Calgary Men's Cursillo Weekend

I arrived home last night from the Calgary Men's Cursillo Weekend renewed and elated from the proceedings.

It was held at Entheos, about 20 minutes west of Calgary, a quiet and tranquil spot with beautiful grounds.

The Cursillo weekend started on Thursday evening, and on Sunday evening everyone left for home, and they were more than pleased with the weekend - I would say delighted from what I saw.

The Cursillo movement is world-wide, and the branch that I attended is part of the Anglican Cursillo movement, under the Diocese of Calgary, however there were several participants from other denominations who attended.

The Cursillo weekend is open to other denominations, in fact they are always very welcome. It should be said, that all believers in Jesus Christ are brothers and sisters and part of one church, the different branches have different ideas of worship and some different interpretations, but all are brothers and sisters and all members of one true church.

I heard testimonies from some of the men from other denominations, and in every case they said it was a very positive experience; I heard one man say that he was very glad to discover a different form of worship from his own faith tradition, and he was surprised in a positive way.

I attended a weekend during the fall of 2007 as a participant, and a couple of months ago I was invited to attend again as a volunteer in some role to help make the weekend a success for the participants, just as others had done for me two years ago.

After some thought, I responded to that invitation with a glad heart, however I had some questions as to how it would work for me. Now I know, and I am very glad that I answered that invitation - it has been a great experience for me.

What can I say about Cursillo to convey something of what this weekend meant to the participants and to this who are working to make it a success?

The first thing I can say is that it is founded on Christian love, which is at the heart of the Christian Gospel (good news).

Love is at the core of the weekend; Christ's love for the world is continued by His Church in community. Christ was at the centre of a community with His disciples and followers, Christ was the centre of the community of believers in the early church, and He is the centre of the Church today. (Unfortunately I must qualify that statement; He is the centre of the true church, sadly there are many churches who claim to be Christian but they teach something else; they adopt the title "christian" but sadly they are not.)

Here's a snippit from the Calgary Cursillo website (here) on the purpose of the weekend:

The weekend is an opportunity to meet other individuals who are seeking to strengthen their faith.

It provides an opportunity through shared prayer, worship, singing, study, fellowship, discussion, and love to experience the reality of the gift of God’s grace.

What does Cursillo do for those who attend?

It helps to renew and deepen Christian commitment. Cursillo is one of many renewal movements.

Many people have said Cursillo provides an important learning experience which causes many to feel like newly made Christians with a purpose and with support.

This is from the Cursillo Website of the National Episcopal Church in the US (Episcopal in the US is part of the world-wide Anglican Communion) read more here.

A mule deer buck stands guard. Entheos, Alberta, 2009

Cursillo is world-wide there will probably be an organisation available to you wherever you live, so if you would like to know more about Cursillo you can contact the local organisation. If you have a problem to find it please fell free to email me at gurth.whitaker@gmail.com, and I will make sure you get the information and alert the organisation wherever it is.



Gurth Whitaker
Calgary AB