The Early Years
of Sion Community for Evangelism

A reflection by Msgr Pat Lynch

“Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation” Mk 16:16

"We must obey the mandate of our Lord - we must work for the proclamation and spread of the Gospel." Pope John II

FORMATIVE YEARS

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” Jer 1:4-5

“I was born into a good practicing Catholic family in Buncrana Co. Donegal Ireland. It was here in my upbringing that I received the rudiments of good teaching and practice in the faith. My whole family went to Mass each Sunday and there was a strong attitude towards trying to live out the Catholic faith in the world. This was not just a family trait but also a community attitude and practice. I attended great schools where I received good education, not just in the secular topics, but also in my faith. I never had it forced upon me but rather had the gentle encouragement of witnessing others trying to live it out.

My seminary training was on the whole a happy experience where foundations were laid that would take roots later on in my life. My Seminary years were by no means “plain sailing”, but thank God my Superiors were wise enough to overlook certain flaws in all of us students, while gently dealing with anything major.

I was ordained in 1975 for the Diocese of Nottingham.  During the Ordination Rite on the 15th June 1975, my Bishop handed me the books of the Scriptures with the command “Go and proclaim the Gospel to all the world”.  This made a deep impression on me. My own internal desire had always been to “proclaim the Gospel”. At my Ordination I now had the mandate from the whole Church to do it on behalf of the Church. I have to this day tried my utmost to be faithful to that mandate of making proclamation the central pivot of my Priesthood. 

EARLY PRIESTHOOD

"After saying this he breathed on them and said 'receive the Holy Spirit’" Jn 20:22-23

My first appointment was to the Parish of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, where I was given responsibility for a very large High Security Prison called “Gartree Prison”. In some ways this was a baptism of fire as I had never been in a prison before, let alone minister to men, who had committed some very serious offences. Like all things in life this had a particular challenge for me and not without its own rewards. I was conscious that the Gospel was meant for them as well. Here in a secure setting I had the opportunity to teach and proclaim. Because of the level of faith understanding I always considered it important to give the rudiments of faith to these men. I tried to give them an understanding of the “Trinity” and geared all my efforts to this end. At least they moved on from Gartree having heard of the “Father”, the “Son” and the “Holy Spirit”. Some even gave their lives to Christ but nearly always in a private capacity.

TOUCHED IN A NEW WAY

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you ...”
Acts 1:6-8

In 1976 I was moved to the Parish of St Peter and St Paul’s in Lincoln. I had at least the desire to develop a new image of Church, but I really did not know what that meant. Part of my brief at S. Peter and Paul’s was to teach in the local Comprehensive {High} School.
During my teaching time at St Peter and Paul’s in Lincoln, my life was filled anew and afresh – not for the first time – by a new experience of the Holy Spirit, and I knew that something was happening in my life. We all have different stages of conversion but some have a more profound impact than others. I somehow knew that this experience of the Holy Spirit would have a long lasting effect on my life.

After that experience, I found out about a group in the Catholic Church called “Charismatic Renewal”. I subsequently learned that what had happened to me in my conversion experience was what we call “Baptism in the Spirit”.  This touch of the Holy Spirit brought with it a new zeal, a new enthusiasm, a new devotion and a new in-filling of God’s plan. This has been the experience of many that I have subsequently met. 

Many dramatic things have happened to me in my life and I know that God has always been faithful to me and I wish I could write and say that I have always been faithful to Him.  That hasn’t been true and I can recall many instances – indeed far too many – when I have not been faithful to His call, to His message, or to the voice within me that looked for more profound holiness and action. 

This experience led to the formation of a Prayer Group in the Parish. It grew in numbers, in prayer life, in conversions and people were beginning to appreciate their faith in a new way.  That does not mean that people weren’t alive before.  Since 1967 St Peter and Paul’s had been graced by the presence of a great Parish Priest called Father Peter Tierney who was open and forward looking.

ENCOURAGED BY CHURCH TEACHING

"... Church ... which upholds the truth and Keeps it safe ..."
1Tm 3:14-16

Things kept ticking over in the school and Parish. New ventures were embarked upon and it was exciting.  During that time I frequently went out of the country to particularly the United States, to work and gain knowledge of what others were doing, so that I could return with new insight and hopefully a new dynamic to continue building on the foundations which had already been laid in the Parish.

One such trip was in 1978 when I visited different communities in the United States.  I stayed briefly with a Community called the “People of Hope”, based in the parish of “St Antonious”, Newark, New Jersey.  A Priest in the Community called Father Bob casually handed me a copy of a Papal Document called “Evangelii Nuntiandi”.   “Evangelii Nuntiandi” is a document on evangelisation by written by Pope Paul VI in 1974.

