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A quarterly magazine FOI No. 42 - September - October - November 2014 - 5,50 â‚Ź

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Contents

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Editorial Father Laurent Fabre

Special report 4

THE MIRACLE

OF UNITY has already started 14

Ecumenism

20

Christian Training

26

Youth pages

14 • Conversion for unity – A. Strojny 18 • Prayer

20 • Synod for the family – D. Coatanea 22 • Faith by way of balloons 24 • Interview with Bernard Bougon

26 • What success to aim for?

28 • Testimonies

30

Life in the Community

35

Young talent

30 • A world tour... Belgium 32 • Week for Communities in parishes

35 • Jeanne Dantès

FOI magazine (Fraternité Oecuménique Internationale, International Ecumenical Fraternity) is published by the Chemin Neuf Community, 10 rue Henri IV, 69287 Lyon Cedex 02, France Publication director: Fr. Laurent Fabre Executive director: Jean-Charles Paté, Editor in chief: Pascale Paté, Editorial committee: Franck Démaret, Fr. François Lestang, Marie-Farouza Maximos, Isabelle Rambert, Fr. Gabriel Roussineau, Fr. Adam Strojny. Graphic design: Annick Vermot (06 98 61 98 76), Photo credits: fotolia.com : angelo.gi, Andres Rodriguez, kasiap, herreneck, Eisenhans, M.studio, Mihai-Bogdan Lazar, creativa, bagaric, Christophe Boisson, storm, spotmatikphoto, Dossier : Nicholas Manginas, Gilbert Soobraydoo, epd-bild / Norbert Neetz, KCM TV, Frédéric Prochasson Subscriptions: Nicole Zébrowski, Administration-Management: AME, Production: Sandrine Laroche Printing : Saxoprint.fr, Registration of copyright: September 2014, CPPAP : 0315 G 83338, ISSN : 1770-5436

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Editorial The price of grace

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aradoxically, at a time when Christians are being persecuted, often very savagely, the Pope asserts in a video addressed to Pentecostals via the mediation of his friend, the Anglican bishop Tony Palmer (the video has been shown all over the world) that: “The miracle of Unity has already begun”.

It seemed to me that once again, just as at the birth of Jesus announcing the hope of Peace and Unity to all mankind, we could hear the cries of “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not”(Matt.2 v.18).

As often happens in history, the most important events, of humble and obscure beginnings, take place alongside explosions of violence: the birth of Jesus and the massacre of the holy innocents.

I do not know whether President Obama’s recent decision aiming “to eradicate the Islamic state even in Syria” will be effective. I do not know whether we are about to engage (some ten countries, including France, have given their assent) in a long war like the one of recent memory in Iraq, but I am firmly convinced that, at the same time, this small beginning, this new ecumenical attitude inaugurated by Pope Francis, is truly rich with promise.

And the two questions are not without bearing one upon the other. I have realized that indeed the greatest obstacle to Peace in the world is the division among Christians.

Each delay in the march towards Unity calls a halt to the spreading of Christ’s message. When Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace be unto you”, and instructed them “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations”, he was thinking of Peace for all mankind. Division among Christians, the division of the Body of Christ “our Peace”, is not unrelated to Peace in the world.

How can we not link two very significant events, which lead us to believe the words of Pope Francis when he says : “The miracle of Unity has already begun” ?

At the center, there is friendship, “ecumenism from the heart” as our Pope would say: the friendship between the Anglican bishop Tony Palmer and Pope Francis himself, and the friendship between the archbishop of Canterbury (Primate of the Anglican Communion) and the Chemin Neuf Community. On one side and the other you have a billion, two hundred million Roman Catholics and the ever-growing multitudes of the Pentecostal and Evangelical churches (about 750 million).

Without causing a stir, two facts that are perhaps as important as the fall of the Berlin wall have recently occurred. There is a freedom, a welcome, we could say simply a grace of the Holy Spirit, which now enables hundreds of Pentecostal leaders to rise in a standing ovation, and to pray for this Pope brought to them thanks to the video recorded on his friend, Tony Palmer’s smart phone. In simple and profound words, which we must absolutely understand in the depths of our hearts, the Pope evokes the joy of the reunion of Joseph and his brothers (cf. Genesis 45).

It seems quite simple and commonplace, just a family gathering (more than two billion baptised members!)…But God the Father has been waiting 480 years for this.

Even for the Eternal Father, 480 years is a long time! The journey is not finished, but we must trust to the Holy Spirit to accelerate along the way.

Father Laurent FaBRE Founder and leader of the Chemin Neuf Community

The odd fact is that Tony Palmer who had a truly gifted vocation as “bridge” between the Roman Catholic pontiff, his friend, and many Protestants, Pentecostals and Evangelicals, died this summer in England in motor bike accident. As we often say :“In time of war one always begins by blowing up the bridges”. How can one not think that, in Tony Palmer’s death, there is, after all, a certain logic of the spiritual combat?

The “Miracle of Unity” will also pass by the Cross as St. Paul points out so clearly in the epistle to the Ephesians 2, v13-22: “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one (…) and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

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3

6

Fr. Laurent Fabre

5 pieces of good news

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TONY PALMER

A builder of bridges

10

A SHORT HISTORY

Divisions and reconciliations

12

TESTIMONIES

Ecumenism is not optional

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special report

THe miracle

OF UNITY has already started

2014 is being seen an outstanding year for progress, sometimes spectacular, on the road to Christian unity: ecumenical friendships leading to unexpected meeting, calls for communion, theological agreements which become an integral part of the life of Churches. These have led Pope Francis to say, “The miracle of unity has started”.

In this month’s Net for God report, we are sharing five pieces of good news with you about dialogue between Christian denominations around the world. These are giving us hope that Christ’s prayer, “That they may all be one, so that the world may believe”, will be fulfilled.

Net for God is a network of prayer, training and evangelisation which was started in 2000, and which is committed to Christian unity, reconciliation and peace.

Each month a film is produced, translated into 20 languages and distributed in 72 countries worldwide to all the members of the network which constitutes the International Ecumenical Fraternity (www.netforgod.tv) The DVD of the film is on sale at ame-boutique.com

Photos: Lyon, the footbridge named after Paul Couturier, a pioneer of ecumenism. left: Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem, 25 May 2014.

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5 pieces of good news Fr. Laurent Fabre

“I am delighted to be speaking to you about something truly magnificent that is going on at the moment in the Church; it is concerned with Christian unity, an issue so close to the heart of the Abbé Paul Couturier, that prophet of ecumenism. We are experiencing an extraordinary time in the life of the Church.

Recently, in a video message addressed by Pope Francis to Evangelical Pentecostals (see inset), the Pope used a sentence, which we took as the title to this Net for God film: ‘The miracle of unity has already begun’.”

“The miracle of unity has already begun!, This is good news!”

So, I have five pieces of good news for you. Five, like the five fingers of my hand. It’s as if God was being given the use of his hand with his five fingers to bless the world and bring peace. Without this, it is as if he were paralysed by our division.

Photos: 1. Signature of the joint declaration by Lutherans and Catholics in 1999.

2 & 3. Tony Palmer and Pope Francis.

4. The Rt Rev Justin Welby welcoming the Chemin Neuf Community to Lambeth Palace.

5. Preparative work for the PanOrthodox Council in 2016.

1. 1999: the agreement between Lutherans and Catholics on justification by faith Good news number one: something that happened in 1999.

482 years after their separation, the Lutherans and the Catholics finally met and signed an agreement – since, also signed by others, such as the Methodists – on the issue of justification (see History, p 10). Very good news. “The Protest is over,” as Tony Palmer so nicely put it.

2. Reconciliation between Pentecostals and Catholics Good news number two: at the moment, some Pentecostal Evangelicals and some Catholics are coming closer together. Previously,

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in certain areas such as Latin America, and particularly Brazil, there was a bit of a war. But now, many are coming closer together, finally adopting a more Christian attitude, in the knowledge that it is only through unity that they can have a positive influence in the world.

Roughly speaking, the Catholic Church accounts for 1.3 billion people, and the Pentecostal Evangelicals come to 750 million people at the moment. If the two churches could come together, that would be very good news, wouldn’t it? That would be two thousand and fifty million Christians who would agree on ethical issues, family issues, etc. This is very important.

3. The meeting of the pan-Orthodox council in 2016 The third piece of good news: what is happening at the moment in the Orthodox churches.

The primates of the Orthodox Churches met in Istanbul at the invitation of the Patriarch of Constan-

special report 1

2

tinople, Bartholomew I, from 5 to 9 March 2014 and announced the start of a pan-Orthodox council at Pentecost 2016. Such a meeting has not taken place since the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, that is, prior to the separation of the Roman Catholic Church.

Our Orthodox brothers, the fourteen patriarchates, had not met all together for a real council for 1227 years. And this is very good news.

Something is happening in the Orthodox Churches. Perhaps the Orthodox Churches might finally manage to start walking in step. If this work towards unity is concluded in this council in two years’ time, this will be a fantastic boost for the unity of the body of Christ, because if the Orthodox Churches can agree, then the next step, forming an agreement for unity with the Catholics would be very easy. Maybe the painful issue of Ukraine is at the heart of this urgency for a meeting. Sometimes the Holy Spirit uses historical disputes to bring reconciliation.

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4. The Unity being experienced through the invitation of the Chemin Neuf to Lambeth Palace.

The fourth piece of good news: the thing that is currently happening between the Catholics and the Anglicans. We are well placed to talk about this because the Chemin Neuf Community has been invited to live in Lambeth Palace, the “Anglican Vatican”, in the centre of London. A fraternity group of our Chemin Neuf Community is in permanent residence there with the purpose of serving our Anglican brothers and sharing their desire for long-lost unity.

