Cursillo celebrates 30th anniversary

Almost 100 people gathered at the Big 4 Parklands in Dubbo on the weekend of May 1-3 for two days of celebration and encouragement, marking the 30th anniversary of the Cursillo Movement in the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst. 

The celebration followed a two-day meeting of the National Secretariat of Cursillo, held at the same venue, with most of the delegates choosing to stay on for at least part of the diocesan event.  

Diocesan Lay Director Liz Smith watches Rae Johnston, one of the first Cursillistas in the diocese, cut the anniversary cake.

The gathering also attracted a number of former residents of Bathurst Diocese who had been active in the Cursillo movement, but are now living elsewhere – including former Diocesan Lay Director Sue Bidwell and her husband Jock, and former Diocesan Spiritual Advisor Michael Birch and his wife Libby.

Friday evening’s program included two talks on the beginnings of Cursillo in Australia in 1973, and its introduction in Bathurst Diocese two years later. These talks were written by Wynne West and Rita Bryant of Cowra, who unfortunately were not able to attend the gathering in person so their contributions were read by the MCs for the weekend, Steffen John and Robyn Hull.

Wynne had attended the first Women’s Cursillo held in Australia, at Bishopsthorpe in Goulburn, and was a team member for Women’s 1 in Bathurst Diocese.

On Saturday Diocesan Lay Director of Cursillo, Liz Smith, picked up on the weekend theme, He has called your name, when she presented a talk entitled Answering the Call.

Liz compared the different responses of the Old Testament characters Samuel, Isaiah and Elijah when they had heard God’s call.

“How have we answered the call?” she asked, suggesting that Samuel’s response had been hesitant, Jeremiah had prevaricated, and Isaiah had readily accepted the call.

Outgoing National Lay Director Di Smith from Queensland followed up with two talks, entitled The Meaning of the Call and The Action of the Call.

She also drew on the book of Jeremiah, quoting Jer. 29:11 – “I know the plans I have for you”, but also pointing out that “God’s time is not our time” and we may need to be patient.

Di stressed the three essential ingredients of Cursillo: piety, study and action. She said the laity of the church are called to play their part, and this involves not only living a Godly life and the study of God’s word, but also being actively involved in God’s work through the church.

Paraphrasing James 2:17, she said that faith without action was dead. “The third leg of the Cursillo tripod stands or falls on this verse,” she said.

She also stressed the importance of the ‘Fourth Day’ of the Cursillo movement: the period after the three-day retreat.

“The fourth day is about responding to the call,” she said. “Keeping our fourth day alive and healthy is what every Cursillista should aspire to.”

Bishop Ian Palmer, the National Episcopal Advisor for the Cursillo Movement, spoke of the brokenness of society and the importance of forgiveness in his after-dinner speech on Saturday evening.

He quoted American playwright Eugene O’Neill, who wrote: “Man is born broken, he lives by mending, and the grace of God is the glue.”

“God has no need or compulsion to forgive, but chooses to do so – to right the wrongs of the world,” he said, adding a line from a song that had been sung prior to his speech: “We are the broken, You are the Healer.”.

He said that Cursillo’s gift was “a safe place to be broken”, and “in brokenness we receive grace”.

Lew Hitchick delivered the final talk of the weekend on Sunday morning, The Fourth Day: Responding to the Call.

He pointed out that the Cursillo method equipped and encouraged lay people for mission, but added that mission did not belong to the church.

Quoting Tim Dearborn, he said: “It’s not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission that has a church in the world”.

He also reminded the gathering that one of Bishop Ian’s constant themes over the past two years had been the need for churches to serve the communities in which they exist.

“What difference would it make to our communities, if the Anglican Church ceased to exist in this area?” he asked, pointing out that unless the church was serving the community in some way that no other group or agency was, then most people in the community would hardly notice if the church was to disappear.