The 15th Catholic Charismatic Renewal Caribbean Conference opened on Friday, January 6 with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Gabriel Malzaire.

Twenty countries were represented at the three-day conference at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, among them Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, St Lucia, Suriname, Curaçao, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.

Bishop Malzaire focussed his homily on the role of the laity in this millennium. He noted the laity's effectiveness in carrying out the social work of the Church.

The Dominica bishop said people took for granted the role of the clergy on certain issues, but when members of the laity stood up on these matters they gained more attention.

Describing the laity as the living mission of the Church, he encouraged members of lay ministries to spread their faith and principles among co-workers, friends and relatives.

He added that the laity should not underestimate their influence in the secular world. “It is only through the laity that we become the salt of the earth,” he said.

With the decrease in the number of clergy, he said, every Catholic should become an evangeliser and suggested that the Church provide the necessary training and tools to prepare the laity to take up this task.

He predicted a new springtime in the Church with the empowerment of the laity.

“Evangelisation programmes” need to move “from holy places out into the world. And who better to do this than the laity?”

He pointed to the large numbers making up the faithful but remarked that the Church has been described as a sleeping giant. Creeping secularisation, injustice and the increasing crime rate could be counteracted by the work of the Church, he said.

“We need to create a shift in the Church together. As a people of faith, we must ask how effective we are in changing the course of the world.”

On a personal level, the Bishop invited the audience to reflect on the question, “How do I propose to renew the face of the earth in the new millennium?”

There was a procession of flags before Archbishop Edward Gilbert rose to address the gathering. He spoke of an interview given by Pope Benedict XVI on evangelisation in which the Holy Father compared the experiences of modern evangelisers to the parable of the sower.

He pointed out that often the clergy might become discouraged when preaching to a world that seemed disinterested in their message. At times, he added, it might seem that people have no need for the clergy. But he noted that even Jesus was rejected. Those who accepted the message of Jesus, however, bore fruit.

Archbishop Gilbert urged evangelisers to continue their work, stressing the need for patience and saying, “the seed of the sower contains in a mysterious way the presence of the future.”

Referring to the theme of the conference, Rise up, Preach the Gospel, Take back the nations, the Archbishop stated that the faithful should become rooted in spiritual life, learn how to pray and focus on forming doctrinal and ethical standards.

The Church was not about rules ; rather, its tradition already contains answers to questions the secular world was just beginning to ask, he noted.

Many people felt unloved and unwanted, Archbishop Gilbert said, and directed Catholics to develop a tangible sense of community so that those seeking to know God might find him in the Catholic Church.

Participants at closing session of Charismatic Conference.

Deborah de Rosia, Fr Simon Wilson of Curacao and others pray over Fr Ozele before his talk on Sunday morning

The Archbishop also charged the audience to engage in lifelong catechesis -- catechesis beyond preparation for First Communion and Confirmation.

He spoke out strongly against moving into the pastoral stance of talking to ourselves: the same people meeting in the same groups to discuss the same ideas.

He said this was not the pattern of Jesus, who preached even to those who were not interested in him or in changing their lives.

Eventually, though, some examined their lives and were brought to conversion, he added.

Archbishop Gilbert warned that anyone who felt they could do better than Jesus was not being honest with himself.

He pointed to the importance of the media in spreading the message of the Church. The death of John Paul II, he said, gave the Church widespread attention and allowed for the dissemination of its beliefs across an international audience.

John Paul II's papacy focussed heavily on outward evangelisation and visibility, he observed, and stressed that the Caribbean Church must become more involved with the media.

The Church's method of fundraising must change; it must graduate from the “cake sale mentality” and find avenues to acquire seven- and eight-figure sums of money, Archbishop Gilbert said.

“Fundamentalist churches are doing it so don't tell me it can't be done!” he declared amidst rising cheers from the audience. He added that this kind of change could not take place without mental changes.

Highlighting the decreasing number of Catholics in the Caribbean , The Archbishop contended that this trend could be reversed and threw out the challenge of forming a regional congress of Churches.

If the churches gathered their substantial resources, while there was still time, he said, “We can still fulfil your theme and take back the nations.”

The day continued with praise and worship sessions and Fr Anthony Ozele, of the United States gave two talks in the afternoon.

Sunday session

If we are to take back our Caribbean nations, each of us must act by helping to build community life and by being a true model of Christ.

“There is no other way,” stressed Antigua-born Fr Arnold Francis as he spoke last Sunday on the closing day of the biennial Caribbean Charismatic Renewal Conference.

Fr Francis told the 1,000-plus audience that the problems we face now – for example, the lack of respect for human life and indiscipline - represent “the past catching up with us”.

The Regional Seminary lecturer and Bourg Mulatresse parish priest said we must first stop the finger-pointing, as if criminals were not members of society. He contended that we have created the environment to produce criminals by “what we have done and what we have failed to do”.

He likened society to a spider's web, with each person linked indirectly to everyone else, and so, whatever we do, good or bad, each of us is affected.

Fr Francis said politicians were not equipped to deal with the problems as “we are dealing with deep-rooted spiritual problems…. We are the only ones to turn it around.”

He said to take back our nations required faith not fear, and it must be a type of faith that was active, not passive or dead. He challenged the audience to put away cowardice and “walk in the shoes of men and women of faith”, like Moses and David. “The Holy Spirit will guide us forward.”

He said it was good to meet as a faith community for we must be “gathered to be scattered to renew the face of the earth”, and added that we were scattered to do God's will in our respective communities.

He said we must focus on rebuilding good family life in our homes and then community life in our parishes. Fr Francis said as the Church celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, we were called to shine forth and be an example of Christ in our communities, especially to children.

“You must be an epiphany,” he said, and called on each person to be more affirming to others. “We're not in the habit of doing that…we must help people see the good in themselves.”

He also said that some of us go along with the culture, but we must become “counter-culture” to show others that there was a different way of life, a “Trinitarian way”.

He closed by saying that as delegates returned to their home territories they must, like the Magi in the day's gospel, return via a “different route” - making a difference in their society. “We cannot build the kingdom by talk alone…the Spirit is working in you and through you.”

Fr Anthony Ozele also spoke on Sunday and the title of his presentation was “Harvest Time”.

Archbishop Edward Gilbert was the chief celebrant at the Mass to close the conference; 15 priests from across the Caribbean concelebrated. Deacons Arnold Helense of St Croix, US Virgin Islands , and Ron Burgess of Jamaica assisted, with the latter proclaiming the gospel.