This fraternity group of the Chemin Neuf Community, whose members are Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Anglican, has been installed officially in the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of the Anglican Communion. This was an ecumenical event without precedent. This is the first time for 480 years, when the separation of the Roman Catholics and the Anglicans occurred, that a member of the Roman Catholic Church

has lived in this place. “I think that the presence of Catholics and Lutherans who are here to pray as members of the community which we constitute, not as guests but as an integral part of the community, is more that a sign or a symbol. It is a lived experience.

Unity has been established by Christ.

In Christ, we are one. We do not have to search for unity; it is here, we must live it.” (Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury).

5. Is the conversion of the Catholic Church is under way?

And finally, the last piece of good news, which is particularly dear to me because I am a Catholic: I have the impression that the Catholic Church is undergoing a complete renewal, and that this pope has an extraordinary charism, and extraordinary courage.

We must really join our prayers to his, because with this man the Catholic Church may be able to take the step Jesus is waiting for – conversion. Jesus Christ cannot regain the five fingers of his hand unless there is a conversion of all our churches. v

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Tony Palmer

A builder of bridges between Catholics and Evangelicals

Dear brothers and sisters, Excuse me for speaking to you in Italian

A video was released in February 2014, which created a stir on the internet and astonished the whole world: it was a six minute message from Pope Francis to American Evangelical leaders who were meeting at a congress in Texas. In this video, the Pope spoke to them, “… as a brother, with joy, and longing as well, that our separation might come to an end and that we could share communion”. This language “from the heart” touched the whole assembly, and Pastor Kenneth Copeland replied to the request from the Pope for their prayers in a video filmed there and then.

The originator of this unheard of event was Tony Palmer, a South Africa. He was a bishop in the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (the CEEC), and with his wife, Emiliana, a Catholic, he had founded an ecumenical community, “The Ark Community”. In 2006, in Argentina, he had met Cardinal Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, during a charismatic evangelical convention. They stayed in regular contact, and Cardinal Bergoglio became his true spiritual father.

And then, on 13 March 2013, Cardinal Bergoglio became Pope. Tony Palmer was well aware of his good fortune in having this relationship and the blessing it had had brought him, but also that from now on, the new responsibilities of his friend would create a greater distance between them.

But some months later, he received a phone call from Pope Francis to come to meet him him Rome...

And it was during this meeting that Tony Palmer would record the message from the Pope to the Evangelicals with his smart phone, and to release it a week later in the U.S.A. And that appeal for fraternity was did not end there; on 24 June 2014, he organised a new meeting between Pope Francis and a

On line video: “Message from Pope Francis to Kenneth Copeland, American charismatic leader”

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delegation of evangelical and charismatic leaders which included Geoff Tunnicliffe, the President of the World Evangelical Alliance and some well known preachers and televangelists, including Kenneth Copeland.

During this meeting, Tony Palmer and the Evangelical leaders made a proposal to the Pope, a project for a “declaration of faith in the unity of mission” which could be signed in 2017 by the leaders of the large Protestant Churches on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

This would have three components: the Nicene creed, the essential points of the Joint Declaration on Justification of 1999 and a final part stating that henceforth Catholics and Protestants are “united in mission because we announce the same Gospel”.

Some weeks later, on 26 July, Pope Francis paid a visit to another of his friends, the Pentecostal Pastor Traettino, in Caserte, Italy. This is the first time ever that a pope had gone to a Pentecostal Church, and this visit resulted in a step forward being taken in achieving forgiveness between Catholics and Pentecostals. Tony Palmer should have gone with him. But early in the morning of Sunday 20 July, he was the victim of a severe motor cycle accident on a road in England.

He did not survive his injuries.

At his funeral which took place in Bath on the 6 August, his wife read a message from his friend, Pope Francis, “We were great friends. His fraternal and filial friendship did me a great deal of good. I retain the memory of a free man who lived in the freedom of the Spirit. He sought with impatience and without respite, the unity of the body of Christ that was torn and broken apart as a result of our sins.

His legacy is precious for us all. It is the legacy of the desire that Jesus expressed in John 17.

special report “I believe that we shall soon see more and more people being called to go out into the world and to work among the Churches in the spirit of Elijah to ‘turn the hearts of the fathers towards the sons and the hearts of the sons towards the fathers,’ to truly, ‘make ready for the Lord a people prepared’ (cf. Lk 1, 17) through ministries of reconciliation.

We must commit as many resources to the ministry of reconciliation as we are doing for evangelisation.

Or are we building walls that have no foundations? I’m issuing you with a challenge: find a builder of bridges and support him.”

Tony Palmer

Tony Palmer

Those of us who loved him feel themselves being driven forward through his zeal, to follow in his footsteps, to walk without resting to prepare the bride, the unique bride for the bridegroom who is to come”.

A few days before his death, Tony Palmer sent an e-mail to Net for God to thank us for sending him the film, “The miracle of unity”. He told us that he had just been to South Africa to “spread the virus of unity” there. May each one of us hear this call to build bridges between our churches, to burn with this desire for the visible unity of the body of Christ. “Father... that they may all be one,...so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17,21). v Fr. Gabriel Roussineau

The meeting of 24 June 2014 between Pope Francis and some Evangelical and Charismatic leaders including Geoff Tunnicliffe and Kenneth Copeland

Sources: - “Pope’s friendship with late Evangelical leader Tony Palmer”, Philippa Hitchen, Vatican Radio, www.news.va/en/news/ popes-friendship-with-late-evangelical-leader-tony, 25 juillet 2014.

- “Pope’s Protestant friend dies, but push for unity lives”, Austen Ivereigh, The Boston Globe, 7 août 2014.

- “Pope Francis’ fulsome tribute to evangelical bishop”, Christopher Lamb, The Tablet, 8 août 2014.

On 24 June 2014, Tony Palmer and the Evangelical leaders made a proposal to the Pope, a project for a “declaration of faith in the unity of mission”, which could be signed in 2017 by the leaders of the large Protestant Churches on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

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A SHORT HISTORY

of the divisions and acts of reconciliation that have taken place in the Churches Fr. Gabriel Roussineau Pentecost marks the moment of the birth of the Church; The disciples of Jesus are together and are filled with the Holy Spirit, and they announce the death and resurrection of Christ with confidence to the Jews and to the pagans.

However, the differences between the Jews who are faithful to the Torah and the disciples of Christ widen little by little, until a complete break occurs.

The Gospel spreads from Jerusalem to the big cities of the Roman empire, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople. These become the five historic patriarchies who develop their own ecclesiastical traditions.

Christian unity is maintained but at the cost of strong tensions.

One can say that there has been a big split every five centuries.

The first one took place in the fifth century, when the Councils of Ephesus in 431, then of Chalcedon in 451 were seeking to define more exactly the double nature of Christ, true God and true man united in one person.

There were political rivalries at the time and also misunderstandings in the teachings of these councils – in large part due to divergences in the philosophical and theological language used – and these led to this first separation between the Oriental Churches.

Five centuries later, in a context of political and cultural rivalries between Rome and Constantinople, new dogmatic misunderstandings emerged; the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome excommunicated

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one another in 1054, leading to the Great Schism between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, between East and West.

And five centuries later, a third split occurred, this time, this time within the Western Church. On 31 October 1517, Luther put up his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg. This was the point of departure for the protestant reformation in Europe. Catholics and Protestants separated, in particular on the question on the way in which man was justified, that is to say made just by the grace of God through faith in Christ, and of the place of good works in salvation.

In 1534, in England, King Henry VIII claimed his sovereignity over the Church in confrontation with the pope and made himself head of the Church of England.

The Anglican communion has kept a number of its original traditions that are catholic rather than protestant.

“The body of my Son, the body of my Son has been broken apart.”

But five centuries later, the Holy Spirit will create a powerful movement against the divisions in the body of Christ. The twentieth century will be the one for ecumenism and will be marked by some decisive stages; the Edinburgh conference in 1910, attended by protestant and Anglican missionaries, the

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creation of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in 1948, and the opening of the Vatican council in 1962, which committed the Catholic Church to the ecumenical movement.

The meeting that took place between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople in 1964 marked the beginning of the process of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The following year, the excommunications of 1054 were lifted.

On 25 May 2014, Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I met in Jerusalem to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that historic meeting.

And on 31 October 1999, after centuries of division and incomprehension, an accord was signed between the Catholic Church and the Federation of Lutheran Churches, marking a decisive turning point in ecumenical dialogue. v Edinburgh Conference 1910

special report LIFE IN FRATERNITY AT Lambeth Palace Ula Michlowicz, Polish consecrated sister, Catholic.

“

For me, it is like entering into the joy of the Lord: for this project, for ourselves, for the Church, for Christian unity. It is an invitation to open my heart wide open and to enter into the joy of Christ”.

Oliver Matri, German, Lutheran, member of

“ JOINT DECLARATION ON THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

by the World Lutheran Federation and the Catholic Church 15. Our common faith proclaims that justification is the work of the Trinitarian God. The Father sent his Son into the world for the salvation of sinners. The incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ are the foundation and prerequisite of justification. From this fact, justification signifies that Christ himself is our justice, for we share in this justice through the Holy Spirit and according to the will of the Father. We confess together: it is only by grace by means of faith in the saving action of Christ, and not on the basis of our merit, that we are accepted by God and that we receive the Holy Spirit which renews our hearts, lives within us and calls us to accomplish good works.

“

the Chemin Neuf Communityf.

When I learnt that I would be living in Lambeth Palace, I was very enthusiastic, especially because of the idea of being able to pray in the heart of another Church than my own, and to be able to pray for the unity of that Church and also for the unity of the universal Church.”

