This article first appeared in The National
Catholic Register
Catholic Happy Clappies
By Dwight Longenecker
Our family has just enjoyed
a great week at Celebrate! –the annual Catholic Charismatic
Renewal Conference here in England. I know its difficult to
imagine, but the Charismatic Renewal is big stuff here over
here. “What!” I hear you exclaim, “the English! They
of the stiff upper lip, Her Majesty the Queen, ‘What ho dear
chap!’ and cups of china tea??!!” That’s right. Between two
and three thousand gathered for the conference. They were there
complete with praise bands, happy clappy worship, speaking
in tongues and ministry sessions where people fainted. There
was real joy, laughter, applause and tears. Not a stiff upper
lip in sight.
When I told a traditionalist friend
about this phenomena he commented, ‘I’m convinced all those
people are high on drugs.’ Funnily enough, the same comment
was made on the day of Pentecost. The apostles and their coterie
were also jabbering in tongues. They must have been staggering
about and fainting as well because observers said they were
drunk even though it was only nine o’clock in the morning.
Perhaps a certain drunken
quality is desirable within the Christian faith. Not lying-in-the-gutter
drunkenness of course, but the kind of spiritual inebriation
exhibited at Celebrate. Jesus said the kingdom would
be marked by an excess of new wine. Maybe we all ought to let
down our hair a little and get happy. So many Catholics seem
gloomy. You know the old joke…’You can tell the pillars of
the church because their faced look like stone.’ We are often
so caught up with what’s wrong with the church that we can’t
see what’s right with it. The Charismatic Renewal is confident
about the faith. It brings joy, power and zip into religion.
If dogmatics minister to the intellect, charismatics minister
to the emotions. To be whole we need both.
The Charismatic element in worship attracts
young people. 44% of the people at Celebrate! this year
were under the age of 22. Eight different streams were organised
for different age groups. A Baptist minister who attended the
young adults’ stream came into a room where 150 young men and
women knelt in silence before the Blessed Sacrament with their
arms reaching out to the altar. The Baptist minister asked
what on earth was going on. When it was explained he fell to
his knees himself and said afterward in an awestruck voice, ‘Those
kids really love Jesus! I’ve have never in my life seen anything
so beautiful and moving!’
Charles Whitehead is the Englishman who
holds it all together. A married layman and father of four, Charles
has spearheaded the movement for years. He’s spent ten years
as the President of the International Catholic Charismatic
Renewal Council with offices in Rome, and he now works with
Catholic Evangelisation Services in England and as the chairman
of an international body that advises on the use of the Charismatic
Renewal in world evangelisation.
In a recent conversation I challenged
Charles about the Charismatic Renewal. Wasn’t it too Protestant? Wasn’t
it divisive? Charles admitted that there were some problems,
but pointed out that any movement has difficulties. They simply
have to be dealt with in a mature and positive way. Charismatic
Catholics are able to show Pentecostals what it means to belong
to the historic church. Charismatics work well with Protestants,
but because they are largely orthodox in their beliefs and
loyal to the church’s teaching Catholic Charismatics are able
to explain Catholic distinctives and engage in apologetics
with Evangelicals effectively because they have gained their
trust and admiration. It is Charles’ conviction that the Catholic
Charismatic renewal has moved on. Whereas it was once shallow
and broad, it is now becoming broad and deep.
The Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost not
just to exhibit a display of supernatural power or to give
the apostles a spiritual kick. The kick was given to empower
evangelisation. It is the same today. The Charismatic movement
began in the 1950s, and this movement of the Spirit can be
seen as a precursor to the Second Vatican Council and now the
New Evangelisation. The Charismatic gifts are given to empower
evangelisation, and if they are trapped within the church and
within the lives of Christians they are not being used for
their true purpose.
It is no mistake therefore, that it is Catholic
Charismatics who are at the forefront of the New Evangelisation.
In Europe there is a range of new communtities who are enlivened
by the Charismatic movement and engaged in first rate evangelisation
efforts. Here in England The Sion Community, The Pilgrims Community,
The Community of the Open Door and The Catholic Evangelisation
Services have all sprung up to engage in pro-active evangelisation.
They publish magazines, produce the successful CaFE series
of videos and are busy promoting conferences, retreats and
missions. In the new communities the life is centred around
a cycle of Eucharist, liturgical prayer, adoration, and contemplation
as well as an exercise of the charismatic gifts and forms of
worship.
The Swiss theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar
said new charisms come ‘like a bolt of lightning from the blue,
destined to illuminate a single and original point of God’s
will for the Church in a given time.’ Whether we happen to
be a Charismatic Catholic or not we can learn much from this
exciting movement. At Pentecost 1998 John Paul II met with
350,000 people who had gathered to celebrate the new movements
in the church. The Pope called on them, and so calls to us
with these challenging words, ‘Open yourselves docilely to
the gifts of the Spirit! Accept gratefully and obediently the
charisms which the Spirit never ceases to bestow on us.’
