Spiritual Director’s Message Men’s Weekend News Reflections From A Retired Cursillista 4th Day Chair Message Spotlight on Apostolic Action—Holy Grill of St Nicholas Spotlight on Apostolic Action—Holy Re-deemer Food Pantry EWC #111 Message From the Editor Cursillo Calendar Grand Ultreya

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 10

Inside this issue:

Greetings and blessings one and

all! I hope everyone has been en-

joying the wonderful days of sum-

mer.

My husband, Bob, and I have had

an amazing summer with a mission

trip to Belize; a vacation to New-

foundland to visit people Bob met

during the 9/11 tragedy and then

just very recently the birth of our

second granddaughter, Payton.

Our hearts are full and we are

grateful.

Through the events of this summer,

I continue to be amazed by God's

weaving of our lives. Bob and I have

enjoyed mission work together for

years and this year Belize was no

exception.

In Newfoundland, I got to see the

places Bob unexpectedly went to in

Gander and Gambo, Newfoundland

as he was coming home on an

American Airlines plane from Paris

and diverted to Newfoundland due

to the closing of our borders.

The townspeople were welcoming

and made every effort to take care

of their guests.

I met these folks - Ted and Holly

and Graham and Maxine and nu-

merous oth-

ers.

I was

touched by

God's

blessings in

a foreign

land and

among peo-

ple, I had

never met

before.

And then, Payton was born and our

family found new love and grew a

bit bigger. Moreover, God contin-

ues to teach me how to love.

For me, this abundance of joy and

gratefulness was a direct result of

Cursillo. My walk with Christ picked

up the pace because of my week-

end. Having Jesus with me sharing

this journey gives me cause for

hope and joy. Then, the icing on

the cake - the friendships that have

been forged through our Cursillo

community and diocese.

Our next Cursillo event is a Men's

Weekend coming up October 6th

through 9th. We need pilgrims.

Please prayerfully consider spon-

soring

Lay Director’s Message

Fall 2016 Volume 1, Issue 4

The Official On-line Publication for the Episcopal Cursillo® Move-ment of the Diocese of Southeast Florida — Published Quarterly

continued on page 8

Fall 2016 Page 2

Throughout the weekend the

Holy Spirit infuses love into the

Pilgrim’s environment and the

heart begins its transformation

into a new understanding of

God’s purposes and ways.

At the Closura a new creation

emerges, wearing the same

shell, celebrated and sent out

proclaiming the love of Jesus to

a waiting world.

I have not met one Pilgrim who

was not anxious anticipating the

transition from their present

weekly routine to the vast un-

known of the Cursillo Weekend!

I have met only a very few who,

after attending the weekend,

have not had their hearts trans-

formed into the deeper experi-

ence and love of God in Jesus.

I suggest to you sisters and

brothers that the Cursillo Week-

end, combined with the faithful

and sacrificial commitments of

the Cursillo community, are cer-

tain and powerful instruments of

evangelism.

Within the tool box of Grace the

Episcopal Church has in her

storehouse, I rate the Cursillo

experience as the most powerful

means of transformative evan-

gelism we posses, following that

of the Holy Scriptures and the

Sacraments.

We are charged by Christ to use

these and other gifts of the Spirit

to benefit God’s people!

Every morning upon our awak-

ening we are to remind our-

selves of this Divine fact. If we

so choose to enter the daily dis-

cipleship of Jesus we must ask,

“Am I really, really deciding to

show Jesus to the world as I live

this day? Do I really, really ask

Jesus to take all that I am and

use it for His purposes?”

If we each can say “Amen” to

these questions, you and I can

rest assured God is doing a

greater thing through us and for

the world than we could either

ask or imagine!

Aren’t holy transitions great?

With God’s Love,

Fr. Bernie Pecaro †

De Colores Dear Cursillistas of

the Diocese,

This past month Sylvia and I

took our son, John William, to

Tuskegee University, Alabama,

to begin his collegiate career.

Many of you know the feeling of

seeing your last child depart the

nest and begin a new life outside

the parental and protective care

we have provided. It is for us,

and perhaps for you, a time of

relief and joy. But there are also

the certain feelings of sadness

as we live into a new transition.