I think that having Catholics and Lutherans praying here as members of our community, not as guests but as an integral part of the community, is much more than a sign or a symbol. It is a lived reality. Unity has been established for us through Christ. In Christ we are one. We do not have to search for unity, it is here. We must live it.”

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

18. Together, Lutherans and Catholics aim to confess Christ everywhere, to put their confidence in him alone for he is the sole mediator (1 Tim 2, 5ff.) through whom God gives himself in the Holy Spirit and gives his constantly renewed gifts.

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Liverpool “ Ecumenism is not optional ” In the week before Pentecost, I had the pleasure of going on a mission to Liverpool, with four other brothers and sisters who had followed the Cycle C at Hautecombe Abbey, to help the community in England lead three days of prayer, to ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit and pray for Christian Unity.

Liverpool is indeed a pioneer city for ecumenism. To begin with, in a country with an Anglican majority, it is a city with a strong Catholic community but also with many other Churches, Evangelical, Baptist … Thus, the two cathedrals, Anglican and Catholic, built in the XXth century, are situated face to face at opposite ends of Hope Street.

This very particular situation allowed the city to become bit by bit a real laboratory of ecumenical practice. This dynamic has been visible since 1982: every two years, a celebration unites the two cathedrals at Pentecost.

This year, the local Churches asked the Chemin Neuf community to lead three days of prayer before the event: a time of continual prayer in the two cathedrals, a group for charismatic prayer in the Catholic cathedral, the presentation of a film “Net for God” in the Anglican cathedral, an ecumeni-

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cal conference on the Holy Spirit and Unity and participation in an evening of praise in an Evangelical church on Saturday.

Out of those few days I remember two high points. First, that evening of praise and prayer with the “Temple of Praise”, where I was able, in a brief witness, to share the experience of the action of the Holy Spirit in my life.

It was for me a real experience of the Holy Spirit: it was the first time that I witnessed that way in a language which is not my own, English!

Before I spoke, I took a little time for prayer to place myself in the hands of the Lord and I received this word from the book of Samuel:” The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me: his word was on my tongue.” (2 Sam 23, 2).

And I believe that word truly came to be!

And, of course, the Pentecost celebration, with authorities from many Churches from the region, beginning in the Anglican cathedral, then a procession in Hope Street to the Catholic cathedral where the celebration closed with words from the Catholic bishop of Liverpool.

For me, it was a great joy to be able to actually work for unity, to put into

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a concrete form the prayer for unity that we recite every day. In those three days, we were able to meet several Liverpool Churches, share with Christians of every sort, and witness together to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. For the life of the Church in Liverpool, ecumenism is not an option but an ever present reality! It was for me a superb confirmation through experience of that call to give my life for the Unity of his Body. v Nicolas Rhoné

Photos: above: the Catholic

cathedral of Liverpool, right: a time of active prayer in the Anglican cathedral of Liverpool, centre: brothers and sisters from the Chemin Neuf

special report Bernard SESBOUé

“ W

e are living at a turning-point between the moment when ecumenism secreted its own institutions for meeting and action and that where it began to work for the reconciliation between Church institutions. Our task is to replace the noun by the adjective: it is no longer a question of “doing ecumenism”, but of integrating the ecumenical task into everything we do. Thence it is important that ecumenism should not appear to be the job of a few “professionals”.

It

is necessary to have some “full-time workers” for the ecumenical task. But it is no less a requirement that the leaders in ecumenism be also leaders in the life and internal research of their own Churches. Correlatively, today’s problem is no doubt not to unite Christians on ecumenical questions but to unite them in an ecumenical spirit on questions of faith.

Can the ecumenical project not be today a place for the discovery of Christian identity?”

Bernard SESBOÜE, S.J., La patience et l’utopie, (Patience and Utopia) DDB, Paris, 2006, p.28

Biblio

graphie

Bernard SESBOÜE, La Patience et l’utopie : jalons œcuméniques, DDB, Paris, 2006

Père René GIRAULT and Pasteur Albert NICOLAS, Sans tricher ni trahir sur la grande route œcuménique, Cerf, Paris, 1985

GROUPE DES DOMBES, Communion et conversion des Eglises, Bayard, Paris, 2014

Elisabeth PARMENTIER, Michel DENEKEN, Catholiques et protestants, théologiens du Christ au XXème siècle, Mame, Paris, 2009

(Available in French but not in English)

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Ecume

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Four models of Unity

Conversion for unity Is simply wanting to move towards unity sufficient to achieve it? Over the course of history there have been different models of unity, but today it’s impossible to envisage ecumenism without talking about conversion.

Here is some teaching given by Fr. Laurent Fabre, inspired by Construire l’Eglise une (Building One Church), written by René Girault, For the Conversion of the Churches, published by the Dombes Group and various Catholic Church documents.

Fr. Adam STROJNY, ccn Professeur de Theology

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Nobody can deny Christ’s will for his disciples “That all of them may be one” (John 17, 21).

Christianity’s two-thousand-year history has seen various divisions and schisms among Christians, but also various attempts to move towards Church unity.

Divisions among Christians contradict God’s plan for his People to work towards the reconciliation of humanity.

The unity God desires is no unity on the cheap, but unity based on the model at the very bosom of God, the unity of the Trinity, “just as you are in me and I am in you”, says Christ in his prayer to the Father. “Then the world will know”, which means that divisions among Christians act as a counter-witness and an obstacle to people accepting the Good News of the Gospel. Protestant missionaries meeting in Edinburgh in 1910 realised this, and it was the message of the Patriarch of Constantinople’s encyclical in 1920.

After the drama of the Second World War this realisation paved the way for the founding of the World Council of Churches. At this time, the Church of Rome remained on its guard, because it feared that ecumenism would lead to compromise on the truth of faith and imply the notion of the Church as a federation.

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However, little by little it came to see that the ecumenical movement was the work of the Holy Spirit (1). It was the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) that was to mark the Catholic Church’s irreversible and irrevocable commitment to the common goal of seeking a new unity among Christians and which was to indicate the principles of this commitment (see the decree Unitatis Redintegratio). Just very recently Pope Francis didn’t hesitate to remind us that “in a Christian community, division is one of the most serious sins, because it is, in fact, not a sign of God’s work, but of the devil’s (2)”, hence the call to us all to play an active part in the ecumenical effort.

“Division is one of the most serious sins, because it is, in fact, not a sign of God’s work, but of the devil’s” Pope François

However, a clear awareness of the need to move towards unity isn’t enough to lead us concretely along this path.

From studying the history of relations between Christian Churches, we can identify four different models or stages in how the path towards unit is perceived.

nismEcumenism

Ecumenism

Ecumenism

Some interesting but limited models…

1. Unity by converting the other For a long time, each Church expected “the return of the others” and each one issued a call to conversion.

The Catholic Church expected the return of its prodigal sons, opening wide its gates and inviting the lost sheep to come back to the fold…. prepared to welcome them back. It lacked neither sincerity nor generosity in this benevolent expectation. The problem was that Orthodox Christians wanted the same thing, that those who had added elements to or removed them from the Orthodox faith should return to real Christian Orthodoxy…

And the Protestants didn’t stop calling all brothers to reform, which, after four centuries, should finally engulf the whole of Christianity. As a result, nobody budged…

2. “Insurmountable walls” and unity as a mystery After the atrocities of the Second World War, when many Christians of diverse denominations had experienced, at the heart of the distress, a genuine sharing of the same faith, a conviction inspired by Pastor Marc Boegner started to make an impression: the walls of separation aren’t as high as heaven.

It was understood that, even if our Churches remained divided at the institutional level because of insurmountable walls, the Lord made spiritual unity possible. It’s a mystery of that grace that is stronger than men’s sin.

And it’s right now that we can and must experience this unity given to us by the Lord. This is undoubtedly a very positive conviction, shared, for example, by those who experience unity at the heart of interdenominational marriages.

However, we must ask ourselves the question, is it enough? Do we have the right to give up on unity which can’t find any visible means of expression? Is it possible that Christ’s prayer will only be answered in heaven? We need this unity to be visible now on this earth, in the middle of this world! >>>

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Church

towards a common vision Hautecombe Abbey From Thursday 6pm to Sunday 5pm

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March 2015

The Church: towards a common vision was published in autumn 2013.

This text emanates from the Faith and Order commission, the theological arm of the World Council of Churches and a commission of which the Roman Catholic Church is a fully-fledged member.

This text shows the points of convergence shared by all Christian Churches, and from which they are to work towards a consensus which will make it possible to move forward along the path of a common understanding within the Church; the session aims to acknowledge this progress and to talk about the major contributions.

We will work on this text together in a fraternal dialogue between our different Christian families and thus contribute to its acceptance.

André BIRMELé

Faculty of Protestant Theology, University of Strasbourg

Frans BOUWEN Society of the Missionaries of Africa, Specialist in Oriental Churches and in dialogue with Christian Oriental Churches

ecumenical training session

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3. “Let us take each other as we are.”

Hence the third model, the third stage: let us take one another as we are! Let us accept one another with our differences, differences in which we can recognise the beauty of variety. We don’t want uniformity, so let us recognise together that our practices and teachings are equally legitimate.

Indeed, theological discussions at various levels have led to the realisation that several differences should no longer be considered as divisive.

Today we are learning to highlight what brings us closer together and to try and understand the intentions and message another wants to communicate, to go beyond a partial reading of their position and to identify with the part of the truth they embody. The other is no longer an enemy threatening me, but my brother, from whom I can learn because he’s different from me.In the exchange of gifts, we can grow and enrich one another (3).

