President’s address - Canterbury 30th August 2014
Lord Mayor, thank you for the very warm welcome which you have given to us all here today. We are delighted that once again Canterbury Cursillo are hosting this event and it is a great pleasure to be in Canterbury and to explore your wonderful city.
Today is avery special day for those of us who are Cursillistas. It is our annual get-together when we can all, regardless of our own roles in our own Diocesan Cursillo groups, come and share in praise and worship and in listening to each other. We are able to meet up with folk from all over the UK and we can rededicate ourselves to work to further God’s Kingdom in this very troubled world.
I want to thank everyone in Canterbury Diocesan Cursillo for organising this day, for all the preparation that I know to has gone into it. I know that Billy Hollis and his team of seven have worked very hard and I am sure that we will have a wonderful day.
First of all I want to thank YOU – all of you - for travelling to the most south-eastern tip of the UK to share in this National Ultreya in the magnificent setting and surrounds of Canterbury Cathedral. It’s wonderful that so many of you are here, even if it is more than a little scary for me to see so many faces looking at me expectantly- you have no idea how hard my knees are knocking! I am always tremendously uplifted to share with so many Cursillistas from all over the UK and am always overwhelmed by the kindness, the generosity in sharing, and the efficiency and good humour of fellow Cursillistas, and I am sure that you are too. So, a very warm welcome on behalf of British Anglican Cursillo to all of you here today, I am sure that we will have a truly joyful time together.
Since this time last year when it was announced at the National Ultreya in Wakefield that I would be your new National President, I have been shadowing Lyn, attending Standing Committee meetings and BAC council meetings, and have had tremendous help and wonderfully prayerful support from her. We have met, several times, and gone over (and over again, for my benefit) things that I needed to know. As I said in my ‘BACC Pages’ letter Lyn has been an amazing President. I do not know how she coped with tremendous sadness and upheaval in her personal life and yet at the same time kept Cursillo nationally alive and well and I am, as I am sure you all are, indebted to her for her loyalty and commitment to Cursillo this last 4 years as President. So, a huge thank you to Lyn from the whole Cursillo community.
In April of this year at the closing service of Durham’s 21st weekend I was surprised to be asked to come forward by the Bishop of Jarrow, the Rt Rev. Mark Bryant. I was anointed for service in National Cursillo and prayed for by the Cursillo community in Durham and was given my beautiful St. Cuthbert’s cross to wear when on duty as National President. I am wearing it today and I wore it in May when the Presidency was handed over to me at our Annual general meeting at High Leigh in Hertfordshire.
So, what has happened since then? Well, your new Standing Committee had their first meeting yesterday and we have been looking ahead and fixing dates for future BAC events. This autumn’s full council meeting (that is all Lay directors, Spiritual Directors and BACC reps) will meet at St. Peter’s Church, Elworth at Sandbach in Cheshire on 22nd November and further information will be sent out to all council members very soon.
There will be an all-day meeting of the standing committee in Peterborough Cathedral on February 14thwhen we will have much to discuss for the future growth of Cursillo nationally.
The AGM will be held in May in Scotland when of course passports may be required, even if it is only just over the border!
As you know next year’s National Ultreya will be at Blackburn on September 5th.
You will notice that we are trying to spread the meetings around the UK as much as possible. Please could I ask you to consider if your Diocese might be willing to find a team to host an event in 2015 or 2016?As all the Diocese that have hosted BACC events in the past year will tell you, it is a huge benefit in so many ways and helps everyone to work together and is indeed an energising experience. Please do let me know if you could help in this way, we on Standing Committee would be very grateful.
I have had a full day meeting with our National Spiritual Director Rev’d Hugh Burgess and we spent a long time looking at ways in which Cursillo can best serve and help Dioceses move forward and be strengthened. As you will no doubt be aware the Dioceses of Ripon and Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield have now become one Diocese – West Yorkshire and the Dales- and of course this has had repercussions for Cursillo which is very much alive and well in all three former Dioceses. I have been privileged to attend some of their team meetings and have been most impressed with their enthusiasm and willingness to work together using their many different gifts. It has been a joy to be alongside them. They are currently working towards their first weekend together and I know they would appreciate your support in prayer as they move forward with this exciting venture. Hugh also presented a paper on Cursillo to the Bishops in Wales in the light of their 20:20 project – watch this space!
Your Standing Committee also deal with more thorny problems such as subscriptions and insurance, Lay Directors and BACC reps please look out for emails about these issues.
BACC are here to serve you and your Standing Committee would like to hear from you. Hugh and I are very happy to come and help – we are here to serve you, not just to give reports, thank goodness! We really enjoy coming to Days of Deeper Understanding, Clergy taster days, Birthdays and Anniversaries and yes, even AGMs! Please do make use of us, it is good for us to be alongside you as you develop and grow the Cursillo method. There are exciting ideas from different Dioceses, such as organising Quiet Days as a gift from a diocesan Cursillo, having a day of deeper understanding focussing on action and inviting local agencies to talk about their needs, holding joint Clergy taster days and sharing Ultreyas with a neighbouring Diocese.
