TRY A NEW WAY?

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Having tried for some time to encourage others in our church to experience a Cursillo weekend--- but with no success; we tried to think of new ways to interest people in Cursillo.

We had all given it a mention at some time or other during the Family Services; the leaflets were always in church, and the Cursillo display boards had been used; but all to no avail. This was very frustrating for us, after all we know we have something really wonderful to share! So we got our heads together and came up with the following 'action' plan:

1.: Identify those in our church fellowship who we thought may respond to the Cursillo method.
2.: Send an invitation to each one in the form of a letter asking them to spend an evening at one of our homes to hear about Cursillo and share a meal.
3.: Each of us to play a particular part in the presentation by giving each one of the five talks---'The History of Cursillo', 'Cursillo in the World', 'Cursillo in Chester Diocese', 'The Weekend' and 'The Fourth Day'. Two witness accounts to be given of the effects of a weekend.
4.: All of us to pray about it.

About half the number invited came along, there were ten altogether including folk from two other local churches; also with us were our Spiritual Director, Father Stephen and Carolyn Waters. Between the third and fourth talk a simple soup and buffet supper was served. A deliberate decision was taken not to use any of the 'foreign' words during the evening, such as Ultreya, De Colores, Rollos, etc; and no attempt was made to pressurise anyone to go on a weekend.

It would be really marvellous to be able to say that all our guests were immediately anxious to sign up, but two or three hope to do so next year, and the others have said many times since that they enjoyed the Christian Fellowship and that they are pleased they now know what Cursillo is, and what it does, and we feel that we are not now seen as a mysterious little group in church.

The presence of the Holy Spirit was felt strongly during the evening, and we pray that with the Lord's help, and in His good time, strong shoots will come from the seeds planted.

Keith, Sylvia, Joan, June and Gerry. St.Stephen's, Congleton.

These pages are maintained by Geoff Riley.
If you have any queries or comments about the Chester Cursillo pages, please feel free to email cursillo@arcturus\.geoffandcarole.co.uk.