Ecume

There is still the challenge of knowing how to transform the divisive nature of our differences into a testimony to the beauty of Christ’s united but differentiated body. We need to recognise the points which continue to be a source of conflict between us. Some points of sacramental theology and ecclesiology, especially understanding ecclesial ministry, continue to divide the West and the East. While it’s true that these points don’t lie at the heart of the Christian mystery (i.e. the mystery of Christ and the Trinity), they are important.

Christians, particularly young ones, have had enough of our divisions.They would like to get rid of this unfortunate legacy of discussions, misunderstandings, shame and hatred.

Steps towards reconciliation and fraternal acceptance, feet-washing gestures have been achieved by those who, 50 years earlier, would have considered one another heretics and non-Christians!

All three models have several virtues, but none of them seems to be totally coherent with God’s plan for unity. Neither the model of absorption, nor that of the mystery of spiritual unity beyond insurmountable walls, nor that of pluralism (“let’s take one another as we are”) will take us far enough.

No unity without conversion n 1990, René Girault, after presenting these last three models, suggested a fourth one. This one was then further developed in the study by the Dombes Group in 1991, For the Conversion of the Churches. The Second Vatican Council had already said: “There can be no real

“Even after the many sins which have created historic divisions, Christian unity is possible as long as we are humbly aware that we have sinned against unity and that our conversion is necessary.” Ut unum sint

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ecumenism without interior conversion. Indeed, yearnings for unity are born out of and mature from renewal of the spirit, self-denial and a generous effusion of charity. Consequently, we must ask the Holy Spirit for the grace of sincere self-sacrifice, of humility, of meekness in service and of fraternal generosity towards others.” (UR 7).

“There can be no real ecumenism without interior conversion.”

Unitatis Redintegratio, 7

The Council accepts the need for “Church renewal, consisting mainly in being more faithful to its vocation (…) in moral matters, ecclesiastical discipline or even in the formulation of doctrine, which must be carefully differentiated from its deposit.” (UR 6).

Back in 1995, Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Ut unum sint, clearly talked about personal and community conversion, as well as the dialogue of conversion between Churches. He stated: “Even after the many sins which have created historic divisions, Christian unity is possible as long as we are humbly aware that we have sinned against unity and that our conversion is necessary. It is not only personal sin which has to be forgiven and surmounted, but also so-

nismEcumenism

Ecumenism

Ecumenism

1999 : Common declaration on the doctrine of justification

2016 : Pan-Orthodox Council

2014 : Lambeth Palace

METANOIA

cial sin, in a manner of speaking the very structure of sin, which has led to and can lead to division and confirm it (4).”

We are all sinners, and we all need to be forgiven. It is by focusing on Christ, by experiencing our own conversion to Christ and the Gospel that we can really draw closer to one another. Christ is the only relevant model. Instead of waiting for the conversion of others, I must experience my own conversion.

Each step towards Christ, which makes our lives more evangelical, so more Christian, immediately brings us closer to our Christian brothers. The fruit of this path is the progressive appearance of common areas where, right now, we can really live in unity: praying, evangelising and serving God’s Kingdom together. We need the same attitude as Christ who “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing, (…) he humbled himself” (Philippians 2, 6-8). It was also the path taken by Peter and Paul. By acknowledging their

sin, their weakness and their fragility, they were able to receive the great mission in which the power of God is displayed unceasingly (see 2 Corinthians 12).

The more we are convinced we are the custodians and beneficiaries of God’s gifts, the more we have to be converted in order to be really and visibly what we are by grace: God’s children, members of the single body of Christ. v

mations of and deviations from its true identity (partisan forms, a superiority complex, collective sin, etc.); it can always, as a body and in each of its members, become opaque and even contradict the Christian message it bears”, For the Conversion of the Churches (1991), n° 25. l Illustrations : Dominika Ercsey, Chemin Neuf Community

1. The Holy Office’s decree of 1949 described for the first time the ecumenical movement as being “a fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work”. With respect to Pius XI’s encyclical Mortalium animos of 1928, it was the symbol of a new conscience which would pave the way for the ecumenical opening session of the Second Vatican Council.

2. The catechesis of Pope Francis during the General Audience on 27 August 2014, in St Peter’s Square.

3. The same John Paul II wrote in Ut unum sint in 1985: “Because, in his infinite mercy, God can always draw good out of situations that contradict his plan, we can discover that the Holy Spirit has made sure that, in some circumstances, opposition serves to clarify various aspects of the Christian vocation, as happens in the lives of saints. Despite the separations, which are an evil we must put an end to, a sort of communication on the abundance of grace has, however, been achieved and it is destined to embellish koinônia”.

4. UUS 34. In turn, the Dombes Group acknowledged, “Unless the Church manages to go beyond promises of eternal life, it will remain vulnerable to psychological data: it can experience defor-

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prayer

Prayer

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Prayer Praye

Prayer

“May all be as one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me— so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

John 17, 21 Chora Basilica, Istanbul, mosaic of Jesus’s genealogy

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Christian Training

Synod of Catholic Bishops on the Family

The church listens to families An extraordinary Synod of Bishops is due to place in Rome between October 5th and 19th. It will focus on the “pastoral challenges facing families in the context of evangelization”. Pope Francis has chosen to open up a new field of “dialogue” within the Catholic Church on a vital area which touches the life of men and women of “goodwill”: the question of the family.

Dominique COATANEA

Holder of a PhD in Theology and senior lecturer at the Catholic University of Lyons, Dominique Coatanea coordinates the University’s Research Centre in Social Enterprise.

She is married with children.

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The second Vatican Council, in particular its pastoral constitution “Gaudium et Spes”, has identified family issues as fundamental to social life: it is within families that all of us learn what it is to be son, daughter, brother, sister. This very concrete, “incarnate”, experience of filiation and fraternity is precious because it underpins the very foundations of social, political and economic life.

“The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity.” (Gaudium et Spes, 52) “Thus the family, in which the various generations come together and help one another grow wiser and harmonize personal rights with the other requirements of social life, is the foundation of society.” (Gaudium et Spes, 52) Putting in place this “dialogue” ahead of the Synod on the family is proving to be a truly innovative process which is unfolding in several stages. The first took place in October 2013 with the publication of a preparatory document containing a wide-ranging questionnaire sent to every diocese. The main text consisted of 39 questions classified under 9 headings. (www.vatican. va). Answers to this questionnaire were collected and sent to Rome by the various bishops’ conferences, and the result was published on 26th June 2014 in the form of an Instrumentum laboris (working document). Each bishop had full latitude to consult his family pas-

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toral care workers, family life experts, or just people who are interested. The only constraint was to send the contributions to the Synod’s Secretariat by the end of January 2014. Given the tight deadline, consultations in the dioceses took a variety of forms, from wholesale “conferences on family pastoral care” to individual consultations carried out by family pastoral care workers, in order to send back a concerted response to the questions asked.

«This vast consultation process is a new departure»

It was thus the job of the various national bishops’ conferences to collect and summarize the questionnaire’s answers prior to sending them to Rome. Each one had to decide whether or not to publicize the results of this vast consultation ahead of the Extraordinary General Assembly of 5th -19th October 2014.

It is the Assembly that will undertake a collegial study of the data gathered and presented by the Secretariat in order to establish the “status quaestionnis” (the state of investigation). It will gather together the testimonies and proposals that the various bishops are making in order to proclaim and live the Gospel of the Family in a credible manner.

an training training an training who have experienced the failure of their marriage, and think anew about the possibility of admitting them again to the sacraments4.”

“To come to some idea of how to respond to the new demands in the People of God, the following three main areas are under discussion in the Church: how the Gospel of the Family can be preached in the present-day; how the Church’s pastoral care programme for the family might better respond to the new challenges today; how to assist parents in developing a mentality of openness to life and in bringing up their children.”1 The last stage will take place in 2015 when the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will choose the best actions to take in order to promote the pastoral care of the human person and of the family.

This vast consultation process is a new departure for the Catholic Church, opening up an innovative forum for discussing controversial social issues. Let us focus on just one aspect: the various ways in which the bishops’ conferences have chosen to make public – or not – their consultation of people at the grass root level. m The Canadian Bishops’ Conference2,

is representative of most episcopates.

It chose not to publish the summary it sent to Rome, thus following the normal procedure of elaborating the Instrumentum laboris. It simply put out in the press a few elements of the content and form of the answers received: the size of the response, which underlines how

important this subject is; the Church’s high praise for the commitment and impressive witness of married couples and families in a fast-changing society marked by economic difficulties; the ignorance of many Catholics about the valuable and positive teaching of the Church concerning marriage “which might open up a worrying gap between the Church’s teaching and the opinion of many Catholics”3; the often-repeated wish that “the Church should present its teaching in a more effective way and that she should reconsider some aspects of its discipline in certain areas”. m The Bishops’ Conferences of Swit-

zerland, Germany, Holland and Japan chose to publish the entire text of their summary. The German text highlights the many ways in which the Church supports families (schools, crèches, follow-on care of couples and of families), really appreciated by the faithful, but admits that this is made easier by the concordat agreement with the state.

However, it also points out what the faithful are hoping for: a renewal of the pastoral care of divorced and remarried couples with access under certain conditions to the sacraments; a clarification of the grounding and vocabulary of the Church’s sexual morality; an acceptance that human relationships sometimes fail.

In their last paragraph the German bishops stress that it is necessary “to find a place within the Church for people

m The Japanese Bishops’ Conference (0,35 % of the population is Catholic) for its part underlines the potential risk of misunderstanding those social and cultural background issues that have a big impact on the evangelization of families. Their published text highlights an exceptional and specific challenge their country faces: a work ethic so strong that it does not make family life a priority. This leads to meals rarely shared, children left alone, no fellowship, many left isolated with few opportunities to love others or be loved… The bishops point out to the authors of the questionnaire that they had drawn it up with the assumption that all families are Christian, which is not the case in Japan!

