President S Report for BACC AGM Meeting 20

President’s Report for BACC AGM Meeting 20.05.17 at St. Oswald’s Church Institute, Durham.

Since my last report to BACC in November, when I was unable to be with you in person, having given Linda and Cynthia (and myself!) a nasty shock by being taken into hospital the night before our meeting, I have tried to keep up to date with Cursillo nationally and to make visits when invited. The unfortunate accident which Linda had on her way home when she broke her shoulder, did mean that Cursillo went rather quiet for a while, with neither of us being able to do very much. I am enormously grateful that Linda worked very hard to ensure that we had all the information for our March Standing Committee meeting and am delighted that she has made such a good recovery. We have been able to meet and make plans together and we have spent a lot of time on the telephone!

Trevor and I met in December when we went through information from the Dioceses and I hope I was able to give him an overall picture of the state of Cursillo nationally.

BACC Pages finally made an appearance in February, and I can only apologise for the delay. It was almost ready to go to print just after the November BACC meeting but all the contributions which I had received (not prolific I must say!) somehow did not arrive in Jenny’s mail despite being sent without difficulty at my end. We were also waiting for information about the National Ultreya at Southwell this year and Jenny was, understandably, very reluctant to publish without this information. I hope that you have all seen a copy and been able to share it around the Dioceses.

Events in Cursillo nationally are usually quiet between the November meeting and the Standing Committee meeting, but I have tried to make use of this time to look ahead and make plans for the future. Many of your standing committee were coming to the end of their 3 year term of office and I asked them to look for someone to be able to take on these roles.

I have also had resignations from Jenny Neve our BACC Pages editor, and Anne Knyhynyckyj our Resources Officer. I am well aware that here have been some difficulties with the resources, although Anne did say that the new system (ordering 2 weeks before the national meetings) had been working well. However, there is a long time between the November meeting and the AGM in May, when some Dioceses may have had 2 weekends in that time and there may also have been more than one CLW. We need to consider how best to manage this in the future. I would like to record my sincere thanks to them both for their unstinting commitment to Cursillo for a very long time in several different roles, and especially my thanks to Anne who has, despite a lot of health issues continued to provide resources and has undertaken the printing of them at no cost to Cursillo.

At the SC meeting I asked for written reports from each of the Area Reps and this revealed some interesting data. Approximately one third of all who have been on a weekend are active Cursillistas in their own Diocese. Of the 12 Dioceses for which I had information, there is considerable variation in the number of Ultreyas held each year from one a month to 2 a year. Keeping up the momentum of meeting regularly in larger groups is I think one of the things which keeps Cursillo alive in a Diocese and there are sadly too many Dioceses where there are only 2 or 3 Ultreyas a year, although attendance then is often in the 30s. To meet regularly in differing areas, even if attended by only a small number of people, does, I think, keep Cursillistas involved and develop more leaders. Another serious concern is the lack of clergy taster days, despite some Dioceses’ best efforts. One Diocese is having success talking to Deanery Synods and this may be a way forward for Cursillo to consider more widely. There is also a serious lack across all Dioceses of Days of Deeper Understanding and I think this can contribute to losing momentum and also to understanding how the Fourth Day and regular Ultreya meetings are so encouraging. It is in the sharing and the accountability which we have to each other that Cursillo functions best and achieves its aims – to make leaders to grow Christ’s kingdom here and now. Weekends continue to consist of 8-12 participants and this is encouraging, although it does mean that Cursillo’s growth remains slow, adding only about 160 to our number each year. Four Dioceses had 2 weekends a year and all others one. However, sharing the method widely in churches through presentations at synods, clergy conferences, and chapter meetings and sharing the unique method is being taken up by several Dioceses. I am hopeful that this sort of outreach will grow.

I hope that my report does not make you feel despondent. We have 2 Dioceses keen to take on Cursillo for themselves and I hope that it will not be long before Rochester is well on its way. We have many folk willing to go to CLW weekends and these are very encouraging too. The response and attendance at national Ultreyas is excellent and for the first time we have Dioceses willing to host this event into 2020! We have had little difficulty getting Dioceses to host other national events and I am pleased to be able to hand over to Trevor in the knowledge that these are already booked ahead.

Trevor and I also both went to Leicester for their very well attended DDU in February and I was delighted to be able to deliver a talk on Sponsorship for them. It was good, too, to be able to catch up with Judy Craig-Peck at this event and we were able to discuss the next CLWs. I went to Coventry on 11th March for an extremely well organised and successful regional Ultreya which drew together Cursillistas from several Dioceses. It was so good to share with so many others and being in the Cathedral there reminded me of my last visit there as a student in 1968! Cynthia and I are both contributing to Peterborough’s Clergy Taster Day which will be held on 16th May. I do hope that some concrete plans may be made soon to encourage more clergy in Cursillo; it seems to me that until we can get Bishops suitably enthused and aware of how Cursillistas might be the very people they need to help move their initiatives ahead, and support parish clergy in their churches, that involving clergy is also going to be difficult. Cursillo remains largely unknown in many Dioceses and Trevor and I have talked about the need for a national publicity officer for Cursillo, who might be able to infiltrate the Church Times and spread the word!

At the SC meeting in March the committee decided that the time to update the resource booklets was long overdue, and Trevor and I had discussed this in one of our meetings. To this end, 10 of the SC have agreed to meet together over one weekend and update all the booklets in order to make them user friendly, more understandable and available for BAC Council members to access and refer to. The plan is that when all are complete they can be put on the secure page of the website as well as be printed for those who like to have a paper copy too.

I am pleased to be able to tell you that the Bishop of Jarrow (the Rt. Rev’d Mark Bryant) who is an enormous supporter of Cursillo has agreed to preside at the closing Eucharist and to commission Trevor as your new President.

I would like to thank you all for all that you are doing to keep Cursillo active and for your huge commitment to Cursillo. I have had a splendid team to work with on SC and have been delighted to be able to visit so many Dioceses. Thank you for always welcoming me so warmly. I have much appreciated all your support, patience and prayers particularly in the last few difficult months.

Ultreya!