Christ Renews Handout
(This informational handout may be shared with teams at the beginning of formation. Copy and paste into an email or into a document for distribution.)
1. Christ Renews His Parish is a copyrighted parish renewal process that has existed since 1969 and been recommended by the renewal office of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Christ Renews has been used as the primary instrument of personal and parish renewal in over 1345 parishes in 102 dioceses, in 39 states in the USA and in five other countries, without benefit of advertising and full time staff. We believe that if the Lord wants to use CRHP in a parish, He'll tell someone there. Parishes using Christ Renews agree to use the process only within their own parish after obtaining the legal rights to use it.
2. Christ Renews is structured to become part of normal parish life without becoming another organization. Christ Renews supports other parish organizations and ministries by sending renewed, previously uninvolved parishioners into these other groups. The whole process is much more than just a weekend retreat.
3. Christ Renews has four parts:
A. Attend one overnight weekend retreat: take the next step in your spiritual journey. Focus on self - your own relationship with God. Done separately by gender.
B. Serve on the next team: go through a time of team formation, preparation, and catechesis. Focus on small group – praying, working, learning, us together.
C. Minister a Christ Renews weekend: authentic, approved experience of lay ministry in the parish. Focus on them – meeting, serving, ministering to participants – them.
D. Search for the Lord's call to what is next. Focus on the life of the church. Facilitates sending people into other ministries in the parish, community and diocese.
4. When people complete Christ Renews, they are called parishioners. Most participants go on to be a greater part of parish life. A few participants go on to coordinate the parish Christ Renews ministry under the pastor, thus lessening any addition to the task list of an already hard working pastor.
5. Christ Renews requires assistance from outside the parish to start. Once parish renewal has started, it continues using parishioners only.
6. Christ Renews is designed for Catholic parishes and/or sacramental/liturgical churches. It works best in parishes with a reasonable number of members. It is not associated with any particular school of spirituality or mode of prayer. Christ Renews is based on Word and Sacrament and utilizes much prayer, Scripture, liturgy and sharing. It operates in a parish under the authority of the pastor.
Retreat weekend schedule. The time schedule for the normal parish weekend has remained basically the same since 1969. It has stood the test of time.
Co-ed weekends. Co-ed weekends is bad ministry. Coed complicates overnight stays. Over time, the program becomes predominantly female, kills healthy male participation, complicates sharing of personal life. Also violates the copyright. If a parish decides to offer coed retreats – change the name.
Location. Great value in hosting the weekend at the parish. Don’t have to go away to a shrine or retreat house to experience the best of church. Also, weekend Mass attendees see something special going on – witness value.
Copyright, changes. Many parishes make minor adjustments based on their history, ethos, worship practices, and facilities. Such changes can be authorized by the pastor and/or continuation committee. Individual teams do not have the authority to change the process. Major adjustments as listed in the handbook in part five violate the copyright and may be made only after changing the name of the process.
Stay overnight. The normal practice is to stay overnight – builds relationship among the team and participants, temporarily frees the participants from some distractions, and contributes to making the church into even more holy ground. Occasionally, there may be a pastoral personal need to make an exception. Do not make the exception into the new policy. Do not advertise such exceptions.
Witness talks. Talks on a Christ Renews weekend are witness talks, not teachings or testimonies. Each witness fits into a bigger plan. A witness talk is not the story of a whole life, but selected events in a person’s life which speak to the theme of the witness. There is a “framework for reflection” for each witness in the manual. These are suggested things to ponder when preparing a witness. These pages are NOT an outline for a witness. The individual theme of the witness connects to selected events in the life of a witness to form an outline and a witness talk.
Secrecy, confidentiality. There is nothing secret about anything that occurs on a Christ Renews weekend. However, personal details shared in a witness or personal conversations are confidential, and must not be violated. Such violations can kill parish renewal and damage a person’s life.
CRHP shirts, pins, coffee mugs, etc. Be sensitive not to foster the establishment of an elite sub-group with the parish. When someone completes Christ Renews, he or she is a parishioner. Please work so that Christ Renews does not become divisive in the parish.
Alcohol use. Be sensitive on the use of alcohol (beer, wine, etc.) during the CRHP weekend. Do not let your process become known as a heavy drinking time in the parish.
Food, menu. Suggest simple, nutritious, healthy, and non-gaseous food. There is value in soliciting donations from parishioners. Assure that menu does not become a “can you top this” experience from weekend to weekend. Most parishes have different menus for men and for ladies.
Music. Suggest that the music of the parish be used and not develop special “renewal music.” Respect copyrights.
Last comment: May your Christ Renews process become more known for what God is doing with His people than it is for the food, the music and the “party.”