Charismatic Renewal

Website:  Nelson Diocese Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Committee

MISSION STATEMENT: We the people of God, gather under the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to experience the graces of Pentecost. 

VISION: We are called to cooperate with the enkindling fire of the Holy Spirit to bring life in the Spirit to others and in the process grow as God’s holy people.

Nelson Diocese Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Committee (NDCCRSC) is the diocesan overseer of the Catholic charismatic renewal. It governs under the authority and guidance of the Bishop of Nelson and through his representative. The committee serves the whole diocese including several parish prayer groups and organizes conferences, institutes, retreats, life in the Spirit seminars and days of renewal. It also encourages and supports individual prayer groups to have their own days of renewal, seminars and prayer breakfasts. It also offers support and encouragement for the prayer groups in their individual ministries of prayer, music and outreach. It has even offered renewal services in neighbouring dioceses.

The core committee has representatives from east and west, north and south of the Diocese of Nelson. The committee meets to plan charismatic diocesan events as well as involvement in extra-diocesan events. The bishop’s liaison is Father Sylvester Obiora (Obi) Ibekwe who was ordained October 13, 2015 and who has been a long-time supporter of the charismatic renewal. Gladys Miller of Grand Forks is the diocesan chair and Flo Reid of Cranbrook is the current provincial chair of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of BC (See below). She also represents the province of BC on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of Canada, the national committee.

The NDCCRSC, as our mission statement and vision indicate, promotes a renewal in the Holy Spirit ‘as by a new Pentecost’ to bring new life and vigor in faith to members of the Catholic Church through the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

2017 will mark the jubilee year (fifty years) of the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which began in February 1967 in a retreat centre on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA. From there it has spread around the world so that by the end of the 20th century an estimated 120 million Catholics in over 200 countries had experienced this new life in the Spirit. Pope Francis I has invited all charismatic Catholics to join him in Rome for Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2017, to celebrate this jubilee of renewal in the Holy Spirit.

For a good explanation of just what the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is see the article by Reverend Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap. Father Cantalamessa is a Capuchin Friar and was Professor of History of Ancient Christianity and Director of the Department of Religious Sciences at the Catholic University of Milan before become Preacher to the Papal Household for Pope John Paul II and continuing that position though and currently for Pope Francis I.  For more information on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, click Charismatic Renewal Brochure.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of Canada (CCRS) of B.C. is a committee of roughly 10 people from across the province - the exact number varies a bit, that in any other area of life would probably be called a governing body, in charge of the Catholic charismatic renewal in British Columbia.

The purpose of CCRS is to help fellow charismatics, especially at the prayer group level, with the central goals of the entire Catholic charismatic renewal: to foster personal conversion to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour; the baptism of the Holy Spirit; praise and the reception and use of spiritual gifts (charismata); the work of evangelization; and growth in holiness.

The aims of the committee are: service and promotion of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, under the Holy Spirit's action, having a special concern for the faithfulness to the Catholic Church of charismatic renewal participants, both individuals and groups, and for their adherence to the Church's teachings.

The committee also publishes a newsletter, maintains a web site (nanaimo.ark.com/-hspirit) and provides some financial support for the Canadian National Service committee. It meet twice a year, usually in the Lower Mainland or the Okanagan, to exchange information, set priorities, and make plans, and all members are active in charismatic events and programs in their home dioceses.
Current scheduled diocesan events:

To the Members of Charismatic Renewal Movement:  Share With All the Baptism You Have Received

Vatican City, 4 July 2015 (VIS) - Unity in diversity and ecumenism of prayer, word and blood were the key themes of the Pope's improvised address to the thousands of members of the Renewal in the Holy Spirit movement yesterday afternoon, on the occasion of their 38th National Convocation, held in Rome from 3-4 July on the theme "Ways of Unity and Peace - Voices of prayer for the martyrs of today and for a spiritual ecumenism".  The encounter began at 4 PM in St. Peter's Square, and was attended by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, along with the Orthodox and Catholic oriental Patriachs, Anglican and Lutheran bishops and Pentecostal pastors.