Life is filled with many transi-

tions. Some of those experi-

ences are overflowing with joy

and splendor, like the celebration

of a marriage, or the birth of a

child. Others are shrouded in

blankets of sorrow and grief like

the death of a beloved family

member, or friend. Transitions by

their very nature raise our fear

and anxiety. Transition means

change and change, joyous or

difficult, threatens our level of

personal comfort.

When transition leads into the

spiritually enlightened state of

transformation there we find at

work Actual Grace. The Cursillo

experience is one such special

avenue of God’s Grace. There,

the work of transition meets the

spiritually enlightened state of

transformation and a new and

holy beginning is born.

Here’s how I see it working. The

Pilgrim responds to Grace and

says, “I’m going!” S/he attends

the Send Off and the transition is

begun.

Spiritual Director’s Message

“I rate the Cursillo experi-

ence as the most powerful

means of transformative

evangelism we posses,

following that of the Holy

Scriptures and the Sacra-

ments.”

EMC #93 October 6—9, 2016

My name is Douglas Jackson. I

worship at Church of the Ascen-

sion in Miami. I attended EMC

#80 where I sat at the table of St.

Luke!!

The team for EMC #93 is in place. It was not an easy job, but with faith and prayers all things are possible. The team meetings have been going quite good. The first critique was awesome. The talks were great and both cri-tiquers Mr. Anthony Simons and Ms. Brenda McGintis were im-pressed by the talks. It would be a real pity if there are no pilgrims in the room to hear these talks.

We’re appealing to the Cursillo community to make an effort to look around their church par-ishes for some good men, who would benefit from a spiritual journey to walk and talk with Je-sus Christ over the weekend. We only have six weeks remaining before the start of the weekend. I am also asking that you keep the team in your daily prayers and also the pilgrims that will be at-tending the weekend.

We are also encouraging the servant community to start work-ing on their Palanca. These gifts are usually beautiful and they warm the hearts of those receiv-ing them. But most of all prayer palanca is very important to the success of the weekend.

Below is a list of donations we hope to receive for the weekend.

90 Placemats for Friday evening with scripture reading.

90 Placemats for Saturday eve-ning.

60 Pilgrims Guide covers

Prayer chain.

Number of items:

90 Dining Room Palanca

90 Pillow Palanca for Pilgrims & Team

60 Rollo Room Palanca

42 Pilgrims Pillow Palanca

Please remember to include a 3”x 5” index card with a descrip-tion of the Palanca, how many, weather it is for pillow palanca, dining or Rollo room etc. Name of church, reunion groups or indi-viduals giving the Palanca.

The logo for the weekend is available on the Cursillo website at http:/www.sef-cursillo.org. It can be downloaded.

SNACKS TO SERVE OUTSIDE DURING BREAKS & COFFEE.

Apples, bananas, grapes, or-anges, nutri-bars, cheese, crack-

ers etc.

Snacks for the Rollo Room.

Granola bars, Pretzels, miniature chocolates, mints, mixed nuts.

Desserts

Friday Noon and dinner, Satur-day Noon and dinner and also Sunday Noon.

Drinks

Apple juice, Cranberry juice, Ice tea (sweet & unsweet), 2-liter sodas and gallon bottles of wa-ter. (No individual cans or bottles please).

Wines for Saturday night (red only) and non-alcoholic Spar-kling Cider or Grape Juice.

The Cha-Cha’s responsible for the receiving and monitoring the gifts are listed below. Please make an effort to contact them.

General Palanca Cha:

Hugh Gilchrist, hkbg@bellsouth.net (305-793-6002)

Food Palanca Cha:

WWWEEEEEEKKKEEENNNDDD NNNEEEWWWSSS

continued on page 8

Page 3 Counting On You

Fall 2016 Page 4

which to store the beds and all of

the equipment used during the

Cursillo weekend.

And we don’t need a very large

team of volunteers to setup, run,

cook, serve, and take down, and

repack the semi-van for the next

weekend.

We don’t “rough it” like we used

to but the essentials of the Cur-

sillo weekend are there.

It was the best opportunity in

town to encounter Jesus Christ

and experience him in the wider

community of the church but

Cursillo had her faults, most of

which have been corrected over

the years.

There was too much secrecy and

some tendency toward rigidity

during those early days such as

don’t tell anyone anything at all

about what you experienced and

men had to go first.

