Looking back on the Christian Renewal Centre – its gift and call
A SPECIAL celebration on 13 September 2014 marked forty years since the founding of the Christian Renewal Centre in Rostrevor. Some readers of this journal will have visited the Centre and been deeply touched by its ministry while others may have only the haziest notion of its significance. The Centre was established by the Revd Cecil Kerr, the Church of Ireland chaplain at Queen’s University (1965-74), and his wife Myrtle. It was an adventure in risk-taking faith which profoundly influenced the Church across Ireland. Central to the story is the spiritual pilgrimage undertaken by Cecil Kerr in the early 1970s - a journey from the relative security of university chaplaincy to an unknown future that meant living by faith in order to pioneer a new ministry. At the heart of his story was a profound experience of the Holy Spirit (generally referred to as Baptism in the Spirit) which opened new possibilities for him that few who knew him could have imagined.
* Full article available in printed copies.
Paddy McGlinchey
is a member of staff at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute.