Life in the Spirit: 19 years, 50 seminars

The Vancouver archdiocese’s 50th Life in the Spirit Seminar will open Jan. 20 at Immaculate Conception Parish in North Delta.

The seminar will begin each Friday at 7:30 p.m. for seven weeks.

A celebration of the 19th anniversary of Life in the Spirit Seminars in Vancouver will be held the previous Friday, Jan. 13, also at 7:30 at Immaculate Conception. Abbot John Braganza of Westminster Abbey in Mission will be principal concelebrant of the anniversary Mass, to be followed by a reception. All are welcome.

The seminars began Jan. 29, 1993, at Immaculate Conception, with 365 participants, and have been held in many parishes since then. Every session of the seven-week seminar features a talk by a priest, with two more as concelebrants for the closing Mass on the seventh week.

Highlight of the seminar is week 5,when participants receive prayer to be baptized in the Holy Sprit.

Organizer Lennie David, who is a member of Vancouver Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, says more than 9,000 people have attended the seminars over the years. Twenty-two charismatic prayer groups have been formed as a result of the seminars, of which 16 are still in operation in the archdiocese along with five that were in existence prior to the beginning of the seminars.

Fifty priests have taken part. Archbishop Michael Miller will be one of the speakers at the upcoming seminar.

The anniversary celebration is also an annual event. Principal concelebrants have included Archbishop Miller, former Vancouver archbishops Adam Exner and Raymond Roussin, and bishops Richard Gagnon of Victoria and David Monroe of Kamloops.

All are welcome at the seminar. There is no charge.

To register, call Lennie David @ 604-597-8227.


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