I know what some people thing about Papal Documents.  They are usually unwieldy, wordy, and often hard to understand; but each word of this document jumped out of the page at me. This document was verbalising in greater detail what my Bishop had encouraged me to do on that morning of my ordination, namely to go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News.

I brought this document back to my parish of St Peter and Paul, but still couldn’t put into place what I thought God was asking of me.  Maybe, sometimes God has to hit us over the head with things before we hear them or see them.  One such way that He can do it – and I am not saying that this is His ordinary way – is to allow tragedy to hit us.  Tragedy can wake us up in ways that other things can’t.

TRIUMPH IN TRAGEDY

"... as the sufferings of Christ overflows to us, so through Christ does our consolation overflow." 2 Cor 1:5

In January 1982, my Bishop’s secretary died very suddenly with a cancerous brain tumour.  Fr. Michael Stewart was his name, and he came from the Creggan Estate in Derry, my home Diocese.  I attended his funereal in Derry to say farewell to my fellow Priest. Actually, he and I were ordained the same day in 1975. While I was in Derry I went to visit a long time friend of mine.  He was married to a lovely lady and had two boys and another one on the way.  It was a Thursday evening when I went to visit him and his wife stated that she didn’t really have anything in the house to offer adequate hospitality, so my friend was asked by his wife to go visit the local supermarket.  I gave him the loan of my car to go purchase the groceries.

My friend got into the car, but unfortunately it was a very frosty evening and he hit some black ice on the road and the car careered off the road hitting a pillar.  He was killed instantly.  What a trauma in my life. Losing a good friend and seeing his wife and two boys left behind without a husband and father.  How could God be in all this?  The saddest thing I ever had to do was to celebrate his funeral Mass.

My car of course was a write off. I arrived back in England a few weeks later and realised that God didn’t want me to put the insurance money that I had recouped from the written off car back into another one. I felt God asking me to put a down payment on some small property for his use. Buy property. This was a crazy idea as I was spending most of my time living out of a suitcase and I had a perfectly good home at the “Priests’ House”.  So why should I need property?  I felt God saying to buy a small property which would be the headquarters of whatever He wanted me to do in the future.  I only had £4,000 from the insurance money from my late car and the property that I looked at was at least four times that amount.

GOD’S GOODNESS

"I thank Jesus Christ who has given me strength" 1 Tm 1:12

However, taking the Lord at His word I said to the owner of a particular property that I would buy it.  This was in the afternoon and I only had £4000. This property cost £13000. By nine o’clock that evening, I had £13,000 – five of it was lent to me and the other four was given to me.

Here are a few incidents that demonstrate God’s goodness and faithfulness.   One of the doctors in the parish came to Mass that particular evening.  She came into the sacristy after Mass, a thing she never did and said to me that God wanted me to speak to her.  I said, “yes, you could be right”.  I shared my story of God’s plan with her and she immediately took out her cheque book and wrote me a cheque for £1,000.

Another member of the parish who was involved in the coin business had £1,000 cash on his return from the continent, and asked his wife as he looked at the £1,000 in his brief case:  “I wonder if God wanted this money right now, what would I do or say?”  At that moment I rang him.   He willingly gave me the money and within a few hours the house was bought and paid for. What a great God we have in Jesus. It needs to be said, however, that God does not do it all. The house needed to be refurbished because it was pretty dilapidated.  Some workmen from the parish set about putting it in order and within no time it was habitable. This would become the first property for the Community and would be used later as a home base for some Community members.

TIME TO ACT

"There is a time for everything ..." Eccles 3:1

In July 1982, my Bishop asked me to move to another parish.  I personally thought this was a ridiculous move because I had just signed up to do a Master’s degree at Hull University.  This particular parish was not within easy reach of the University.  Nevertheless, I went and continued to work at the University, knowing that God had something in store for me, but as yet, I was not able to put it together.  The documents “Ad Gentes” {Missionary document from Vatican II}, and “Evangelii Nuntiandi” of Pope Paul VI, lay heavy upon me and I knew I had to produce something concrete to put these into practice.

In 1982 my Bishop came to the parish for Confirmation.  I shared my missionary desire with him.  It didn’t impress him initially because all I was sharing was a vision but there was little concrete substance to it.  Yes, there were bones, but no flesh on the bones, and bishops tend to dot the “I’s” and cross the “T’s”.  He asked me to write to him which I subsequently did.  I then went to see him.  On my first visit he listened carefully to me, but said that he “didn’t want a Catholic Billy Graham running round England”.  My reply was “Maybe England could do with a Catholic Billy Graham”.

