| 40 Years of Catholic Charismatic Renewal Worldwide. |
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There cannot be many people who have not heard of Catholic Charismatic Renewal which this month celebrates forty years since its inception. It is difficult to pin down to a few words exactly what Catholic Charismatic Renewal is as it is not a single unified worldwide movement or organisation. It does not have a single founder or group of founders or a specific apostolate and there are no membership lists.
If forced to describe it, phrases such as “living a life in the Holy Spirit” or “living in the experience of the eternal Pentecost” are often used. Central to Charismatic Renewal is Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Through this experience people are led to a personal response to God’s call, to a renewal of the graces of the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, a deeper faith and a personal declaration that Jesus id Lord. This leads each person into a deeper, renewed relationship with his or her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
At the heart of Renewal is the Pentecost experience which draws people from their ‘upper room’ to be active disciples of the Lord, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Believing that Pentecost is for now, charismatics step out in faith unwrapping and exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit as listed in 1Corinthians 12.
Many who have had this experience will testify to being filled with the joy of the Lord as prayer and praise, love of the Word of God, awe and wonder at the Eucharistic table and a desire to witness pervades their lives. In fact the renewal of the graces of the sacraments calls each charismatic Christian to be Church; to be “living stones” called into action.
Where did it begin?
The key event recognised worldwide is what has come to be known as the Duquesne Weekend in 1967. Before looking at that event it should be placed in context.
Throughout the history of the Church there have been periodic renewal movements for example those leading to the foundation of great religious orders like the Franciscans and the Dominicans. In other Christian traditions there have been revivals led by such great men as John Wesley. In the USA during the Civil War there were camp meetings and people praying for a new Pentecost. The idea that there was a need for a new Pentecost was everywhere.
During the reign of Pope Leo XIII at the turn of the twentieth century Sr. Elena Guerra a friend of the Pope wrote to him suggesting that he dedicate the new century to the Holy Spirit. Pope Leo wrote an encyclical on the Holy Spirit and brought in the new century singing “Come Holy Spirit”.
Nothing seemed to happen in the Catholic Church but at the same time as the Pope was praying a group of Methodists in Topeka, Kansas were praying and preparing themselves of for an outpouring of the Spirit.
During that meeting one young woman, Agnes Ozman, noticed that in the Acts of the Apostles people laid hands of the person who was to receive the Spirit. She asked her friends to lay hands and her and to pray. She first of all manifested the gift of tongues and soon many of the group were manifesting the gifts of prophecy, healing, interpretation of tongues etc. Following that event in 1906 spontaneous revival broke out in a mixed ethnic group in a bible study class in Azusa Street, Los Angeles. It was not long before word of this spread and although established churches closed their doors to these new Pentecostals word spread and soon the movement was to be seen over all of the United States.
During the 50’s this Pentecostal movement started to seep back into mainline protestant churches. Baptism in the Spirit they had received years earlier and seen spread throughout the country was now being seen as merely the fullness of the Christian experience.
In the Catholic Church Catholic Charismatic Renewal would probably never have happened if it were not for Vatican II. Pope John XXIII prayed, “renew your wonders in this, our day, as a new Pentecost”. The spirit of Vatican II led grass roots Catholics to meet and pray, first together, and then with their Christian brothers and sisters. It was here that some first witnessed and received Baptism in the holy Spirit.
This takes us back to the weekend in Pittsburgh. It was a retreat weekend for students and some staff of Duquesne University. Two of the staff had already had some experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit through an ecumenical prayer group.
In preparation for the weekend the 24 students were asked to read chapters 1-4 of the Acts of the Apostles and the book, “The Cross and the Switchblade”. After reading the Pentecost account they prayed for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and half the students experienced an awareness of God’s love and a newness of the graces of the sacraments of initiation and a profound sense of conversion. They were experiencing Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Those experiencing the flood of graces found a new fervour for their faith and little by little the gifts of the Holy Spirit, tongues and prophecy, began to be exercised.
Using a model from the Cursillo Movement of meetings, and teaching days and now known as Catholic Charismatic Renewal, this new movement of the Spirit quickly spread throughout the USA and beyond.
Here in Scotland.
In 1973 Ann Schneider, an Australian teaching in Aberdeen, returned to the city after a trip to Rome where she had been baptised in the Holy Spirit at a prayer meeting in the Gregorian University. She told others about her experience and her enthusiasm and fervour attracted people’s interest. Jamus and Helen Smith hosted a meeting in their home and to their surprise 50 people turned up. On 19 September 1973 the first prayer meeting was held in a cottage in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Convent in Aberdeen. Twelve people attended.
