” will also be pleased to know that the Celebrate Family week will be taking place again down in Ilfracombe during Easter week 2012 (see insert) as well as the Celebrate weekend tasters (see “Coming Events” for details).

Charismatic weeks and weekends, Life in the Spirit seminars and resources like CaFE material and the Wednesday Word are just some of the ways, the Holy Spirit is using to energize people in their Christian faith or to bring people to an initial conversion experience. Pope Benedict XVI like his predecessor Pope John Paul II has stressed the importance of this New Evangelisation, (“New in methods and new in ardour”) particularly in the Western World in the Church today. Because of this Pope Benedict has not only created a new Vatican department to promote New Evangelization, but he has also called for a synod on the New Evangelisation for the autumn of 2012. To help prepare for this a Lineamenta document has been produced. In this issue Fr Pat Collins CM introduces this Lineamenta and its different sections and Charles Whitehead exorts us to look at the document and to give feedback to the Vatican about our insights on evangelisation, particularly the role of the charisms.

One very new idea for evangelization in the summer came from Brother Loarne and Brother Paul, two Cappuchin friars based in Lancashire, who created a Eucharistic flash mob in the middle of the shopping precinct in Preston. This went viral and within days was watched by almost 100,000 people all over the world through YouTube. If you don’t know what a Eucharistic flash mob is, find out on page 12.

It is a year since the papal visit and the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman. To mark this Fr. Ian Ker reflects on how Newman’s thought anticipated the rise of ecclesial movements of the 20th century and their importance in the life of the Church today.

Key to the work of the Lord and the renewal of the Church is always the same – prayer of intercession. In an extract from the book “The Power of Intercession” by Peter Grant (now out of print) the author gives some very helpful guidelines for effective intercession. Fr Chris Thomas on the Agape page looks at the importance of listening to others in the body of Christ when trying to discern the will of God, rather than relying simply on our own understanding, which can lead us astray.

This issue you will notice is the first one at the new price of £2.50/ € 3.00 per copy (£19.95/ € 28 for an annual subscription) in UK and Ireland. This is needed to cover our ever increasing costs, but there is always a danger at times of price increase that people might stop their subscriptions altogether. Please pray that this doesn’t happen as Goodnews is one of the key ways we, in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the UK and Ireland, have of keeping all the different ministries, conferences and individuals who are all working hard for the Lord, together, and bringing this work to the attention of the wider Church.

Kristna Cooper