St. Thomas the Apostle Anglican Church, Ottawa

Cursillo is a Spanish word that means "short course" and is pronounced "kur-SEE-yo". The movement began in Spain in the late 1940s with the intention of building faith and renewing the Church. It has since grown into a worldwide movement which has taken root within a number of denominations. Cursillo seeks to foster, develop and sustain Christian leaders and to encourage apostleship. The movement tries to provide participants with tools to live the Christian life more fully, with a resulting impact on the world.

Cursillo weekends are open to baptized Christian adults who are interested in a learning and growing experience. Everyone attending a weekend is sponsored by a member of the Cursillo community, someone who helps make arrangements for attending the weekend and provides practical and prayer support. The sponsor is responsible for introducing new Cursillo members to the wider Cursillo community. The parish priest must also support each registration. This initial Cursillo experience is a short course in Christianity presented over a three-day, live-in weekend.

Fundamental to Cursillo is the principle of ongoing support for Christians in their Christian walk. Cursillo weekends (Thursday evening to late Sunday afternoon) are held several times each year. Separate weekends are held for women and men. Members of each weekend's organizing team, both lay people and clergy, have been selected prayerfully and under the guidelines of the Diocesan Screening in Faith program. The format for the weekend includes a series of talks on the fundamentals of the Christian life, discussion, worship and fellowship. The content and the sequence of the talks is intended to lead participants into a closer encounter with themselves, others and God.

The Ottawa Anglican Cursillo Movement began in the Diocese of Ottawa in 1981 and more than 100 weekends have been held since then. It operates under the direct authority of the Bishop of Ottawa. Over 2,500 members of the Diocese have attended Cursillo weekends. The administrative responsibilities of the movement are carried out by the OACM Secretariat, a committee of lay people and clergy. The weekend, along with the cost of food and accommodation, is offered as a gift from those who have attended previous Cursillo weekends. Participants are invited at the end of the weekend to make a freewill donation to the ongoing expenses of the Ottawa Anglican Cursillo Movement.

For more information:

• The Ottawa Anglican Cursillo Movement Web site (www.oacm.ca) provides information on the OACM, including event listings and contacts, as well as links to the Cursillo community around the world.
• Speak with your rector.
• Contact Keith Preston who is a member of the Secretariat at 613-692-1103 or the St. Thomas the Apostle parish Cursillo representative, Pat Fevang, at 523-4609.

In 1985 Bud and Eileen LeFeuvre asked Leroy and Pat Fevang to go on a Cursillo weekend, Leroy to the Men's Weekend in November and Pat to the Ladies' Weekend in December held at the Monastery in Aylmer. There was beautiful music, prayer, talks and discussion about those talks with lots of fun times between. More people joined and soon we started meeting in small groups for "group reunions". This is an important part of Cursillo and at the present time there are 3 groups of ladies who have been on Cursillo, one meets in people's homes on Friday mornings at 10am, one every second Tuesday morning at 9:30am and a third one Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm. The men meet Wednesdays from 2pm to 3pm.

Another important part of Cursillo is to have Ultreyas for people to meet together. There is a Central Ultreya at St. Mark's on Fisher Ave., the third Wednesday of every month and visitors are welcome. Beginning in 1998 there were Ultreyas 3 or 4 times a year at St. Thomas's. Since the Rev. Bill Byers became the rector of St. Thomas, Ultreyas have been organized the 2nd Friday evening of every month in the winter with a Eucharist, guitar praise music and a speaker. There are now about 60 members at St. Thomas, including a few from other churches. Anyone who is interested in joining or wants more information can telephone Pat or Leroy Fevang at 523-4609. There will be two weekends in 2010. The Men's Weekend will be held March 18 - 21 at the Retreat House in Orleans and the Ladies' Weekend will be held November 11 - 14 , also at the Retreat House.