At about the same time Fr. Mark Dilworth OSB had just returned to Scotland from the States where he had been in contact with Catholic Charismatic Renewal and, being an old friend of Jamus, was soon in touch. It was not long the people from Edinburgh, Perth and Glasgow were in touch asking about this new thing. So in June the next year it was decided to hold the first one day conference in Kilgraston School, Perthshire. Fr. Mark was the main speaker and his topic was “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”.
The fledgling group organised more of these days of renewal, one of which was run by the new group in Edinburgh. The seeds of Catholic Charismatic Renewal were spreading across the nation. Always desperate to find out more about this phenomenon, a group from Scotland travelled to Manchester to a large gathering in Hopwood Hall and from this experience a prayer group was started in Glasgow.
By 1976 with more and more people joining, including a number of priests, it was felt the time was right to form a National Service Committee which was made up of core group members from across the country. One of this new committee’s first projects was to organise the first national conference which was held at Coodham near Kilmarnock in November 1977. (The national conference to be held this year will be on the thirtieth anniversary of this event.) The conference centre held 120 residents and this number more than doubled with day visitors and they kept coming. Jamus smith writing in Good News magazine some years back said,
“What happened at Coodham had no human explanation. From the outset the conference simply ‘took off’ as more and more people arrived. We realised at Coodham that things would never be the same again!”
By 1979 the conference filled the Usher Hall in Edinburgh and as David McGill, national leader for many years, reported that there were 130 prayer groups throughout Scotland. The eighties saw the numbers grow and the members mature in faith and the use of the gifts.
The nineties may best be described as a time of consolidation and although the numbers fell a little many took their gifts and fervour into their parishes and communities. The prayer groups, covenant communities and service teams grew in loving relationship, sharing their faith and ministering to people through the gifts while being mindful to reach out to the wider world.
Today, there are just fewer than 100 prayer groups in Scotland and the weekly prayer meeting is still at the heart of things. It is there charismatics gather to pray and praise the Lord, listen to the Word of God and prophecy and receive the support and strength to go out as witnesses declaring Jesus as Lord.
One major point of growth in since the millennium was a Scottish initiative. Tom Mullen, leader of the National Service Committee here, suggested that the National Service Committees of the four nations, Ireland, England Wales and Scotland, should meet together and pray. After an initial blessed meeting in Brentwood in Essex the committee of the Northern Isles was set up. This committee set about organising the biggest consultation on Catholic Charismatic Renewal there has been in the four nations. This culminated with a gathering of over 200 leaders, past and present, in the Newman Centre in Birmingham. The main facilitators of the consultation were Archbishop Kevin McDonald and Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa. Also in attendance were a group of theologians and representatives of other Christian traditions.
One memorable moment at the Newman Consultation reminded those present of the ecumenical element of renewal there from the beginning. Our brother and sisters from the other churches addressed the gathering, recognising the gift Charismatic Renewal was to the Catholic Church and to other denominations. In response the whole body of people stood and prayed over these leaders as brothers in Christ.
Another profound moment was the time spent as each nation asked forgiveness for its sins against the others. There was a deep call to this level of repentance and reconciliation and this same call has been handed on to prayer groups across the four nations to take possession of the past and heal the wounds so that Charismatic renewal can move forward.
It also became clear over that weekend that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is central and that this gift is not to be kept hidden away within prayer groups and communities but is a gift for the Church. A third call was to unity; unity within groups, communities and a renewed effort to reach out to brothers and sisters in other traditions.
So where are we now?
In obedience to the call of John Paul II and the present Pope, Catholic Charismatic Renewal is at the heart of the Church encouraging people to be open to experience the eternal Pentecost and to live their Christian vocation with renewed fervour, witnessing to a world which certainly needs the hope that is brought about by declaring Jesus as Lord. Pope Benedict, on the Vigil of Pentecost last year, called Catholic Charismatic Renewal to be faithful to its charism and to allow the breath of the Spirit to blow over the church. It is important, he emphasised, that the hierarchy and charismatic movements of the Church work together to bring Christ to the world.
Catholic Charismatic Renewal looks forward with hope to the nest forty years. Could the first forty just be the time in the desert and now be the time of the new Pentecost to reach our nation? Is that a dream? Well we were called to “launch out into the deep”. Praise the Lord!
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