Five Exmouth parishioners attended the lively Southwest Catholic Charismatic Renewal conference in the delightful surroundings of Brunel Manor over the weekend 11th-13th November in the great company of enthusiastic Christians, mostly Catholic but open to all. There was lively worship with hymns and songs old and new, and prayer ministry was available for whoever wished for prayer and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Although no priest was available to say Mass for us at the Conference, transport was very efficiently arranged to take us to St Mary’s Torquay on the Sunday morning.

The theme “Dare to Believe” was based on David Payne’s book of the same name, available from www.faithcafe.org. David, Catholic film producer (who produced and presented the Baptism course and I believe DVDs which we use in the parish) was one of our 3 inspirational speakers, the others being Jenny Baker and our own David Wells. All are high calibre international Catholic speakers.

Together they encouraged us to Dare to believe that we are
LOVED
FORGIVEN
RENEWED
WELCOMED
HEARD
FILLED
SENT
The talks informed, encouraged, challenged and inspired us as our speakers led us through each of these themes. Having come to the final session we are SENT to proclaim the Good News – not just by our lives but in words also (quite a challenge!). We came away inspired and fired up for action. A small group of us are planning to get together to pray and think about how the Lord is asking us to act at this time. This will take time and much prayer for discernment – so, watch this space….in due course!