FAQWhat do you mean “No one will tell me about Cursillo”???or“Everything you always wanted to know about Cursillo but had no clue what to ask.” |
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| 1) Cursillo is an interactive, lively, and educational weekend. Some people describe it as a “retreat,” but except for the first night of the gathering, it is anything but a retreat. (There is an overnight retreat from the end of the first evening’s activities to the morning Eucharist of the next day, but the rest of the time is spent in an educational, workshop-type experience. | ||
| 2) Cursillo is designed to be a teaching tool for further educating us about what our call is as Christians in today’s world.
I have heard someone describe it before as a “re-teaching of our Catechism,” and when I read through that document at the back of our Book of Common Prayer, I am awestruck by how accurate a comment that is. |
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| 3) Let us explain a little bit about the process of what takes place at a Cursillo weekend: | A. 1 Talk in 15 Parts. This means that you will hear a total of 15 talks - 10 by laypersons, and 5 by clergy (these take place over the three days of the weekend – 5 on Friday, Five on Saturday, and 5 on Sunday). B. We also engage in table discussions after most of the talks. This allows for some interaction between you and other folks. You remain with the same table group for the entire weekend. We try to compose the table of people not from your own parish, not your spouse, etc.. We do this because these are people you are regularly with and our desire is to teach about the broad-reaching community of Christians that exist beyond your own personal community C. We participate in a Daily Eucharist. Since we are a Eucharistic church and our teachings are based around the celebration of the Eucharist, this supports that practice. D. At many points during the weekend, you become aware of the much larger community of Christians that support the cause of teaching more about our “Christian Calling” – people praying for you and the weekend, people offering food and other things that make the weekend run well, etc…. E. We also participate in a great deal of singing. F. We also participate in a great deal of frivolity – laughing, joking around, sometimes skits, sometimes artwork, eating a LOT, and even celebrations. If you remember school, you remember how boring it can be to just sit and listen to the teachers – so we try to liven up the learning atmosphere some. |
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| 4) You may have heard some things about us in the past – that we are secretive, and that we spring things on the participants – things they didn’t know about, and they are “caught unawares.” These are some of the things that we would like to put you at ease about: | A. You may have heard that we “take your watches.” Not so. We do say that you do not need to bring a watch, and usually ask you to put it away if you do bring one, but we do not take them away from you. This often worries people - probably because we are so tied to our issues of time. But in all honesty, the team for the weekend will be making sure about the time issues and you do not have to worry about them all weekend. Time is not a secret, and you are welcome to know what time it is, what the schedule looks like, etc….it’s just a whole lot easier to do it this way. This is mostly a convenience for the participants, but it also works well for the team members putting on the workshop. B. We do live in a dormitory setting for these three days - we have 4 dorm rooms - 2 female and 2 male. We try to make it private enough (we hang curtains between beds) so you don’t feel like there is no privacy, but it is a dorm setting all the same. C. The weekend begins on Thursday evening - we have a few activities that take place on Thursday evening after dinner (introductory activities), then a couple of events that take place in the Chapel (meditations, Stations of the Cross). After that we begin a “Silent Retreat.” We ask you to practice silence from the close of Thursday evening’s activities until silence is broken with a Eucharist before breakfast on Friday morning. D. Leaving Time on Sunday (after a Closing Eucharist) will be somewhere around 5 PM. Your sponsors should be there to make sure you have a way home and are taken care of. E. We have a motto on Cursillo weekends – “All may, some should, none must.” You need to know that you will never be asked to do something you do not want to do. This is a participatory weekend, but we want you to want to participate. It is fine to say “No thanks – I don’t wish to do that….” F. This can be a physically challenging experience, simply because it is at Lake Logan and in a “camp-type” setting. We try to make sure you are comfortable in the “Talk Room” and in the dorms, and in the Chapel, and the dining room – but it is basically a 7 AM in the morning day until 9 or 10 at night day. We do try to get some free time and “down time” for you in the afternoons, but the days are full. |
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| (5 You may have discerned an air of secrecy amongst folks who have attended prior weekends | This is not the aim of the weekend, and it is our aim that you should feel comfortable about knowing what you need to know about the weekend to feel more comfortable about attending. We ask folks who have participated on an earlier weekend to make sure that ALL your questions are answered. If that doesn’t happen for you, the Secretariat (the governing body of Cursillo in WNC) invites you to contact us directly. | |
| (6 There is a “Follow Up Program” called Group Reunions & Ultreya | -these were developed by the founders of the movement to help Christians see that their calling as Christians is much more easily accomplished when “two or three are gathered” in the Lord’s name. | |
| (7 Need more information? | Visit the National Episcopal Cursillo Website - there are articles on what Cursillo is all about, the layout/schedule of a weekend, what its aims are, etc….
Contact the Lay Director about WNC’s movement: Lay Director: Jane Erickson |
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