A Monthly Newsletter For The Cursillo Community of Newark
Volume X September 1998
From the Spiritual Director
The Rev. John A. Rollins
Christ Church, Pompton Lakes
In college, back in 1964, I first heard the following parable. Its wisdom is still fresh.
"Once upon a time a Life-Saving Rescue Mission was founded on the shores of a vast and tempestuous ocean.
Its volunteer members would patrol the shoreline, watching the storm-tossed waters for distress signals, and launching
their sturdy boats into the pounding waves to rescue those in peril. The members of the Mission would bring the
rescued sailors to their warm shelter to feed and clothe them until they were ready to return to the sea. They
saved many lives.
But a time came when the storms did not come as often as before on the vast ocean. There were not many shipwrecked
sailors to be rescued and the members of the Life-Saving Rescue Mission became bored. So they turned away from
the ocean to their shelter, enlarging and adorning it and developing all kinds of rituals for its use. Meanwhile,
their rescue boats began to rot and their life-lines began to decay.
And then the day came when again the storms arose on the vast ocean. The members of the Life-Saving Rescue Mission
hurried back to the shoreline, only to find their rotted boats and decayed life-lines. Unable to venture forth
on the waves, the best they could do was to shout encouragement to the victims. And when a few of the ship-wrecked
souls made it to land, some Mission members were horrified by their condition. ‘We're sorry,' they said, ‘you can't
come into our nice Shelter looking like that. You'll have to clean yourselves up before you can enter.' And to
others, whose appearance did not match their own, they said, ‘Why don't you try the Shelter down the road? You'll
be lots more comfortable with your own kind'."
The easy interpretation of this parable is to equate our church or our Cursillo community with the Life-Saving
Rescue Mission, and to disparage our feeble attempts to rescue the world's walking wounded which wash up on our
shores. And there is enough reason to acknowledge that this scenario does hold in some places. But let's not rush
to the judgment that the solution implied is to turn the clock back to "old- fashioned, simple religion."
The less obvious but more accurate solution would be to acknowledge that there is a constant tension between "mission"
and "maintenance".
The Life-Saving Rescue Mission apparently lacked leaders with the wisdom to see that both aspects needed to be
cared for at the same time, without sacrificing one for the other.
Its reason-for-being went from mission-focused mode to maintenance-focused mode at the unhappy expense of the
former.
A healthy organization (congregation or community) is willing to spend energy to see that both "mission"
and "maintenance" are kept in perspective. To that end, the Secretariat of the Newark Cursillo community
invites us to come on Saturday, October 10th, beginning at 8:30 am, to Christ Church, Pompton Lakes, to continue
the process begun last year of self- evaluation and discernment for our life together.
There is no question that God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, calls us to service through
our Fourth Day. I hope you will be able to help envision what shape that should take for our Newark Cursillo community.
And, if you can't come on October 10th, please hold up in your prayers those who will have gathered. Christ is
counting on you.
The Fourth Day First
Piety
Karen Dunsmore
St. Paul's, Morris Plains
Piety, Study and Action and an unexpected opportunity to witness came to me wrapped up in a little box. A generous
Cursillo friend of mine presented me with a little gift to wear on my trip to Sweden. It was a small gold and
silver cross on a chain. Little did I know what and impact this gesture would have....like ripples in a pond.
Piety
I was very touched by this gift and I wore it all the time. I would finger it and it calmed me on the flight and
again as we entered a country where everything including the language was unfamiliar to me. It gave me an immediate
sense of security. It helped me to keep my conscious contact with God, my friends and my family at home. I could
touch it and feel the presence of the chain on my neck and then my thoughts would turn to those people and all
that I had left back home in America.
And now I have discovered a marvelous thing...it works in reverse. Now when I wear it and feel its presence I am
not only reminded of my God but also of all the family and friends I have left in Sweden.
Study
After a week of sight seeing in Stockholm and Upsalla I noticed that no one, except for a few people I saw working
in the churches, wore a cross. And the only visible signs of Christianity were the 700 year old rune stones that
I had so eagerly touched in Upsalla and the Gideon Bible I found in the hotel room (written in Swedish of course).
Since Sweden has a state church and you have to pay taxes to belong, no one does except for those hatch, match
and dispatch times of life. All this was food for contemplation. It also made me research rune stones when I got
home!
Action and an Unexpected Witness
It seemed to me that the action of the cross was towards me. First my Dad asking me if I would go with him to Sweden,
then Kurt's presenting it to me, and its effect on me....
But the real action came in an unexpected way:
I was sitting in the living room of my cousin Maria and had her 9 year-old daughter glued to me, as always. She
was playing with the cross on the chain. She does not speak English well and looked at me as if to say ‘What is
this and why are you wearing it?' This her mother soon confirmed. So now I had an opportunity to tell her how I
felt about God, my friends and my way of keeping contact in mind. This was soon translated to the whole room of
people sitting with us. And Anna, my 9 year-old friend, had the best reaction of all....she hugged the stuffing
out of me!