In his address, the Pope emphasised that unity does not mean uniformity.  It is not a "spherical" unity in which "every point is equidistant from the centre and there is no difference between one point and another.  The model is the polyhedron, which reflects the confluence of all the parts that nonetheless maintain their originality, and these are the charisms, in unity but also diversity. ... The distinction is important because we are speaking about the work of the Holy Spirit, not our own.  Unity in the diversity of expressions of reality, as many as the Holy Spirit has wished to inspire".

Another point the Holy Father considered very important to clarify related to those who guide.  "There exists a great temptation for leaders to believe themselves indispensable, step by step to head towards authoritarianism, to personality cults, and not to allow the communities renewed in the Holy Spirit to thrive.  This temptation renders 'eternal' the position of those who consider themselves indispensable.  ... We must be very clear that only the Holy Spirit is indispensable in the Church and Jesus is the only Lord.  There are no others.  ... A time limit should be established for roles in the Church, which are in reality a form of service.  An important service carried out by lay leaders is to facilitate the growth and the spiritual and pastoral maturity of those who will take their place at the end of their service.  It would be opportune for all roles of service in the Church to have a time limit - there are not lifelong leaders in the Church". 

The Holy Father asked the members of Renewal in the Holy Spirit to share with all in the Church the baptism they have received.  "It is the most important service that we can give to all in the Church", he emphasised: "helping the people of God in their personal encounter with Jesus Christ, Who transforms us into new men and women, in small groups, humble but effective, because the Spirit that works within them.  Do not focus on large-scale meetings that often go no further, but instead on the 'artisanal' relationships that derive from witness, in the family, at work, in social life, in parishes, in prayer groups, with everyone!"

Antother strong sign of the Spirit in Charismatic Renewal is the search for unity in the Body of Christ.  "You, as Charismatics, have the special grace of praying and working for Christian unity, so that the current of grace flows through all Christian Churches.  Christian unity is the work of the Holy Spirit and we must pray together.  ... We have all received the same baptism, we all follow Jesus' path.  ... We have all caused these divisions throughout history, for different reasons, but not good ones.  But now is the time that the Spirit makes us think that these divisions are a sort of 'counter-witness', and we must do all we can to walk side by side:  spiritual ecumenism, the ecumenism of prayer".

There is also another form of unity:  "the unity of the blood of martyrs, that makes us one.  There is the ecumenism of blood.  We know that those who kill Christians in hatred of Jesus Christ, before killing, do not ask: 'But are you a Lutheran, Orthodox, Evangelical, Baptist, Methodist?'  They say, 'You are Christian', and behead them.  ... Fifty years ago, Blessed Paul VI, during the canonisation of the young martyrs of Uganda, referrred to the fact that for the same reason the blood of their Anglican companion catechists had been shed.  They were Christians, they were martyrs.  Forgive me, and do not be scandalised, but they are our martyrs!  Because they gave their lives for Christ, and this is ecumenism of blood.  We must pray in memory of our common martyrs". 

Finally, there is "unity in work with the poor and the needy, who also need baptism in the Holy Spirit.  It would be good to organise seminars on life in the Spirit, along with other Christian charismatic entities for those brothers and sisters who live on the streets:  they too have the Spirit within them that pushes for someone to throw open the door from outside". 

Before imparting his final blessing, the Pope invited those present to go forth and preach the good news of Jesus "to the poor, to the marginalised, the blind, the sick, the imprisoned, to all men and women.  In each one of them there is the Spirit, Who wants to be helped to throw open the door so as to be revived.  May the Lord accompany you in this mission, always with the Bible in your hand, always with the Gospel in your pocket, with the Word of Christ".

More Information: 

• Chair, Diocesan Service Committee, Gladys Miller, Grand Forks, 250-442-8589.
• The Charismatic Renewal in Canada 2003 Pastoral Letter by the Canadian Bishops Commission of Theology  
• Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services of BC  (CCRS of BC)  - Flo Reid (Chair) contact:  250-426-7570 email
• CCRS in the Diocese of Nelson: Flo Reid (Chair) 250-426-7570 
• Pope Francis Address to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal   
• CCRS of BC Website