Charismatic Renewal draws on the Spirit, sets sights on racial reconciliation

By Linda Harvey

The Charismatic Renewal is not a spirituality, but a way of life in which a person is open to the Holy Spirit.

“In the early church, it was a normal way of life for the disciples of Jesus Christ,” said Father Charles Howell, who has served as diocesan moderator for the Charismatic Renewal since 2001.

In the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, this way of living has become a recognized apostolate, just as the pope has placed the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS) under the auspices of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity and Family Life. The local leadership team is comprised of clergy and laity baptized in the Holy Spirit who serve the diocese. 

“As a team, we have discerned to be focused on ecumenical unity in being in healing the body of Christ and getting into the trenches with the Holy Father’s admonition to reach out to the poor and suffering with evangelization and love,” said Father Howell. This has recently taken the form of collaboration with the multicultural parish St. Peter Claver in Lexington.

“The most segregated time in the United States is Sunday religious services. One of our initiatives is asking the Holy Spirit to heal our hearts related to the issues of racism in our diocese and elsewhere,” Father Howell said. “We are supporting an early effort in developing the Encounter School of Ministry that is a separate non-profit endeavor with their own board. With the permission of Bishop Stowe, there will be training for disciples to living and leading life in the spirit.”

Father Howell was ordained in 1998. “I was a convert to Catholicism from being raised Southern Baptist and being involved in Assemblies of God, and the Church of God in Christ, which is the largest Pentecostal denomination that is predominantly African-American,” he said.

In the early days of their work in the diocese, the Charismatic Renewal threw out a net to see what was needed, forming a team equipped to reach more people through Charismatic Masses with a music ministry and offering more education to parishes in being opened to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Enhancing the role of leadership in the diocese and connecting the diocese to the worldwide Charismatic Renewal is Shelley Parkerson of Our Lady of Mt Vernon parish, who is the diocesan liaison and chair of the diocesan leadership team. She serves on the National Association of Diocesan Liaisons, which provides a connection to the national and international workings of the renewal and sends representatives to the National Service Committee.

“The Holy Spirit empowers us for personal holiness, renewed Catholic life, and evangelization. As a convert myself as an adult and originally in a Pentecostal Church, I was drawn to the Catholic Church because of the Sacrament of the Eucharist,” said Parkerson.

“We are most often taught at confirmation about the seven gifts from Isaiah: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord,” added Parkerson. “In conversations with others, I have found that less time is spent on the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 1,2 which are given to individuals by the Holy Spirit for the building up of the Church: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healings, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.”

In terms of the future, the diocesan team wants to have a Hispanic representative. The Hispanic community is very involved at Mary Queen of Holy Rosary and other parishes with the diocesan Hispanic Ministries coordinated by Deacon Eduardo Fortini.