When I was Spiritual Director un-

der Bishop Schofield, we did

away with most of these ele-

ments which impeded the procla-

mation of the true message of

Cursillo, New Life in Jesus

Christ.

I am Bryan Hobbs. I attended

Men’s Cursillo #9 in 1976 or

1977, where I sat at the table of

St. Luke at St. Stephen’s

Church, Coconut Grove (that’s

where all of the Cursillos were

held in those days.)

I didn’t go voluntarily.

I was coerced by Fr. Leo Alard,

then rector of St. John’s Church,

Homestead and later the Bishop

Suffragan in the Diocese of

Texas.

Since I had only been ordained

for little over a year and Leo was

one of the senior clergy, I de-

cided to go since it was sort of

go or “I’ll kill you!’ invitation. I

took Leo at his word and went.

Needless to say, I liked it. It was

not the first time I had been to a

wonderful renewal event but be-

ing an extravert and accustomed

to such events, I loved it from the

moment of the opening prayers

and the joyful singing.

Bunking with 50 snoring partici-

pants in St. Stephen’s parish hall

was a thrill as was adjusting to

the makeshift showers.

But all in all, my Cursillo week-

end was very moving and cre-

ated bonds that have lasted over

40 years.

Well, lots have happened to the

Cursillo Movement in the dio-

cese. We no longer use

churches to house our Cursillo

weekends.

We no longer have a semi-van in

As a priest in Key West and then

in Pembroke Pines, I recruited

as many people as possible to

make their Cursillo.

Many did and they became the

leaders of our churches.

The recruiting and training of po-

tential leaders is one of the key

elements of any church that

wishes to experience the dy-

namic presence of Jesus Christ.

There are many, many additional

methods of experiencing Jesus

Christ as the Living Lord (trust

me…I discovered and employed

many – Discovery Weekend, Re-

treats, Quiet Days, Mission

Trips, etc.) but this was the one

approach that allowed a diverse

group of “seekers” to experience

the presence of Jesus Christ in a

much larger context than their

individual lives or as a member

of one congregation.

Cursillo opened the doors for

new and exciting ways to serve

Jesus Christ while preserving the

basic elements of our faith as

experienced in the Anglican

Communion.

Quite frankly, the congregations

that I served for over 40 years

Reflections From A Retired Cursillista

By The Ven. Dr. Bryan A. Hobbs, Archdeacon (Retired)

continued on next page

“I didn’t go voluntarily.

I was coerced by Fr.

Leo Alard. Needless to

say, I liked it. ”

Page 5 Counting On You

and speakers rounds out a very

worthwhile event. Hope to see

many of you folks there!

On November 5th the Grand Ul-

treya will take place at St. Mary

Magdalene in Coral Springs. We

are all very excited about this

happening!

The St. M&M committee has

been working hard in preparation

for this joyous event.

Please encourage your parish

communities, especially your

newest Cursillistas, to attend.

The Grand Ultreya is a wonderful

way to reenergize ourselves as

we live through our 4th Day.

As 4th Day Chair I have been

spending more time talking with

folks about the kinds of apostolic

action and other 4th Day activities

that are taking place around our

diocese.

I have heard some of the most

amazing stories and witnessed

many generous acts of kindness.

De Colores Cursillistas!

I hope everyone has been hav-

ing a blessed and relaxing sum-

mer!

As we move into our fall season

activity starts to rev-up again

with work, meetings, projects

and events.

In our Cursillo community we

have 3 major events coming up

on our calendar.

The EMC #93 will be held on

Oct. 6-9 with Douglas Jackson

serving as Rector.

Pray for the pilgrims and team

and get your palanca ready!

On October 21-22 the Episcopal

Cursillo Ministry will hold its Na-

tional Conference on Long Is-

land, New York.

The National Conference is a

wonderful way to meet Cursillis-

tas from many different dioceses

and learn how other communities

work to bring friends to Christ.

The diversity of the workshops

4th Day Chair Message By Karen Weeks

Please share these stories and

moments with our community by

submitting a short article (or long

one!) with a photo/s to COY.

You can read one terrific story in

this issue written by veteran Cur-

sillistas Jim and Kathy Barnette.

Just email Jim Wells and let him

know you’re contributing.

Hopefully we will come to know

better the awesome work that is

taking place for our Lord.

In His Service,

Karen Weeks

Cursillo continues to evolve as it

should; leaders change, sched-

ules are adjusted from time to

time, and there are always new

songs to help us worship and

become unified in the expression

of our faith.

But the essence of Cursillo…

forming at tables, sharing our

faith, hearing the stories of our

leaders, shedding our burdens,

rejoicing with tears, and celebrat-

ing our life in Jesus Christ – will

never change.

Archdeacon Bryan

Hobbs † (Retired)

Cursillista Reflections (Continued from previous page) would not have experienced the

excitement of serving Jesus

Christ in so many ways if it had

not been for the Cursillo experi-

ence.

And the real plume at the core of

my experience in Cursillo has

been the many friendships I have

found and maintained for so

long.

These I truly cherish.

Page 6

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Fall 2016

Feeling a call to move outside

church walls and beyond the

boundaries of fixed sites, St

Nicholas Church in Pompano

Beach is launching an exciting

new mobile feeding ministry that

will provide spirit-lifting

hot meals to the home-

less.

The parish purchased a

food trailer, which they

have named The Holy

Grill of St. Nicholas.

Initially, The Holy Grill

intends to offer breakfast

packaged in biodegrad-

able paper containers in

order to minimize the car-

bon footprint of this min-

istry. Soon dinners will

be provided, also.

While the primary mis-

sion of The Holy Grill of St.

Nicholas is to serve hot, spirit-

lifting meals to the homeless,

disaster relief is an ancillary min-

istry. So should a hurricane

strike anywhere in the Diocese of

Southeast Florida, the Grill is

prepared to transport food and

water to the affected area.

The Holy Grill also intends to act

as a clearinghouse of information

about other resources and refer-

rals in an effort to mitigate some

of the harmful effects of home-

lessness and to reduce the over-

all problem in the community.

In August, Rev. R. Gerard

Klingenberg agreed to serve as

the Ministry Director for this feed-

ing program and Diane Wagner

agreed to serve as the Food Co-

ordinating Manager. The food

trailer was wrapped, clearly iden-

tifying it as a ministry of St.

Rule of Life: Spotlight on Apostolic ACTION

Holy Grill of St. Nicholas - Feeding Bodies & Souls

Nicholas

Episcopal

Church.

St Nicholas admits this ministry

will be a huge undertaking for a

small church. To succeed, it

needs Volun-

teers!!! The

church needs peo-

ple to pick up food

from various ven-

dors, stock the

pantry, prepare

daily meals in the

church kitchen, to

the trailer, and

serve food in the

trailer.

Volunteers of all

faiths or no faith

affiliation are wel-

come, provided

you have a caring heart for our

less fortunate brothers and sis-

ters.

Please contact Rev. Gerard

Klingenberg, at holy-

grill@stnicholasfl.org or (954)

913-3594 for further information

or questions. Please spread the

word that St. Nicholas could use

your help.

Page 7 Counting On You

to learn enough Spanish to wel-

come and register them. I try to

learn a new helpful phrase or

question each week and it has

been an experience.

We are sharing this with you be-

cause we see this as true Apos-

tolic Action. We are doing what

Christ has told us to do. Go out

into the world and show His

love.

It is always more comfortable to

stay within your church family

and do things together.

We encourage you to keep doing

that. But we felt that Christ

wanted us

to broaden our service. Make

new friends, be a friend and

show the love of Christ is alive

and well on this planet, despite

the actions of some. We see

many of the same peo-

ple week after week and

we interact with them,

taking the time to learn a

little about them.

One of the ladies that

Kathy sees often told her

that she had to have a

breast biopsy. Kathy

checked her registration

card and sent her a note

saying she would be

praying for her.

The woman was greatly

touched and on her next

visit she went straight to Kathy

and gave her a big hug. We of-

ten see those in need respond-

ing gratefully to people like us

who take action .... “In a loving,

caring Christian way”

There is opportunity all around

you to share you love of

Christ. as always, you will re-

ceive far more than you give.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in

Christ, we are Jim & Kathy

Barnette. We worship at Holy

Spirit Church in West Palm

Beach. We attended Episcopal

Men’s Cursillo #24 and Episco-

pal Women’s Cursillo #22

where we sat at the tables

of St. Paul and St. Marga-

ret.