However, weddings and funerals are cultural events which everyone attends.

They ought to be viewed as opportunities for evangelizing, using hospitality and kindness as openings. “The Church must be a haven of peace for those who are worn out by their lifestyle. Our celebrations can provide an experience of this haven.5”

The Synod’s long and careful reflection underlines how much the Instrumentum laboris is but a starting point: listening to the way God’s people really live their lives, listening to their worries and their hopes, and sensitively discerning the work of the Spirit in the world. This is the task that is entrusted the Synod fathers. They are expected to undertake it in accordance with the spirit of the gospel that is blowing through the Catholic world… Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will give our pastors His light as they hear this call for dialogue. v 1. See Instrumentum Laboris 158 (www.vatican.va) 2. Statement by the Rt Rev. Patrick Powers, Secretary General, on 5th February 2014: “A synthesis of answers to the questions of the preparatory document received by bishops and dioceses in Canada prepared and sent to the Holy See” 3. See website of Canadian Bishops Conference.

4. Site of the Conference of German Bishops Deutsche Bischofskonferenz (DBK).

5. Site of Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan

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Christian Training

Comic books and evangelisation

Faith by way of the balloons Christian comic books account for almost a quarter of the sales of comic books nation-wide. An analysis of this result shows that the classic stories taken from the Bible or from the lives of the great saints make up the majority. More innovative ideas however, are to be found in the works of authors whose “passion for the balloons” inspires them to bear witness to their faith in more unusual ways.

Gilles LELUC, journalist

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“Bande Dessinée” meaning a comic book or strip cartoon is more familiarly known simply as BD, initials that could also stand for “Bon Dieu” i.e. “good Lord!” - just a gentle, light hearted reminder of the world of the balloons that so often captured and excited a child.

The picture book is without question a teaching aid and the frescoes or wall paintings in our churches, like the stained glass windows which in olden times helped to explain the Bible to the faithful, bear witness to the fact.

In the last century, authors working in this genre, those at least who felt concerned with the issue, quite rightly thought that comic books possessed all the necessary qualities for teaching the faith to younger children. In Belgium, the country that pioneered comic books, the cartoonist Jijé sketched out the life of Don Bosco in the Journal de Spiro as early as 1941. A few years later he launched out again, publishing with Dupuis editions, Emmanuel, une vie de Jesus, based on a scenario by Abbé Balthasar.

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The Bible in manga Other Belgian and French speaking authors were quick to follow and the movement spread. Comic books adopted more varied styles and scenarios.

Christian comics followed the trend and began to appear in different formats, in hundreds of languages, such as the recent edition of the Bible in manga – the typical Japanese comic strip which reads from right to left and which now enjoys world wide popularity. The drawings in this Bible were the work of converted Christians; it has been produced in 17 languages with up to several million copies printed.

Given this increasingly rapid growth, one might cherish great hopes for the conversion of young people and adolescents. Roland Francart, a Jesuit brother in the Saint-Ignatius community in Brussels, Belgium, and director of the religious Centre for information and analysis of comics (CRIABD), has a more considered attitude to this apparent success. From the list of works submit-

an training training an training ted for the Gabriel prize, awarded annually by the Centre for the best Christian comic book, the brother observes, “We selected only about twenty titles last year in view of their content, as far as both drawings and scenarios were concerned”.

To ensure a better assessment of the quality of the books, CRIABD proposes a clearing house and critical review covering all recently edited titles that would seem to make sense.

“Evangelising the realm of my imagination” Christophe Hadevis What makes sense for their authors is indeed the transmission, through subject matter perhaps not directly religious, of the inner experience of faith, which the reader will encounter, as he turns the pages, in a drawing, in a text or in the characters in the story.

In order to touch as many people as possible? Not necessarily. Christophe Hadevis, a priest and writer of scenarios for comic books, who already has four

albums to his credit, sums up soberly, “I sow the seed”. For the reader certainly, but not only. A passionate reader of comics and film-goer from his early years, Christophe Hadevis explains why he likes to work with non Christian artists, “in the hope that they might be touched themselves” by the subject they are putting into pictures and colours. “A sharing of faith for one person” that corresponds to the need to “evangelize my own realm of imagination” , to “reconstruct my own evangelisation”, continues Christophe Hadevis, twice a prize winner at the Angoulême festival, notably in 2014 with a biography of Benoît Labre (see bibliography).

Between faith and reason A different, more pedagogical, approach is adopted by Brunor, author of a series entitled Investigation about God, The conceivable clues, which also won an award at Angoulême in 2012.

The discourse, which takes the form of a comic book story seeks to find out whether there are reasons to believe at a time when, for many people, scientific progress seems to threaten faith in God. “I simply want to transmit

scientific information that might help people to see things more clearly and to be free to choose. I have no proof of the existence of God to offer, but there exist many verifiable clues which indicate that faith is compatible with progress in experimental science” explains Brunor whose concern is to show how, “in the course of an honest investigation” intelligence and human reason converge. The title of the third volume in the series is “Chance does not write messages” and would seem to imply God and reality in the same alliance.

Reflection of the world of the imagination or medium for scientific narration, in these two examples comic books demonstrate a flexibility of style, an appeal and proximity to the reader that makes them a privileged tool for preaching the faith via by more unexpected channels than usual. Christophe Hadevis insisted on recalling the Chinese proverb: “One picture is worth 10,000 words!” v

Bibliographie

Winner of the Christian comic book prize at the Angouleme Festival 2014 - Quelques oranges d’écorce amère, Une vie de Benoit Labre,

by Christophe Hadevis, Erwan leSaëc,Tatiana Domas, Published

by Emmanuel And in 2012 - Enquête sur Dieu Les indices pensables.4 Tomes, by Brunor.

Published by SPFC

For further information on the internet, go to: v www.bdchretienne.net, the Christian comic book site for the Angoulême festival v www.criabd.be, Gabriel de Bruxelles prize website

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Winners of the Brussels Gabriel Prize 2014 - Césaire d’Arles, by Christian Goux, Marie-Josée Delage and Louis-Bernard Koch, Published

by Triomphe, - Haïku, by Gabriele Parma, Maurizio Montera, Luca Malisan.

Published by Petit Pierre & Ieiazel.

About Christian Comic books - La BD chrétienne, by Roland Francart, Published by Le Cerf,

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Christian Training

Interview with Bernard Bougon, sj.

The What For of Choice An original initiative! In two works1, Bernard Bougon and Laurent Falque look at the main intuitions of Ignatian discernment, but without making explicit and direct references to the Christian faith. By doing so, they aim to reach a much broader audience, those on the existential periphery of the Church, to use Pope Francis’ expression. Here is the interview with Father Bernard Bougon, Jesuit, philosopher and social psychologist by training, who is attached to the Department of Public Ethics at the Sèvres Centre of the Jesuit Faculty of Paris.

FOI : Your first work ‘The Practice of Decision making – Developing the ability to discern’ is in its third edition. Can you explain why we worry so much about decision making? Is it so difficult to make choices?

In all modesty, this represents a few thousand books sold. However, those who know about these things say that

this is not insignificant for this type of book. A recent review on the web described this first book as ‘knowledgeable and practical’ – which is exactly what we wanted to achieve. But why does it seem so difficult to make choices? I feel it is because making appropriate and coherent choices is a pathway to freedom. And, yesterday as today, freedom remains difficult for our humanity, as a number of philosophers have ceaselessly recalled. To this can be added second order reasons: complexity, lack of reliable information, psychological obstacles etc.

FOI : In your new work,’ Discern to Decide’, you and Laurent Falque set out the basis of the criteria for discernment (the disposition of mind to judge things clearly and healthily) oriented towards the question “What For?”. In working life, does this amount to replacing “How” with “What For” as the foundation of all decisions? Isn’t this a Utopian vision?

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Bernard Bougon, sj.

When a question arises, whether at a personal level, or in a business and more broadly in any organisation, we are immediately tempted to head straight for the solutions which seem obvious to us. This is what the American Herbert Simon calls a ‘satisficising choice’: grabbing hold of the first option which seems to us to be possible or within arm’s reach... Sometimes that works. But more often it doesn’t, or not for long. To discern – according to the Petit Robert dictionary definition which you have just recalled – requires a response to a double question: 1) Why do we have to make a choice?

Put another way, what is the problem we are faced with? Experience shows that it is not always easy to ask that question clearly.

2) For what, with what aim, must we make this choice?

The reply to this question will provide a guide to allow us to identify the solution which is most relevant to what we wish to achieve. It will also allow us to align the successive decisions which we have to take with each other.

This gives our actions real coherence, which is a condition of both efficiency and effectiveness.

an training training an training FOI : Your approach to the process of decision making by discernment is inspired by the experience of Ignatius de Loyola. Do you make reference to him as a source of advice?

As a source of advice, practically never.

Except obliquely, to make it clear that we are drawing on an ancient tradition and that our sources are sound.

FOI : Why is a practice as relevant as Ignatian decision-making not taught in universities?

Probably because people are ignorant of it. There are several reasons for such ignorance which, in my view, do not arise solely from the neutrality on religious issues which [French] universities seek to observe. For their part, the Jesuits have often confined the treasure of discernment to what they consider to be the spiritual plane.

FOI : In the process of professional decision making which you are developing, defining the end result allows one’s choices to be highlighted.

What’s the situation with ‘project group’ decisions in which the individual end products and the aims of the people involved do not necessarily converge?

Even if the members of a ‘project team’ have different personal objectives, in the final analysis it is the fact of being brought together to work on the same project, the end product which must be as clear as possible, will carry the day.