You know that Hugh and I are on the standing committee, but I would now like to introduce you to the other members without whom BACC would not function since we all need each other to share ideas and make plans. Jim Webster from Cumbria is our Secretary, Steve Hills from St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, fondly referred to as Eds and Ips, is our Treasurer and Paul Thacker from the same Diocese is the new Cursillo Leader’s Workshop convenor. I am actually going on the next CLW weekend it more than 5 years since I last went and I do believe that there is always something more to learn and understand, so that God’s Kingdom can develop and grow using the tried and tested Cursillo method. Next year there will be three weekends so PLEASE book a place if you have any kind of leadership role within your Diocesan Cursillo. It may be that you are on team for a weekend or hold office on secretariat, if so then these weekends are essential for your understanding. I know that you will enjoy it and have a lot of fun in the process and return to your Diocese with renewed enthusiasm.
I would also like to introduce you to the rest of the Standing Committee. Our role is to sift through issues that arise and make recommendations to the full BAC council: all Lay Directors, Spiritual Directors and all BACC reps, in November every year. To this end we are trying to ensure that each SC member has an area comprising several Diocese so that we can be kept informed of ways in which we can help you and to facilitate links with neighbouring Dioceses through BACC reps. I’m now going to introduce them to you, and the area which they will be covering.
Jacqui Johnson (Midlands), Marilyn Shiels (Scotland and also the Registrar) , Margaret Tate (North West), Libby Bradshaw (Greater London), Julie Robinson-Judd (East Anglia), Alison Askew (Central England), Helen Taubman (Wales) and Roberta Smith(South West).
You will notice that we still need a representative for the North East and for the South East, if you, or anyone that you know has an interest in this national role, please will you let me know?
There are others who are part of BACs ‘servant community’: Jenny Neve who publishes BACC Pages on our behalf, Anne Knyhynytckyj who is our resources officer and Billy Hollis who is the webmaster.
Firstly I must apologise that it took so long to publish BACC Pages this time, gathering all the articles together over the transition period proved more of a challenge than Lyn, Jenny or I had imagined or anticipated but I hope that you will agree that the finished result, which has been sent to all LDs for distribution has been well worth the wait. Thank you Jenny. I promise that the winter edition will be out in good time, full of reports from the full BAC council meeting and news from around the Diocese, but of course I will need your contributions!
Updating and printing the resources manuals has proved to be really difficult this year and I am very sorry that there are Diocese and individuals waiting for up to date hand books and manuals. Please accept BACs apologies, we know just how frustrating it has been for you all. Lyn has been through every handbook and has put each one into more accessible wording and generally updated them all. I am indebted to her for all her hard work. They are now ready to be printed and I will be letting all of you know as soon as they are ready, so that you can contact Anne K for your copies. Thank you for your patience and tolerance in this matter. Billy continues to do a wonderful job keeping abreast of all Cursillo events and making sure that we are always up to date. Please do look at the website regularly and let him know of any forthcoming Diocesan events. Thank you Billy.
At this point I would like to remember two great supporters of Cursillo who have died during the past year: the Rev’d Gordon Tams, who did so much in Scotland and further afield and Paddy Cleaver a former past President who had the splendid idea of a biannual conference for Cursillo, and ‘Catch the Vision’ was born. There will be others from your own Dioceses who have died and we remember with thanks all that they gave to Cursillo. May they all rest in peace and rise in glory
So, what of the future for Cursillo in the UK? We have two Diocese in the Gifting process, St. David’s and Sodor and Man so we are spreading and growing and the Gifting Officers report that all is progressing well. I thank them both for the invaluable work that they are doing to ensure that Authentic Cursillo is handed on properly.
In her letter to BACC Pages Lyn challenged each and every one of us to consider, prayerfully, sponsoring someone for a weekend. I do hope that we will all be able to rise to that challenge and help Cursillo grow in each Diocese. What challenges might I offer you? I have already mentioned ways in which Cursillo might think outside their own Diocese by sharing events with neighbours, or offering to go on team if there is a need in a neighbouring Diocese. I would like to think that you could take this challenge back to your own Dioceses and see what you can do. Your area reps may be able to help you.
As I have already said attendance at CLWs is avital part of growing Cursillo, not only in each Diocese, but also nationally. It isvery important that attendance at these encouraging and reaffirming weekends is made by all who lead or hold office within each Diocese. These leaders and officers need to be really up to date with best Cursillo practice, so there’s another challenge for you!
I would also like to see more Clergy Taster Days, they really are a vital part of growing Cursillo. We have been discussing how these might be best conducted and managed and as I have said before Hugh and I will be more than willing to help with planning and advice and helping to run them.
Another way of increasing our understanding of the Cursillo method through the Prayer, Study and Action model that we are all so familiar with through our group Reunions is to hold more Days of Deeper Understanding, spreading and reinforcing all the aspects of Authentic Cursillo. If you feel that we could help you please ask Hugh and I to come and help. That is what we are here for to serve you, the national Cursillo community, we want to help you and your Diocesan Cursillo to grow leaders.
The Anglican Church needs more and more laity to support our hard pressed clergy and Cursillistas may be the very people who can take on lay roles within their own parishes, Deaneries or Diocese. Cursillistas are well placed to do this because we have been privileged to have the overwhelming experience of a Cursillo weekend and are as a result empowered to share God’s love with everyone through the Cursillo method. The more we, as Cursillistas understand through our prayer study and action, the morewe will be able to help and support clergy in the furtherance of God’s Kingdom here on earth and as Christians isn’t that what we want to do?
So, let us now go and give thanks and praise God for all that has been and all that is to come for each and every one of us. Let us thank God for the gift of Cursillo and ask His blessing on all that we do in his name and let us rejoice in sharing in all this together.
ULTREYA!