Audience
The talks in this collection were addressed to several different audiences: those present at the Apostolic Institute, those at a community meeting, those at a charismatic conference and those who were attending some kind of teaching session sponsored by the community. When the talks are organized according to audience, the list looks like this:
- Apostolic Institute Talks:
- Talks given at Community Meetings:
- Talks given at charismatic conferences:
- Other community-sponsored events:
Apostolic Institute
Some of these recordings need some historical context. To begin with: What was the Apostolic Institute? What was the Deacon Training Program?
Since 1964 a small group of people in South Bend had been working to build Christian community. Their efforts were taken to another level by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1967. The search for Christian community deepened every year. However, the work was hampered as key people would graduate either with their undergraduate or their graduate degree and leave the area. In the spring of 1969, they were again faced with graduation, and this time it was Kerry Koller who was moving on. Paul DeCelles and Andrew Plodowski asked themselves whether there was something they could do to provide some stability and a reason for someone like Kerry to stay in South Bend.
The result of those conversations was the formation of the Apostolic Institute, which they incorporated in June of 1969. An early Apostolic Institute publication described the Institute as an association “concerned for Church renewal and especially for assisting in the formation of leaders of Christian communities.” After much prayer, it seemed like the Lord wanted them to start a program to train Roman Catholic deacons. Eventually the local Roman Catholic bishop approved the plan “ad experimentum,” noting, “We must all live by faith.” So the Deacon Training Program was the first work of the Apostolic Institute.
By the time this program began (1971), Kerry had accepted a job in San Francisco, but there was another graduate student on the horizon. Kevin Ranaghan was hired to run the Deacon Training Program.
The order of the permanent diaconate had been restored at Vatican II. In 1969, when Paul and Andrew first started talking about it, there were only a few (seven) permanent deacons in the United States. It was a time for experimentation. The Apostolic Institute had a unique vision for training deacons to be leaders of Christian communities, sometimes within the context of a parish. The goal was to build communities.
Based on his studies of Christian communities throughout history, Paul taught a course, in 1971 and in 1972, on building Christian community. It was called Christian Community Formation. Men training for the diaconate, their wives, leaders of local prayer meetings and various others attended these classes.
The Apostolic Institute recordings are among the oldest in our archives. Due to their age and the circumstances of their recording, the sound quality is not the best. Also, we do not have recordings of an entire talk. Instead we have recorded fragments, found on the back of recordings of an Apostolic Institute class on Scripture. These fragments begin and end abruptly. They do, however, reflect some of what we were thinking in the months before making the covenant.
Demographics
Several other things in the audio sources need some historical context. First of all, some demographic information about adult membership might be helpful:
- 10/71 29 members
- 10/72 53 members
- 9/73 82 members
- 10/74 100 members
- 10/75 240 members
Between October 1974 and October 1975 the community grew tremendously. Why? We do know that in the summer of 1974 the Wednesday prayer meetings (public) were regularly drawing 550 to 600 people. In June 1974 two Life in the Spirit Seminars were conducted concurrently, each with more than 40 participants. Presumably these and others held the same year resulted in many people being baptized in the Holy Spirit and, subsequently, large Community Weekends.
Households
Secondly, at this time households were part of normal community life. In fact, some of the original covenant makers were, in October 1971, already sharing their home with at least one brother or sister who was not a blood relative. In early 1972 community members got together for a weekend to pray and talk about the question of household. Initially, some thought God was leading them all to live in some form of common household life. Others thought the opposite. By the end of the weekend they had discerned that “the People of Praise was a community of households, but that household life was not a requirement for all members.” Even though God wasn’t leading everyone to live in household, everyone agreed that we, the People of Praise, placed a very high value on household life.
Our archives contain a few demographic facts about households. In December 1973 there were approximately 92 people in the community. Fifty of these people lived in 11 households. In April 1975 there were approximately 190 people in the community. Eighty members lived in 16 households. Sometime in 1975 or early 1976, the South Bend Common Council changed a zoning ordinance and outlawed households with a married couple and more than 2 single people. Already existing households were grandfathered in, but the ordinance definitely had a negative effect on household life in the People of Praise.