I had one more opportunity. As many of my friends know, E-mail has become my passion. I began to questions my relatives
about religion and spirituality in Sweden. At first, I got answers like ‘I'll get back to you on that!' but soon
I had a multitude of different opinions and I found myself being greatly enriched by each one's theology. And so,
they have also in their way witnessed to me and the ripple continues.....
Study
Book Review by The Rev. Elizabeth Eddy
Bryant, Charles V., Rediscovering Our Spiritual Gifts,
Upper Room Books: Nashville 1991.
[A reason to read this book now is that it will be used at the Fourth Day weekend coming November 14-16.]
The "Grace-Gifts Discovery Inventory" can be fun if you do not take it too seriously. The author declares
an attitude of openness, pro Holy Spirit and anti-establishment; he writes, "....Christians drifted from
the direct endowment of the Holy Spirit....A priesthood of special persons dominated an unpriestly laity,"..(p.14)
And "... Gifts are innumerable. Their variety is as wide as our acceptance." (p.16)
The author lists twenty-one, simplified from Biblical lists (Ro 12:1-8; I Cor 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16 and I Peter 4:10-11)
and adds to them another eleven he identifies as additional ministries he considers gifts. One must be careful,
however, to take this book simply as a starting point, not a definitive work.
Most of the book presents an examination of these 32, giving chapter and verse on their sources. The texts are
not examined critically, which lends a "fundamentalist" air to the book. Mr. Bryant begins his treatment
of each gift with an examination of its name's Greek root but adds little more than his own personal experiences.
He divides the gifts into 7 groups, allocating them to chapters. The Inventory is given for the purpose of self-testing
the reader.
This is one point at which caution must be exercised, as will be reiterated on the weekend. The 32 listed gifts
are not all accepted by all readers today. They may strike some readers as downright peculiar. Further, one is
testing for gifts according to the criteria given in this book. If the author is serious about the infinite creativity
and generosity of God, it seems quite possible that some readers today possess one or more of the traditional gifts
in a nontraditional way; or may possess nontraditional gifts. Some people probably will eschew any "giftedness"
(note the typology of possibilities on p. 52).
Eventually a desire to study the gifts more seriously may occur to many readers. There are many questions not posed
in this book. How do we distinguish "spiritual gifts" from talents or proclivities? Do we distinguish
spiritual phenomena which do not come from God? If so, how do we know? And so forth.
As long as we remain open to the presence of God, we can discover new moments of spirituality, moments which seem
somehow "close to God", "close to Christ."
Reading this book will prepare one to explore his/her relationship to traditional Christianity and thereby create
a springboard for further personal exploration into piety and study; and perhaps even prompt the reader to action,
willing to "practice as is preached."
Action
Tom Osucha
Messiah, Chester/Long Valley
ACTION - DON"T DO IT ALONE
From Hebrews 10:24, "Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works." I would like
to share an action that took over a year to begin and it started (and is continuing) with prayer.
Since my weekend, I have seen my work place as the environment that I thought I should be focusing my Action on,
especially with the time I spend there. When I attended a NECC SENT (Strategy for Evangelizing Environments) workshop
a couple of years ago, the speakers reminded us of a specific Group Reunion (i.e., Environmental Group Reunion)
that we should consider starting, to support us in transforming our environments for God. The idea was to form
a group of "like" people (in an environment) who could focus on prayer and study of that place and out
of that, specific action to make a change (or difference) where they are.
After that weekend and MUCH prayer, I took a risk and asked a few co-workers if they would like to get together
once a week at lunch to pray, study, and support each other in our work. I had gotten to know a few of them through
casual conversations in the hall about God and prayer and thus I had a starting nucleus for a group.
At our first get together, I shared a little about Group Reunion and my hope for our weekly meetings. Over the
past eight months, we have grown to 6 people who are studying what it means to serve God in a corporate world.
We support each other through prayer and E-mail and have enabled God's light and love to blossom some more in our
work place.
Our Action has included prayer for bosses, projects, work stresses, and relationships at work and home. From some
of the changes that have occurred in my office, I believe that those prayers have been answered in small and big
ways. I leave you with this: Christians are like coals of fire - together, they glow; apart, they grow cold. ULTREYA!!!!
Secretariat
Annual Meeting
It is not too early to begin thinking about the annual meeting which will be held February 6, 1999. A potluck
supper will be followed by the election of a new slate of officers. The positions of Lay Director, Secretary
and two at- large members are open. A nominating committee will be formed and their names published next month.
If you know of someone that would like to serve, please pass it on to a member of this committee.
From the Treasurer
Cathie Studwell
St. John the Divine, Hasbrouck Heights
I hope that you have enjoyed receiving the mail that the Servant Community has been sending to the Community during
the past few months.
