World-renowned evangelist Sherry Weddell, author of best-seller Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus, is returning to Sydney in May.
Visiting at the invitation of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation, the international speaker will appear at two exclusive events dedicated to helping people explore the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives and renewing the church for mission.
Following on from her hugely popular visit in 2019, the co-founder and executive director of the US-based Catherine of Siena Institute, she will present her highly acclaimed Charisms: The Power of the Holy Spirit Unleashed, aimed to equip clergy, religious and laity to understand how discerning our charisms can help us to recognise how God is calling us to serve in his Church.
The events will be held in the week leading up to Pentecost, one at the Liverpool Catholic Club and the other at Australian Catholic University’s Strathfield Campus.
“When leaders know how to cultivate the spiritual gifts that lie dormant in their people, the whole body of the Church becomes vivified.”
Seattle-born Weddell, who grew up in southern Mississippi, became a Catholic in 1987, after praying for God’s guidance before a statue of St Catherine of Siena, the 14th-century Italian doctor of the church.
Today she and her international team of collaborators have worked directly with around 150,000 lay, religious, and ordained Catholics in well over 150 dioceses around the world and have helped countless people become intentional disciples.
Daniel Ang, director of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation, said her decades of work with clergy and lay leaders demonstrates that “when leaders know how to cultivate the spiritual gifts that lie dormant in their people, the whole body of the Church becomes vivified.”
“When baptised catholics are able to discern their gifts, nurture them and put them at the service of their local parishes, lives are changed and people become eager and active witnesses and instruments of God’s love in a needy world.,” he said.
“People who know and exercise their spiritual gifts give of their time and treasures and become better equipped in working together with others who hold different but complementary gifts that God also wants to bring forward in his church.
“I know Sherry’s input with us in Sydney will be inspiring and encourage our priests, parish teams and leaders, in fact anyone interested in growing in their faith and service to God.
“There is always a danger that as pastoral leaders or even as communities of faith we come to rely on our own knowledge, skill or experience in living our discipleship, serving others and fostering community life and mission.
“I know Sherry’s input with us in Sydney will be inspiring and encourage our priests, parish teams and leaders …”
“However, if the Holy Spirit is the primary agent of evangelisation and equips the church with a variety of gifts and charisms, then growth in our Christian life invites us to deepen our relationship with the Holy Spirit without whom we cannot proclaim, “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3).”
The Charisms: The Power of the Holy Spirit Unleashed presented by Sherry Weddell events in Sydney will be held on 22 May at the Liverpool Catholic Club and on 24 May at ACU’s Strathfield Campus.
Tickets cost $30 plus booking fee and are now available to anyone 18 years and over.
For tickets go to www.gomakedisciples.org.au/cas-events/