Almost every Tuesday

morning for the past

seven years, We have

gone to Holy Redeemer in

Lake Worth to serve at

their food pantry. Kathy,

in fact, has been doing

this for many more

years. We join several

other members of Holy

Spirit each week.

Kathy’s job is to greet returning

people and register their atten-

dance before they join the line to

receive the food.

At first, I just handed out car-

rots, onions and potatoes.

When the “new people” registrar

left, I volunteered to take his

place. That meant I would have

Rule of Life: Spotlight on Apostolic ACTION

Holy Redeemer Food Pantry By Jim & Kathy Barnette

Page 8 Counting On You

EMC #93 News (Continued from page 3)

Time passes so fast and we all are very

busy.

God is Counting on You to help with the

next EMC #93 in October. The reunion

group I belong to has been working on

placemats and we have incorporated a

new baby chick into our reunion group.

Today we faxed in two applications for the

men's weekend. Please join me and en-

courage your men to go and be a part of

this incredible gift God has provided for all of us in this Diocese.

Blessings , Cheryl Rectora, EWC #111

Message from EWC #111

Paul Madeira, ptmadeira8@gmail.com (954-288-4946)

Thank you all in advance for your support of EMC # 93. Please follow the list on the Cursillo website as some of the above items has already been donated.

“The harvest is truly plenteous but the laborers are few……” Matt 9: 37-38.

God bless you all!

Douglas Jackson,

Rector- EMC #93

Djacko235@gmail.com 305-305-2650

someone. And, as always, please keep the weekend in your prayers.

We also have a Grand Ultreya fast approaching on November 5th at St. Mary Magdalene Episco-

pal Church in Coral Springs. Much planning is taking place and I encourage all to participate and bring a friend, even someone you may be thinking of sponsoring. This is an opportunity to come to-

gether as a diocesan community and spend time with our Lord and each other for spiritual nourish-

ment.

I look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events.

In His Love,

Pam Anderson

Lay Director’s Message (Continued from first page)

story in ancient Hebrew used

the word Abba for God —

Daddy, NOT Father. He en-

couraged us to seek that type

of closeness with our heavenly

Father on the weekend. And

we would find that his yoke IS

easy and His burden light.

Our Rector, Douglas, has cho-

sen a new song for his week-

end that promises to be an in-

stant favorite to all who hear it.

But the weekend needs help in

recruiting pilgrims.

Please search your hearts and

minds for men who might be

looking to improve their faith

journey and walk closer to

Christ.

Remember that we are to talk

to God and our rectors about

those men, BEFORE talking to

the men about Cursillo.

I also need your help to share

your stories about how Cursil-

listas are living out their 4th

Days with Apostolic Actions.

And, I

am

looking

for input

from the

Com-

munity

on the

origins

of the Men’s & Women’s

Mighty Bands of God and on

how Cursillo weekends worked

before they were conducted at

the Duncan Center.

De colores,

Jim Wells jrwells2@comcast.net

From The Editor By Jim Wells

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

in Christ, I write to you after re-

turning from one of the last

Team Meetings for EMC #93

where we celebrated a Team

Mass, received our Commis-

sion and washed each other’s

feet.

What a moving set of experi-

ences.

Our Spiritual Director reminded

us that it was our sacred duty to

be Servants on the weekend.

That there was no more impor-

tant function for us as we had

the power to help effect life

changing transformations on

the Pilgrims on behalf of our

loving God.

And in the process, we might

also be transformed because

God is not through with us.

At the previous Team meeting,

Fr. Tom Graff read the portion

of gospel when Jesus speaks

about being as innocent as chil-

dren. He pointed out that the

October 6-9 2016 Episcopal Men’s Cursillo

Weekend #93, Duncan Center, Delray Beach

November 5, 2016 Grand Ultreya, Central

Sector, St. Mary Magdalene in Coral Springs.

Is your parish hosting a 4th Day Celebration??

Let the Community know about it!

Share it here in C.O.Y.!!

Send your Announce-

ments, Fliers, Stories &

pictures to

jrwells2@comcast.net

See us on the Web

www.sef-cursillo.org

Cursillo Calendar

Page 9 Counting On You

Page 10 Counting On You