This is an excerpt from Vine & Branches published in 1985 to bring the community up to date on the election of and terms of office for new leaders, including the seven-member board of governors, the principal branch coordinators, area coordinators, handmaids and the overall coordinator.
Note: This source is displayed in two parts. Click the pdf image below to read the update article on all elections and appointments. Scroll down to read an article specifically about Paul DeCelles’ election as overall coordinator.
Vine and Branches. Volume 1, #11 December, 1985
Paul DeCelles Is Elected Overall Coordinator
On November 3, 1985, Paul DeCelles was elected overall coordinator for a term of 12 years. The head coordinators gathered at the executive offices on Greenlawn Avenue in South Bend specifically for the election, and according to the constitution they were not allowed to dismiss the meeting until the selection had been made.
Kevin Ranaghan had remarked a few days earlier, âWhile weâre not expecting any surprises from the Holy Spirit, all the head coordinators want to be especially open to the direction of the Spirit in this matter. We want to make the decision which the Lord wants us to make and we ask members of the community to pray for us at about 8 p.m. on Sunday night when we gather for the election.â
In this context of prayer and prayer support, then, Paul was elected. For the next 12 years he will be responsible for implementing within the People of Praise the unity of mind and heart God has given us and called us to.
âGod has given us a vision of a very special kind of life together as Christians in the 20th century. Part of my task is to gather in, to include all the people the Lord is calling to join us. I think there will be may [sic] more branches as time goes on, and all these people will need to catch the vision of the People of Praise, to understand clearly the particular charisms God has given the community.â The overall coordinator is a kind of symbol and signal for that vision of unity.
Paul mentioned several areas for future work, primarily along the lines of our current outreaches: ministering the baptism in the Spirit and spiritual gifts to other Christians and non- Christians, working at a variety of occupations in society so that through our Christian presence God can transform the world, creating new social structures for people outside the community in order to make Christian life-styles more feasible, constant works of mercy and charity among the poor and those in special need, greater publishing efforts so that we can speak effectively the word God has given us.
âI think God has given the community two main charisms,â Paul noted. âOne is loveâan effective and heartfelt love for God and for neighbor. This is so obvious that I think we sometimes fail to notice it. How astounding that there are thousands of people with a solemn covenant love for one another! In little ways and major ways, members of the community love God, love one another, love the people around themâit is a wonderful work of God in the world.
âAnother charism is something harder to define, but I would call it the âformâ of our community . . . the nuts and bolts of our life together. I would call this ordered, systematic, regular approach to Christian community a genuine charism. What Iâm referring to is the pattern of support groups, ministries, interactions, teachings, prayer: the whole way we do things. I think we have a charism not just for being a Christian community but, more than that, for being this specific kind of Christian community.â
The office of overall coordinator developed over a number of years, and was recently defined explicitly in the constitution. âAs I recall, the first step was simply an agreement among the (then) three head coordinators (Clem, Kevin and Paul) that Kevin would act as the âoutside manâ and I would act as the âinside man.â Kevin did a lot of travelling in the renewal and in various Pentecostal churches, and I was working specifically in South Bend, more or less in a hands-on-position.
âIn 1974 we took the formal steps by which I became the head of the other coordinators (then 3) and Clem became my personal head. Besides being the focus of our patterns of headship, I also knew that I should take responsibility for stepping back and thinking about the community as a whole. I would take the initiative for government in the community, even though the responsibilities and authority were always shared with the body of coordinators.â
Paul is 51 years old and was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He and Jeanne have been married 29 years and have five children. He graduated from Rockhurst College in Kansas City, studied physics at The Johns Hopkins University, obtaining a Ph. D. In 1960. He went on to do research at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton N.J., before coming to teach theoretical physics at Notre Dame in the fall of 1963. He has published numerous papers and directed dissertations in theoretical physics. In 1978 he began working full-time for the community.
âWhen I was at Rockhurst I really began working very hard on developing a relationship with God. For those four years, I spent one full evening per week with a spiritual guide, and spent a lot of time in prayer. I would say that I was baptized in the Spirit in 1960, because at that time I had a very deep experience of the Lord. From that point, I studied intently some of the great writers of the church and was able to spend more time in prayer.
âIn 1964 I began working with the Cursillo movement, and that was my first real apostolate. Jeanne and I started holding prayer meetings in our home in March, 1967, at the time when what some people call the Catholic charismatic renewal started. The prayer meetings at the Ranaghansâ home, at the University of Notre Dame and at our home combined as a strong source of spiritual renewal.
âIn those days, of course, we had no idea that someday I would have thousands of covenanted brothers and sisters all over the country and even beyond. God has been extremely good to us . . . as he has been to everyone.â
Paul notes that, along with working for unity of spirit and purpose, one of his chief responsibilities for the next few years is getting the constitution implemented. The election of the overall coordinator was, in fact, a major step in that process of implementation.
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