The film, “Twelve angry men” directed

by Sidney Lumet.

“Having thus acquired a certain personal freedom, he is in a position to help each of the others to step back from their prejudices, their certainties, their fears or their secret motives…”

The end product of a project is being broken down into aims to be achieved (a certain result within a certain timeframe and according to certain contractual specifications, etc) and into objectives which allow measurement of the progress towards each aim. Drawing on our experience, we give examples of this in our work. I think that many of those who have participated in successful interdisciplinary projects will be able to recognise themselves.

Men. This enthralling example shows the diversity of what motivates each individual, as a function of their personal history, their needs…in order to reach unanimity on a serious matter. How does one manage to work together to find greater free will in order to deliberate the issues?

This play, like the film, shows a deliberation as a work in progress, in which each participant is invited to find a type of personal freedom in relation to the choice to be made.

This presupposes the presence of a reasonably unencumbered guide. In the film, this role is played by Henry Fonda. Before the end of the trial, as juror number 8, he has undertaken a sort of personal investigation in the field, which has highlighted for him the outrageousness of the charge. Having thus acquired a certain personal freedom, he is in a position to help each of the others to step back from their prejudices, their certainties, their fears or their secret motives…

FOI : To illustrate the involvement of teams in a collective decision, you use the example of the film Twelve Angry

The work of the guide, through which each member of the jury gains access to a particular truth about themselves,

makes this deliberation spellbinding.

It is also very enlightening about the way in which a group can access a new truth, from a starting point of a huge diversity of positions held by its members. In a word, by virtue of the deepening of personal and collective freedom which it implies, the process of discernment works towards the humanisation of each and every one and of everything they do. v Interview conducted by Thierry Roche 1. Two books by Laurent Falque and Bernard Bougon - Pratiques de la décision - Développer ses capacités de discernement (The Practice of Decision making – Developing one’s ability to discern), Collection : Stratégies et Management, Dunod 2013 - 3ème édition.

- Discerner pour décider - Comment faire les bons choix en situation professionnelle (Discern to Decide – How to make the right choices in a professional environment), Collection : Stratégies et Management, Dunod - May 2014

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What kind of success ?

From 8th to 10th May, 400 young professionals met in Lyon for the Young Pros Forum on the theme of “What kind of success to aim for?”

Jean-Baptiste, 27, financial communication analyst for a firm in the environment sector.

Manon, 26, head of finance for a humanitarian NGO.

u

u

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“I don’t see my job just as a way to earn a living, but as a possible place of sanctification.”

“ ’You don’t become holy by staying in a chapel’ ” This sentence has stuck with me ever since and is calling me to action.”

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“I will only be able to keep going in the long term by holding firm in prayer.”

« On a toujours une marge de manœuvre. »

u “Asking the Holy Spirit to guide all my little decisions of the day and to have peace in my relationships at work.”

Aude-Marie, 25, deputy HR manager in a food-processing company.

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“How to be a Christian day-to-day, in a company whose activity and business model are highly criticized?”

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“Your company is where you are called to be holy, right where there is a lot left to do, where not everything is fair... ”

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“You always have room for manoeuvre.”

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What did you make of your job?

Pierre--Yves Gomez,

Economist, executive director, professor of management and strategy at the EM Lyon business school; founder of the Zachee course on the Church’s Social Doctrine.

Behind the concern for professional success lurks a much bigger question, the question of meaning in our life. Now people would not be on the track of this deep search for meaning if they did not already know, deep within themselves, that this meaning exists and is a necessity. Within himself man’s cry already has its answer, as St Augustine says: “You would not be looking for me if you had not already found me.”

Humanisation happens through doing work, as John Paul II reminds us in the encyclical Laborem exercens (1981) : “Work is a good thing for man and it is good for his humanity since through work man not only transforms nature in adapting it to his own needs but he is also fulfilled as man, he even in a sense becomes man”. (n°9).

ties of life, to believe in the light which is behind us and at moments of major choices to choose life.

This is why we have been invited to listen more closely to humanity’s cry for meaning. It is not you crying out despairingly, but is Someone who is calling you to achieve something, to construct a meaning. For us Christians, this universal quest has a significant and sometimes striking name: it is the call to holiness!

And yet, it is something simple and vital. Nothing other than the call of Someone who says to us: “Come, there is a meaning to your life. You were made for this meaning! Such is the call which is addressed to us, in the first instance in our daily life. “Be holy, as your Father is holy” (1 Peter 1.16), a call at the heart of our professional activities, since the world where God has placed us is our given space, the only space for our sanctification.

“So work is not just one more burden amongst other activities: it humanises us and because it humanises us, it sanctifies us”.

- Depend on the Church, in other words the community of believers, on the fraternity, even and above all on work!

Don’t stay alone, because we can quickly become cheesed off by work, the routine, the isolation, the fear…and one can be cut off from the light, lose the meaning of our life. Depend on the Church, which is a community, but which is also the repository of wisdom of a particular clarity concerning the meaning of work.

So work is not a kind of curse which man is called to endure because he has to eat and pay for his lodgings. The human being, in the philosophical sense of the phrase, is deeply a being made for work, in other words a being who participates in creation.

Thus work is not solely a daily grind to cover the bills and to survive: work makes it possible to start up a company, to embellish the environment, to belong to the world, to place one’s skills at the service of others.

So work is not just one more burden amongst other activities: it humanises us and because it humanises us, it sanctifies us. “The Word was made man and the Son of God, as man, in acting in communion with the Word and so receiving divine sonship, becomes son of God” writes St Irenaeus. And God became a carpenter…

So what kind of professional success can one aim for? Performance, financial gain, materialism, recognition at any price, the see-saw of always more?... “Who will make us see happiness?” Asks the Psalmist. And he pleads “Show us the brightness of your face”. (Psalm 4) Four markers can guide us along this path: - Learn to be free (John 8). Being free is not about doing what I want, because more often than not, I do not end up doing what I want and that is the frustration! Being free is to take on the difficul-

- Imitate Jesus Christ! Picture Jesus; his life as a carpenter, Jesus’ daily life for 30 years; he experienced difficulties, clients who do not pay, dishonest suppliers, etc…But also the satisfaction of a job well done, of exchanges and cooperation…His life…this is our life.

- Finally, open ourselves to grace! Let us believe with complete trust that God is also waiting for us at our place of work.

Here is the prayer that I invite you to offer each morning: “Lord, you are waiting for me today at my work-place, I offer to you my colleagues, my pupils, my clients, my suppliers…those I am going to meet.

Please may l give myself to life with them, to sharing their joy and their hope, to rely on them as they rely on me.” Thus work can even become the place of our sanctification because God is present there.

You can find the text of these talks on line at:

forumjeunespros.com

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youth

icolas de Lambert, married and father of a family, director of Essilor Europe, testifies about his career path. He began his career with Danone, and decided at the age of 41 to change companies. Concurrently, he went through a spiritual experience which would change his life profoundly…

TEMOIGNAGE

Essilor is a business which is somewhat unusual, a merger between a workers’ cooperative, SL, and a commercial company, Silor. It has values which are important for me, like the social usefulness of the product that we sell and the mission associated with the product.

The social usefulness of glasses is huge. When someone’s sight is changed, their life is changed! In our missions in Vietnam, children are supplied who have never had access to glasses before. A completely new world is opened up to them. They have never been able to see and have never seen their parents. It is very moving. Those of us who wear glasses can confirm this too!

Essilor’s mission is to supply the largest number of people possible. Out of 4.2 billions of people on earth in need of glasses, 1.5 billion have been fitted out. That leaves 2.7 billion! An enormous field for action! So, the values of autonomy, trust, respect that we practise at Essilor give meaning to my daily life.

On the spiritual level, I met a Carmelite father and thanks to him I met Christ. The Carmelite spirituality is founded on an intimacy with God especially in prayer, what St Therese defines as “an exchange of friendship where we meet, often in solitude, with the one who I know loves me”. Looking for practical steps for moving forward, I found a church which was open early in the morning near my office.

This morning time of prayer anchored my relationship with Christ deeply and this is what gave light to my day.

“In effect, for me, to live is Christ” (Galatians 2.20) This saying bowls me over each day. God, who I used to think of as fairly distant actually lives in my heart. He lives in me, and I live through the actual life of Christ.

So what room do l make for him in my heart? And then, if he lives in me, he also lives in the other person! What kind of relationship do I have with my colleagues , my boss, my suppliers, my clients but also with people less in the public eye like the night watchman who is there when I leave the office a bit late?

The professional life is complicated, there are conflicts, sometimes extreme, and that can be extremely hard. Pope Francis speaks of a fraternity which transforms the world and which transforms relationships. I believe that can also be experienced at work: do I see the other as a rival or rather as a brother?

welcome to

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Work…a call of God? On two occasions, my boss suggested that I take on a new responsibility, first the management of Essilor France, and three years later of Southern Europe. For me this was beyond my dreams. France being the biggest subsidiary of the group, I did not feel I was up to that kind of responsibility. I replied, “No!” Invited to think about it, I talk to my spiritual father who suggests that I ask for the prayer of my brothers (I belonged to a Carmelite prayer group).

For several days this phrase stayed with me: “Chose life” (Deut 30.19). That meant to choose to trust, to go forward. So I went back to see my boss to tell him that I accepted!

I moved from a human outlook to one enlightened by Christ. The jobs I am dealing with are no longer a position to occupy, but the answer to a call. That changes everything! Regularly I ask myself this question: deep down what is my mission? Where does the Lord want me to bear fruit? That gives me an unbelievable strength because I know that the Lord is waiting for me there. So it is no longer a question of ambition because the true ambition is to be there where the Lord calls me to bear fruit. The question is this: where is the Lord calling me in my professional life? Where is the place where I can develop my gifts?

