As I begin to write this, I am in the Netherlands in the diocese of Den Bosch. The Sion Community have been invited by the Bishop to enter into a partnership with them to help establish parish missions along similar lines as we have in England and Ireland. It has been a very interesting experience. Whereas in UK and Ireland most Catholics tend to attend Church fairly regularly or they do not attend at all. Here in the Netherlands a lot of people are still connected to Church but they only attend on special occasions.

We trained a team of parish visitors to go and visit the families of children who were making their first Holy Communion. Out of 130 families, 110 requested a home visit. The parish priest was very surprised at the high response. The family visits were really special. We had an opportunity to share our faith, to talk about the Lord and to pray with the families. We also left them some gifts, a candle and prayer book from the parish. We then invited the families to come to Church for a pre- first-communion celebration. It was such a joy to see the large Church packed and really alive. I was astonished when I asked the priest how many of those families regularly attended Church and he said none. However, he quickly corrected himself and said one! It was therefore a brilliant opportunity to share the basic Gospel message with a Church full of people most of whom were not regular Church attenders. However, many of them were expecting something special because of the mission. The parish now hope to follow things up by doing something like an Alpha Course for the families.

In this edition of Goodnews the backdrop is the season of Pentecost and Leonard Akehurst provides an interesting reflection and perspective on this in his article. Two of the other main themes this time are prayer and youth ministry. There is of course a strong link between prayer and ministry. As the Psalmist reminds us, ‘unless the Lord builds the house in vain do the builders labour’ (Ps 127). Indeed as my present mission experience is highlighting, many of the fruits that we see in our ministry stem from a solid foundation of prayer. Fiona Hendy speaks about the power of intercession on page 23.

I was recently trying to recall how long I have been a subscriber to the Goodnews magazine. I can remember that before Goodnews the Charismatic publication was a double page newsletter. Things have certainly developed since those early days. The paradox is, however, that God is never changing but is always new! Indeed the scriptures remind us that ‘the steadfast love of the Lord never changes but his blessings are always new’ (Lamentations 3:22-23). Clearly there is an invitation to build our faith upon Jesus the rock and to be rooted in the Church. Whilst at the same time we have to be open to the new things that the Lord may want to do among us in the power of his Holy Spirit. In the next few editions of Goodnews we will be re-printing some of our favourite articles. Fr Cantalamessa’s message to Renewal from the Millennium edition is certainly worth a re-read. I have also selected an article on intercessory prayer, by Rev Michael Simpson, written sometime in the early 1990’s. In a sense, it would be wrong to say it is my ‘favourite’ article as there have been many things that I have really enjoyed reading. However, I chose this one without hesitation because it is something that, over the years, I have used very often when I have been teaching about intercessory prayer. Sometime we can understand intercession as praying for things. Whilst this is true, the article reminds us that it is also important to get ourselves in to the right place of intimacy with the Lord so that we can pray in faith and in accordance with his will.

Whenever I go into a parish and ask the question ‘what areas of parish life concern you the most?’ I can almost predict the response. What can we do to reach out to those who no longer attend our parish and secondly, where are the youth? In some parishes when you look around the usual Sunday congregations it is easy to notice that there is often a lack of teenagers and people in their early 20’s. It is easy to feel a little discouraged. However there are also some positive signs. Over the last twenty years we have seen several dioceses developing their own youth teams and in many of these there are workers who have been formed or influenced by the Charismatic Renewal. Similarly, there are many school chaplains and parish workers that have also come through the Renewal. So it is encouraging to see how we have been able to impact the Church at the grassroots level. The article by Mark Bercham, on conversion friendly youth ministry (pg 26) highlights the importance of growth in faith and conversion and this is obviously something at the heart of the CCR.

A sign of my itinerant lifestyle is that I began writing this editorial in the Netherlands and I conclude having just returned from Rome! As the president of ICCRS, I was able to be with our Focolare brothers and sisters as they mourned the death of their founder Chiara Lubich (see pg 33). It was very moving to be at Rocca di Papa on the outskirts of Rome where Chiara Lubich lived most of her life. Over a period of a few days thousands of people had passed through to pay their respects, and to truly celebrate a life well lived.

For the next edition Kristina will return to the Editors’ desk. Thankfully we have managed to keep things together in her absence but we are all looking forward to welcoming Kristina back, hopefully rested and refreshed.

Michelle Moran