Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Charismatics dine, pray in tongues

Monthly breakfast meetings allow for fellowship, personal testimonials

WCR PHOTO | CHRIS MILLER Edmonton's charismatic Catholics enjoy fellowship, prayer and a monthly breakfast.

EDMONTON - Enthusiasm for their faith, praying in tongues and 25 years of monthly prayer breakfasts have become the telltale signs of Edmonton's charismatic Catholics.

The prayer breakfasts are an outreach and evangelization tool of Catholic Renewal Services (CRS), which oversees the charismatic movement in the Edmonton Archdiocese.

The breakfasts are held the second Saturday of each month at Chateau Louis Conference Centre, 11727 Kingsway Ave.

The grand ballroom was at maximum capacity for the Jan. 9 breakfast, with an estimated 230 people present to actively praise the Lord, many with their hands raised high in the air.

The speaker was Peter Thompson of Calgary, invited to speak because he spoke at the first banquet in 1985. Thompson gave testimony of how the Lord has worked in his life.

A TIME OF SHARING

The charismatics show their happiness in being with the Lord. The breakfast is a means of fellowship, a means of bringing people together, as well as an opportunity to share how the Lord has been working in their lives.

Cory Yakimovich

New CRS chairperson, Cory Yakimovich, said that through the prayer breakfasts over the years God's Spirit has touched them and led them to lead authentic Christian lives and authentic ways of being churched.

Reflecting and praying with the pastoral team, she said that it's important to remember everyone who has volunteered with CRS in any capacity.

"It is with heartfelt appreciation that I wish to thank everyone here who have ever been a part of these breakfasts, either in their initiation through the years or who continue to faithfully serve in this area," said Yakimovich.

"Your commitment to the Lord and to one another, your payment is going to be heavenly. Your payment will come from our Father in heaven."

Attending the breakfasts off and on for the past 10 years, Eugene Kramps said that guests improve their walk with Christ and deepen their faith.

What makes the breakfasts so important is "the fact that it actually brings people together and have an experience of their faith.

"They have fellowship with others. It can also bring about conversions and healings."

Jim Hecker has been coming to the breakfasts since its inception and has been involved with CRS since the early 1970s.

"Coming together for breakfast, it's a time for fellowship and a time to share, prayer and to meet your brothers and sisters, and experience the love of the Lord," said Hecker.

Many who have attended over the past quarter century have developed a personal relationship with Jesus, he said.

MANY HEALINGS

"There have been many healings, and not necessarily physical healings. There are inner demons, people who are broken or come from an abusive situation, and they learn to surrender all of that to the Lord," said Hecker.

"In doing so, they forgive those people who have hurt them. When we forgive, we are always inclined to think that the forgiveness is for him or for her, but basically the forgiveness is for me."

Depending on what is troublesome in their personal lives, breakfast guests submit their prayer requests. Requests have included a new job, a successful medical operation and a marriage to be saved.

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