I realised that there could be room for manoeuvre in the work I was doing. In France, 15% of people live below the poverty line and cannot buy glasses. I wanted to do something about that. Is that the object of the business? On one side, there is an ultra libera-

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Jean-Paul Cottet

Executive Dir. for innovation Orange Telecom

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lism whose objective is to maximise profits, but that does not lessen poverty! On the other hand, there is “Charity” or philanthropy, and there resources are lacking! One day, pushed by the Spirit, I talked about it to some friends and one of them said to me: “Why not set up a social business in France for glasses?” Suddenly this seemed obvious! Three years later Optique Solidaire was born, an association of Ophthalmologists, opticians, complementary insurance companies and suppliers of frames – whose goal is to supply people over 60 and over who were without the means to pay for glasses.

We all have the capacity to make things happen. One might think this is easier if one has a job with lots of responsibility, but that is false. The thing is simply to believe and to go as far as possible with the thing one cares about, and see if there is confirmation from the Spirit.

A message for young professionals?

Be yourself! Be yourself at a deep level on your professional life, look for coherence between your personal, spiritual and professional life. One cannot be happy carrying a desire in your heart and living out something different in your professional life. I encourage you to work on this point if you share this feeling. To do that you need confidence in yourself. Have a deep confidence in what you are! You have received talents, develop them! Surround yourself with friends, find places to be strengthened and listened to and helped to discern.

Be the doers and drivers of your choices.

Don’t be their slave, don’t think there is a system that you have to submit to. There is no system, you can move the boundaries where you are. You need to be convinced about that! When one person starts pushing the boundaries, then a second, things start to snowball!

In your work place be kind and fraternal.

Risk kindness and fraternity at work, as you alter your attitude to your colleagues, your boss, etc…Finally “Always be joyful, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5.16-24)” and choose life!”

youth 18-30s

14-18s

• MONT-SAINT-MICHEL: 26-28 Sep. for students and young professionals between 18 and 30. Two days in great company, to recharge your batteries and start your year with God, guided by His Spirit!

• TALENTS & LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: 18-19 Oct. Paris (Puteaux 92). Discover your gifts, make them fruitful and equip yourself to become a Christian leader, making a difference in the world! Learn to know yourself better and to work in a group to get involved in mission in the service of God and others!

• MUSIC WEEKEND 14-18s. 25th to 27th Oct. Paris (91). For everyone who wants to learn the 14-18 repertoire! Workshops available: choral, dance, orchestra.

• KEEP IN TOUCH! Week for 1618s from 27th Oct. to 1st Nov. in Paris (91). With over 100 high school students: reflect, share, pray, have fun…energize your start to the session! Theme: Underwater exploration, know yourself. Come and explore your personality so that you can make the right choices.

• FAMILY&RELATIONSHIPSWEEKEND: 8-9 Nov. Nancy, 15-16 Nov. Paris (Tigery), 22-23 Nov. Lyon (Hautecombe) and Angers, 17-18 Jan. Marseille. Get to know yourself better by looking at your history.

Learn to forgive and to build real, free relationships.

• YOUNG PROS WEEKEND - 2232s. Paris (Livry) 22-23 Nov. “Discern in order to decide”, in God’s sight with Bernard Bougon.

Lyon (Les Pothières) 29-30 Nov. “Everyone is a leader!” with Nathalie Aubé • JERICHO RETREAT: 28 Dec. - 3 Jan. Tigery (91) and Hautecombe (73).

Stop and listen to God. A chance to get to know the Lord better and to welcome his Love, learn to pray with the Bible and share with others. And above all, start the New Year with God! • Lots of other activities on offer: youth mass, praise evenings, Young pros evenings, training evenings, fraternities, Appel group, etc.

• 18-30s Secretary: 01 47 74 93 73 or 06 30 14 06 96 jeunes.france@chemin-neuf.org www.jeunes.chemin-neuf.fr

• REGIONAL WEEKENDS: weekends near you where you can meet up and build real friendships, unwind spiritually, relax with praise and fun!

Every weekend has its own theme to explore: Talents to develop, Family – the User Guide, Pals come first…

Paris: 11-12 Oct. and 29-30 Nov. Lyon: 11-12 Oct. and 6-7 Dec. East of France: 6-7 Dec. West of France: 22-23 Nov. South of France: 22-23 Nov. Brittany: 22-23 Nov. • f or INFO and REGISTRATION contact The 14-18s Secretary: 04 78 15 07 98 or 06 61 61 02 72 14-18ans@chemin-neuf.org www.14-18ans.chemin-neuf.fr

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A Tour of the World

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BELGIUM

A BIT OF HISTORY “Of all the peoples of Gaul, the Belgians are the most courageous,” it’s not me saying this but Julius Caesar – so it’s surely true! That says that our people have already existed for some time. But our country which has only existed in its present form since 1830, has been traversed by many wars and occupied by many powers (Spaniards, Austrians, French, Dutch).

Following the fall of Napoleon, the Treaty of Vienna (1815) placed us under the domination of the Dutch, who were Protestants, while the Belgians are Catholics. That prevented de facto the hope of unity for this new country whose partners who had not been given a choice! The uprising of the Belgians was therefore inevitable.

Different protests in 1830 led progressively to the independence of Belgium. The monarchy was entrusted to the German Saxe-CoburgGotha family and on 4th June 1831, Leopold (1st) became the first king of the Belgians. He took his oath on 21st July 1831, a date which is still the National Holiday.

In the 19th century, Belgium benefited from the Industrial Revolution for it possessed coal and iron, mainly in Wallonia. This region thus became the second biggest producer of steel and coal in the world. In the 1960s and 70s, the coal mines were closed and the iron and steel industry gradually declined. Flanders became the country’s most productive and richest region, mainly by developing

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manufacturing firms (notably factories for assembling cars).

Both regions, having been through varied fortunes in economic matters, have had to develop financial interdependence by transfers from one region to the other (and vice versa) at different moments of their history. Under the joint pressure of the Flemish movement and Walloon regionalism, Belgium has progressively evolved towards a more and more federalised State: The Language Laws of 1963, changes in the Constitution in 1994 and 2004, the new desire of Flanders to establish a confederal state…

Today, the country is made up of three regions: Wallonia, Flanders and Brussels, each one enjoying an ever-greater autonomy.

Three languages are spoken there: Flemish in Flanders, French in Wallonia and in Brussels, and German in the extreme east of Wallonia. Over and above the differences that separate them, numerous Belgians nevertheless wish to preserve the unity of the country. Getting to know the other linguistic community better is certainly one of the keys for a future together. v Philippe Englebert, ccn The North Sea – The Belgian Community & Communion, Antwerp.

The Carmel of Mehagne. The Young folk of the Youth Mission in Belgium.

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THE COMMUNITY IN BELGIUM The history of the Community in Belgium really began in 1989, when Cardinal Daneels entrusted a 40-room Retreat House to them at La Hulpe, on the outskirts of Brussels, at the invitation of the Cenacle Sisters.

For more than 20 years, this house of The Cenacle at La Hulpe housed 2 or 3 families and a few singles, as well as around ten students enrolled in theological studies at the Brussels IET. Most of them retain the memory of their time at La Hulpe as a magnificent place, with a typically Belgian conviviality, but also at times the difficulty of balancing mission with the time necessary for study.

It was essentially from this starting point and also a house at Kraainem (Brussels) that the Community, the Communion and the Cana fraternities gradually developed, and that the various missions were organised in Belgium, until they were attracting up to 100 people. However a new page was turned when in 2010, the Community had to leave The

Cenacle. The diocese, who owned the building, decided to sell it and broke off the agreement in place. The Community then underwent the dynamic experience of having to found their existence on the reality of a body of people living in community rather than on the presence of a House and a Life Fraternity.

But one year after leaving La Hulpe, the bishop of Liege, 100 kms away, invited the Community to take up the lovely Carmel (Carmelite Convent) of Mehagne.

This was the beginning of a new foundation which was to bear many fruits.

The Youth Mission in particular would become particularly dynamic, so much so that two student hostels, each of about ten students, called “kots” in Belgium, would be created, one at the Carmel, the other near the University in the centre of Liege. With its twenty-odd rooms available, the Carmel is able to host Cana sessions and weekends, and retreats – but also some external groups looking for a place of silence or formation.

Two years ago, a congregation of contemplative nuns offered the Community their mother house, situated in Antwerp, in the Flemish region of the country, thirty minutes from the abbey of Oosterhout in the Netherlands. Its 40 rooms, after some major renovations, will be able to house a fine student hostel in this University town.

But our presence in this place in Flanders invites us above all to enter more deeply into our charism of unity by choosing to become “inculturated”, so as to become, in our own way, a bridge between these two linguistic communities in our small country.

Today, with around twenty professed members, a majority of whom are couples, and around fifteen in the Communion, we are trying to rise to the challenge of staffing these two new Houses.

Even if the workers are still too few, we can only admire the Lord’s work in the hearts spread across the missions he entrusts to us. v

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Life in the Community Community Week for Parishes

A week with a taste of foundation!

Some 300 parishioners together with brothers and sisters of the Community involved in parishes were engaged for a second time to share and pray together at the Dombes Abbey during a community week in the presence of Mgr. Philippe Ballot, Archbishop of Chambéry and Mgr. Renaud de Dinechin, Auxiliary Bishop of Paris.

Notwithstanding the urgency of this mission, and the encouragement of the Church, the first community week held two years ago had already confirmed the need for the creation of missionary parish fraternities of the Chemin Neuf; nevertheless the Community gave itself two years to experience and discern such a move. This year, parishioners from nineteen parishes in France and six from overseas, and members of the Community, responded to the call even in larger numbers!