Explanation of Terms
There are some details in the February 1974 talk on Consulting the Community that need explaining. Another community named True House is mentioned. There is also a reference to a decision to take on Charismatic Renewal Services (CRS). As many of the prayer meeting folks in South Bend were talking about building community, others decided to get started. A group of Notre Dame students and younger folks formed a community called True House. The True House Community ran CRS. This community eventually disbanded in 1974. Some of them accepted an invitation to be part of the People of Praise, and the People of Praise agreed to take responsibility for running CRS.
In this February 1974 talk there is also a reference to “branches.” What was meant by this term? In order to better meet the pastoral needs of each person in the People of Praise, the coordinators (Paul, Kevin and Clem) added a new structure to the community—branches. This happened in November of 1973. (It is worth noting that not everyone had a personal head at this time.) These branches were three groups which included one coordinator and about 5 household heads. They met weekly, but they were not geographical units. In the paper resources for this time period there is a memo entitled “Pastoral Needs Memo” which briefly lays out the rationale for this change. Subsequently in a May 1974 memo from Paul to Clem and Kevin, Paul commented, “Purpose of Branch Meetings: Review households and encourage them. To prepare and improve Community Meeting. To train heads and start them off.” He also noted, “The Branch meeting is a place to present problems clearly and channel to definite solution. Gauge of how the whole is doing. If Branch is good then develop friendships. Branches should become backbone of community.”
Less than a year later, the term “branch” was used in a different way. At an Oct. 4, 1974 community meeting Kevin announced that the coordinators wanted to radically change the branch system by making the branches geographical areas. He explained, “with the increase in community size, with the growth of the whole community, we need to have a more orderly way of placing everybody in the community in situations where they can receive adequate headship, where the pastoral gifts of the community and the leadership gifts of the community can be available to them easily and readily.” He also noted “We want to make it possible for those of us whom the Lord is leading to share our lives even more deeply with each other, perhaps more deeply than we had been doing before.” For those who are interested this announcement and the details about the geographical boundaries and the leaders of these “branches” can be found in the file library by searching for “New POP Structures” and then clicking on Fall 1974 Community Meetings.
The first Servant School was in 1973, but we do not have recordings of the talks given there. We do, however, have recordings of the talks from the second Servant School. Servant School lasted between 6 and 9 months and was much more than a series of talks. Most of the time was spent actually serving. For example, a 1975 community directory lists the head servants of various Servant School teams. There was a prayer meeting team, a community meeting team, a book table team and an Apostolic Institute team.
Written Resources
The written sources for this time period include five things:
- “Signs of the Times.” These four documents date from the years before we became a covenant community. They are snapshots of the “signs of the times”: the powerful effects of the Cursillo movement, the mention of the charismatic gifts at the Second Vatican Council, community-building in Latin America and the spread of baptism in the Spirit.
- “Reflections on the 1973 Conference.” In this article from New Covenant magazine, Paul DeCelles underlines the importance of the ecumenical and lay character of the Charismatic Renewal. Approximately 20,000 people attended that conference, and it was the first Charismatic Renewal conference to hold its general sessions in the Notre Dame stadium. By way of reference, what is commonly called the first conference was in 1967, and approximately 80 people attended. In 1968 approximately 200 attended; in 1969, 450 people; in 1970, 1300 people; in 1971, 4,000; and in 1972 about 11,500 people attended.
- “Brotherhood Among Leaders.” This is a talk, by Paul DeCelles, on brotherhood among leaders. It is dated March 1974. Internal evidence suggests that it was given to some kind of gathering of Charismatic Renewal leaders.
- “1973 Memo on Pastoral Needs.” This is a proposal to the coordinators about how to meet the pastoral needs of every member of the People of Praise. It was written at a time when the community was nearly three times as big as it was in the beginning.
- “Leadership and Freedom.” This is a transcript of a talk given by Paul DeCelles. He was speaking primarily to prayer group leaders. We do not have a recording of the talk. This transcript was edited by Paul sometime after the talk was given. To the best of our knowledge it was given sometime in the early 70’s.
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