In the beginning of the year the Servant Community took action to increase communication to the community. The
NewArk comes every month keeping you informed of Cusillo events, postcards are sent out periodically to let you
know about upcoming Ultreyas, as well as other flyers to let you know about special events.
I would like to thank Christ Church, Pompton Lakes for allowing us to use their bulk mailing permit, which provides
us with a less expensive rate for our mailings.
If you have enjoyed receiving the various mailings and would like to help to continue to support our efforts to
increase communications in the future, please consider making a donation to help cover our costs. Any amount would
be appreciated.
Please send donations to:
Cathie Studwell
229 East First Street
Clifton, NJ 07011
If you do not wish to receive these newsletters, please write a note with your complete name and address and the
instructions to remove your name from the mailing list. Mail it to:
Louise Clarke
115 Cork Hill Road
Franklin, NJ 07416
News from NECC
Tom Osucha
Messiah, Chester/Long Valley
This is just another reminder that the NEC Seminar (an annual event) is being held this year in Dallas, Texas
from October 2-4 at the DFW Lakes Hilton. The cost of attending the seminar is $180. This is a great chance to
strengthen your understanding of the Cursillo Movement, fellowship, worship, and just have fun. The recent 4th
Day magazine has the details or you can contact anyone on the Secretariat.
There will be an Episcopal Cursillo Leaders Workshops (ECLW) hosted by the Diocese of Virginia on Nov. 20-22 and
the contact is Ted Simpson (703-273-1019). This workshop is a great opportunity to strengthen the Sunday message
and one's understanding of the tools of the Fourth Day.
Servant Community
Speakers' Bureau
Members of the Cursillo Speakers' Bureau will be happy to come to your congregation to speak and answer questions
about the Cursillo program. Karen Dunsmore has agreed to co- ordinate this activity for us. She will be happy to
arrange a speaker's visit to your services, coffee hour or whenever you deem best. Karen us assisted by Tom Osucha
and the Reverend Dr. Elizabeth Eddy. Please call Karen at 973-361- 5333.
Let Your Light Shine Through!
Make the choice to share a weekend with your 4th Day Community on November 13-15, 1998 at he Sacred Heart Center
in Newton.
By now you should have received, in the mail, a reservation form for the 4th Day weekend. Plans are being finalized
for a fantastic weekend where you will finally learn the answer to the question of what weaving, ice cream, and
inventories have to do with your 4th Day life.
The reservation form allows you to choose from a number of different session that you can attend during he weekend.
If you cannot share the entire weekend with us, please try to attend whatever sessions that you can.
We are very excited about our Saturday evening program. Frank Runyeon, a popular television actor and performer
of Biblical texts, will be presenting a one-man theatrical performance of Jesus' teaching on discipleship. Mr.
Runyeon has appeared on such television programs as L.A. Law and Melrose Place. He is also nationally known for
his translation and performance of Biblical texts including Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
Whatever part of the weekend you choose to join us will enhance your 4th Day journey as well as contribute to enriching
our Cursillo community.
NewArk #25 News
Barb Cianciulli
St. Peter's, Mt. Arlington
Team 25--Where are you?
Be on the lookout for 25 people with big grins on their faces and glowing heartlights. You'll know you're
looking at the future team for Newark #25. Applications are out there. (There's one in this issue!) Take a second
(or two...) to look it over. Then think, pray and study about it. If you feel the call, PLEASE fill it out and
send it in to me. As you already know, Christ is counting on you. If you've already served on a team-- we need
your experience. If this is your first time even thinking about it, we need your enthusiasm. If team itself isn't
in the picture, we can use casa, prayer or talk support. If you have any doubts, we need your humility... (Gotcha!!--
we really need YOU)
Don't delay-- send your completed application to Barb Cianciulli before October 12.
Cursillo Hot line
Do you miss the Cursillo Hotline? Do you want it reinstated? The Secretariat has discussed setting another
hotline up but there is a cost associated with this. With funds limited we want to know how important this feature
of our Cursillo Community is. If you used this telephone line in the past and would like it implemented again,
please leave a message on Louise Clarke's answering machine at: 973-827-2832.
Diocese of NJ Ultreya
The Diocese of New Jersey's Cursillo Community will be holding its first Ultreya on Saturday, October 3, 1998 at
3:00 PM at th Convent of St. John the Baptist in Mendham as it begins rebuilding its community. The Witness speakers
will be Bishop Vincent Pettit and his wife Virginia. Elizabeth Eddy will provide Spiritual Direction. Come and
show your support for our neighboring Cusillistas.
New Bishop's Consecration
Remember to mark your calendars for November 21, 1998 for the consecration of our Bishop- electJ ohn Croneberger.
It is to be held at the Essex Community College in Newark. More news will be made available as we hear it.
E-MAIL address
Do you have an e-mail address? Would you like to receive Cursillo news via e-mail? If so, please send you address
to Louise Clarke at lclarke@nac.net
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