“Inlui him we have an inheritance, having been d’avance « C’est en encore queobtained nous avons été mis à part, désignés predestined In him you also, when you heard the ofde vérité, (…) C’est en lui que vous aussi, après avoir entendu la word Parole truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were l’Evangile de votre salut, et y avoir cru, vous avez été marqués d’un sceau sealed the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of de par l’Esprit dewith la Promesse, cet Esprit Saintwho quiisconstitue les arrhes our inheritance.. .” notre héritage. » Eph 1, 11-14 Eph 1, 11-14

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“We have experienced during this week the Octave of Christmas and the Octave of Easter. In the Christian tradition, the Octave (or that period of seven days following the feast day) is similar to a single day”. In looking back over the week, Mgr. Ballot said at the end: “We have lived this week as a single day in as much as we wanted to follow Jesus and listen to the Holy Spirit”. The prime objective of this gathering was to look back over how we lived the past two years and this week was spent sharing fraternal life with times of service, teaching, prayer, celebration and a joyous occasion.

In listening to one another, it would appear that the experience started two years ago in the parishes entrusted to the Chemin Neuf Community confirms the feeling that the setting up of parish fraternities was indeed an inspired project.

munity life in the comm comm mmunity »

We allowed ourselves to be driven by the Holy Spirit

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For two years now, we’ve been trying out the missionary parish fraternities of the Chemin Neuf Community at Levallois. We love to share, in the presence of the Lord, with our brothers, be they priest, religious or ‘’lay” people like us.

We love to commit our “here and now” to each other and keep each other in each other’s prayers.

This summer, we discovered once more the essence of the community week, life in a ‘village’, accommodated in tents (when it did not rain!), with separate camps for children.

On the first day, our four children went to their respective camps. Our two eldest girls, whose 14th birthday was celebrated on the 1st day of the camp (thus allowing them to join the most coveted family of the 14-17 years old!), spent at the Pothieres a week which they would describe as “marvellous”. For a start, they were most appreciative of the presentation of the rules and regulations of shared living, namely stating the prohibition of forming cliques, being willing to listen to others without interruption, etc. They tasted freedom (without the parents), the fraternities, the Adoration and the many sporting and cultural activities, including the laser game! Our youngest children went to Montagnieu, where they made many friends, visited the car museum and were very touched by the attention of the people who were helping.

As for us adults, we have been carried by the goodwill of each one, the talent and the joy of the speakers, and, above all, by the palpable evidence that the Lord was at work so as to inspire us in respect of the future of these fraternities. Under His guidance, we have chosen to continue with the fraternities, and to put the emphasis on the formation of its members so as to be true missionaries.

The mission to share and to serve has been reaffirmed.

This week has given, as on each and every occasion, the opportunity of meaningful meetings. To discover the life of other parishes in France or outside France, and even parishes not run by the Chemin Neuf, is most stimulating.

Kersaintgilly family, Levallois-Perret (92)

Some parishioners testify that they have witnessed in their parish that “fraternity is contagious’’, others have experienced “the joys and need to be together for evangelisation”.

The wish shared by most is that: “may those who are on the fringes of the parish be attracted by fraternal life’’

Together in the parish fraternity, members engaged in the community and parishioners have testified that they feel more and more like“brothers and sisters”, as part of the same body, called to serve all.

The welcoming address by Father Laurent Fabre was also quick to be onfirmed: “From the beginning, we were led by the Lord. This project is the call of the Holy Spirit, and not only for us”.

Together in the parish fraternity, members engaged in the Community and parishioners alike have testified that theyfeel more and more like “brothers and sisters”, as part of the same body and , called to serve all.

The action of sharing is at the root of any community week and teachings provided additional nourishment. The image of Pope Francis, his word and especially his vision of the Church have The wish shared by most is that: may all served to give as much encouragement to this newly-born parish fraternity whose outline is being gradually drawn.

Father Laurent underlined that: “Pope Francis stands for a Church which is poor, which protects the family, a Church which goes beyond boundaries and which puts ecumenism at the very heart of the life of the Church, a Church which welcomes Baptism in the Holy Spirit and charisma”.

Those who intervened afterwards allowed one to realise that what the Chemin Neuf Community has been doing over the past 40 years can be shared with the parishes: the experience of Baptism in the Spirit, Alpha courses, some thinking on, and the experience of, parish life over a period of 20 years, the mission for those who are separated or divorced, the evangelisation of children, spiritual accompaniment. >>>

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Life in the Community

Pascale Paté, ccn 1- Words of Father Vincent Breynart, previous parish priest of St. Andrew’s Church, Reims

»

téSTIMO

I am particularly touched by the word fraternity,

because it is the first thing that Jesus proposed to his disciples:

to live the fraternity with him. The apostles Peter and Paul experienced. their poverty in front of Christ and their brothers before becoming missionaries of the gratuitous love of God for everyone.

After 25 years with the Chemin Neuf Community, I gather this exceptional fruit of being more truthful in accepting with joy who I am. If the community is a place where we share good things, it is, above all, the place where I experience, with mercy, the grace of being someone being poor with others who are equally poor in the sight of God.

When one feels loved, one can show oneself without fear as to who one genuinely is. This allows me to welcome without fear as brothers, those to whom I am sent, notwithstanding the acceptance of their own poverty. I am happy to see that a number of parishioners feel called on the way towards an alliance with the community through the missionary parish communities of the Chemin Neuf. With my brothers, I am loved not so much for what I do, but for what I am: what good news!

Father Jean-Michel Bernier, parish priest of Holy Trinity Church, Chambéry

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Touched by the joy of service with the brothers of the community and as witnesses to the fruit of the ignatian spirituality, we were straightaway taken by the proposal to participate in the ‘’parish frat’’ of 2012, as parishioners, since it called us to ‘’go further’’. The two years that we spent in a parish fraternity allowed us to share the ‘’treasures’’ of the Community. Which ones in particular?

- A true fraternity formed with people who we did not know - We were amazed by the sincerity of our sharing - The Lord speaks to us through our brothers and sisters

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The other reason to hold this community week was to listen to the will of God in respect of the parish fraternities project.

Coming as the fruit of community prayer and from observations made by one another, it gradually became evident that: in participating in those missionary parish fraternities, parishioners and members of the community alike are actually answering a call from God. One is not only called to share in a fraternity, the mission and evangelisation, but also to receive training. If the parish is ‘’a very special place for the new evangelisation, i.e. a place to undergo the procreation to faith’’, nevertheless, Father Laurent Fabre reminded those present ‘’that it is imperative that it is also a place of training for the disciples of Jesus, a training which deepens the kerygma and form the disciple to the model of Christ’’.

The depth of the commitments, during the final eucharistic service, was a joyous response to this Call to be in, and for the service of, parish fraternities. v

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Even considering that our fraternity is not a place of mission as such, our meetings have greatly contributed to enhance our different missions. The prayer of the brothers has helped us to overcome a number of our struggles or to discern between a number of choices. Finally, to recall a formula mentioned during the parish community week of 2014 : our desire to follow the example of Christ has increased thanks to the fraternity. Our choice to attend Cycle A, in Saragossa, in September 2014 has come to fruition during these two years of missionary parish fraternity.

We give thanks to God for this call to live more united within ourselves, as a couple and between brothers and sisters, Christians of different faiths, parishioners and community members!

Isabelle et Damien Hanus, St. Andrew’s Parish, Reims

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Talents

“I am an Olympic style sailboarder at the Training Centre at Marseille. Over the past three years, I have had two victories at the French Junior Championships, won 2 medals (bronze and silver) at the World Youth Championships, and am the current All-European Champion.

I realise how little of what I am lucky enough to be living at this moment is due to me. God has endowed me with a special talent, and I thank Him from the bottom of my heart for His grace, which has led me gradually to take the path I am following now. I have been given physical, motor and sensory skills, along with a love of speed and closeness to nature. Even when I was very young, I felt deeply the need to be the best possible at what I do. I believe that all this is what the Lord has freely given me.

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Every day, I want to say “Yes” to God, and this is a real adventure which takes up my whole being. My sporting project is a plan for learning, learning to know myself, recognise my weaknesses, to persevere in difficulties, to have confidence when faced with failure, to give my body over to intense physical effort. I am also learning patience, self-discipline, endurance, balance and reliability. Through sailboarding, I have the joy of knowing the fullness and the peace of God, sailing every day on the water He has created, but He has also allowed me to be what I deeply long to be with Him. I say this prayer to Jesus, “Yes, I know You, You are God, You made me and I don’t want to do anything that doesn’t honour You”.

Jeanne Dantes, aged 20, young talent

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CANA welcome a time for you, for me, for our marriage

© Shutterstock.com Preto Perola

in Angers, Chambéry, Chartres, Levallois-Perret (92), Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Paris 18°, Reims, Saujon (17), ... and also Mauritius!

a Course of 9 evenings and a weekend - The Differences men/women

- Parents and in-laws:

- Communicate more effectively

their place in our marriage?

- Conflict resolution

- My friends from before,

- Balancing family and work

my leisure d’aujourd’hui,

- How to manage our money together?

pour construire

- Decisions: alone or shared ?

un projet commun

How? In small groups of 3 or 4 couples, to discuss topics that are central to life as a couple, among

For whom?

ourselves and with others. The couple leading

For all couples, married or not, and especially for young marrieds, young parents, for all who want to put their marriage on a solid foundation. For those who have been married for a long time and want to love one another more.

the course will receive you in their home, then meetings will be held in the homes of the others in rotation, as can most conveniently be arranged.

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