My Bishop’s permission was not forthcoming, so I went back to see him a second time.  Again I didn’t make any impression on him.  I went to see him a third time. On this occasion I had done some homework.  I had connected with some of his advisers and obtained their support.  I wished to be released into full time evangelisation work and get together a community of people, priests, religious and lay who would work full-time towards “direct proclamation”. This time my Bishop approved with the words “I wanted to may make sure that you are convinced about what you are doing”. If a community of this nature was to emerge then it was going to involve a lot of prayer, hard work and full time dedication.

GOD AT WORK - SION IS BORN

"... a time for giving birth ..." Eccles 3:2

Up until now I was giving a lot of conferences, talks and retreats. In November 1984 I was giving one of these Days of Renewal at Euston London.   On that day there were about four or five hundred people gathered in the Conference Hall. I mentioned to them that I would be coming off the conference circuit for two or three years so that God could bring into being this community for evangelisation.  At the conference that day was a retired couple called Pat and Ann McGee from Croydon in London.  They wrote to me afterwards saying they were interested in what I was saying and could they come and meet me.  On 8 December 1984 they came to visit me.  They stayed overnight and we talked at length. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1984 Sion was born.

Pat and Ann McGee had reservations about calling the Community “Sion” because Pat in particular felt that it suggested we were connected with Zionism.  After much discussion, we went for the name “Sion”. Sion being the mountain of hope for God’s chosen people. The next day, we went across to a priest friend of mine at Melbourne Derbyshire. There we booked our first “outreach” which was going to take place in September 1985.  Whatever transpired, we were determined that our work would be at the centre of the Catholic Church and not “fringe evangelisation”.  Pat and I went later to meet with the Parish Pastoral Council. They asked us how many people would be coming on the Mission to which we replied “eight, one priest, one sister and six lay people”.  At this stage there were only three of us and we didn’t really know where the other five were going to come from.  All we knew was that God had been faithful up until now and we were to continue trusting him.

I had met during my time in Burton on Trent, a lovely lady who had done some administrative work for me while I was at University.  She said “yes” to the vision. She was to become the secretary to the Community and later progress to be its administrator.  I had also met at Burton, on Trent, a newly married couple, both teachers.  I decided to visit them in their home in Burton in March 1985.  They subsequently joined the Community. At this stage they had one child Ruth. A Franciscan Religious Sister from Belper in Derbyshire with whom I had worked came to see me in April 1985.  Despite being very reticent, she was given permission by her new General to be one of the founding members of Sion Community.  This new mission team now numbered six. 

We still needed a musician for our parish ministry and with that in mind in May 1985 I went to stay with Ann and Pat at their home in Croydon London.  After much searching around for a musician, a young married couple came to visit me at 11 o’clock one night.  I asked them “what they were doing for the next five years”.  I think this shocked them but afterwards and with much prayer and discernment, they decided to join Sion Community and moved to live at our property in Lincoln. The five years have now become twenty five. We were now ready for our Parish Ministry – 8 on the Mission Team and Audrey on Administration.

GROWTH

"... a time for building ..." Eccles 1:3

We all met at a convent in London for a week’s preparation during September 1985.  We didn’t really know in detail what to do or how to do it. However, after some input we were ready to give our first outreach in Melbourne from 29 Sep. - 3 Nov. 1985.  A programme of missions was soon to develop.  Advance bookings began to come our way.

The third mission took place at Gamesley near Glossop in the High Peak District of Derbyshire during the snows of January and February 1986.  We were visited by Ron Bisset whom I had known from my Lincoln days.  He now lived in Nelson, Lancs and he brought with him his Parish Priest, Father Charnock, and other parishioners.  As a result, we went to Nelson in February and March for our fourth mission.  Ron and Betty, his wife joined in the visiting and then asked to join Sion Community.  They were able to participate in our sixth mission, at Birstall, near Leicester, later that year.

The fifth mission took place at Earl Shilton in Leicestershire from 4 April - 4 May 1986.  God was opening up avenues to us, where His name could be proclaimed.  There were no difficulties about bookings and the Community began to include more and more dioceses within its mission field”.

It was evident to us that God was asking us to reach out to children and also young adults. Within a relatively short period of time we had outreaches to Primary and Secondary Schools. It was obvious to us that in evangelisation we were being asked to “make disciples”. This involved setting up structures for teaching and training as well as nurturing young people in our Catholic faith.

Over the years the Community has progressed to what it is at this today. We have arrived at our Silver Jubilee and all I can say is a big “thank you” to God for all his blessings. None of this would have happened had it not being for the efforts and hard work of all those faithful members of Sion who have made it all possible.  Thank you.

 

Sion Community Founders - picture taken in 1990
from left: Anne & Pat McGee, Fr Pat Lynch, Sr Agnes Anglim, Michelle & Peter Moran, Sue & Rob Coyne