Sunday Times 2
Remembering 40 years of blessings with thanksgiving
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Lalith Perera
The Risen Lord Community, originally known as the Community of the Risen Lord (CRL), celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
The anniversary celebration on the theme ‘Remembering with thanksgiving and moving forward with praise’ to which there is an open invitation for people to attend, will be held next Saturday, May 25 from 9 am to 5 pm at St Joseph’s College Auditorium in Colombo 10.
There will be a Mass, Eucharistic adoration, sharing of the Word and anointing service.
The CRL is a Catholic lay community functioning under the auspices of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka. Known for its retreats and prayer meetings, it is also a member of the Catholic National Commission for Laity. Through their association with the CRL, many have been freed from addictions; broken families have been restored and others have found new meaning to their lives.
The CRL which currently serves in all 12 Catholic dioceses through many volunteers, has its coordinating office, ‘Tabor’, in Dehiwela.
It traces its origins to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of the late 70s and 80s known in Sri Lanka as the ‘Kithu Dana Pubuduwa’ founded by Fr Oscar Abayaratne who invited lay people to discipleship. He also made them aware of their call to mission in the church according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The CRL came into existence in 1984 as a Covenant Community within the Pubuduwa. It grew in number in the home of Lalith and Mercia Perera on Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo and moved to a building at Rheinland Place. It was offered by the Sisters of Charity. When the country faced challenging times including the youth insurrection and the civil war in the 80s, the CRL’s meetings moved to St Paul’s Church, Milagiriya.
When from 1996 the CRL worked with and supported several other communities, the then Archbishop of Colombo, the Most Rev Dr Nicholas Marcus Fernando permitted it to function within the Archdiocese of Colombo.
Gradually, CRL’s ministry spread across the country with thousands experiencing spiritual conversions through the Four-Step Retreat, while it also conducted special missions during the latter part of the civil war.
It was in 2007 and 2008 that CRL was invited by the Dioceses of Jaffna and Mannar to conduct the Four-Step Retreat there. This saw the Sinhalese and the Tamils working together. In 2009, CRL members got the opportunity to pray with war victims in the Mannar Hospital and witness the wonder of God healing the hearts of people torn apart by suffering and death. Then in 2010, Lalith and Mercia Perera along with other members, joined two priests from the Jaffna Diocese in conducting joint services of reconciliation in London.
When in 2015 during his visit to Sri Lanka, His Holiness Pope Francis called on the Blessed Mother to accompany the Tamils and the Sinhalese on their journey towards reconciliation, the CRL coordinated a night vigil at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu in May under the banner ‘Father, make us one’. Guided by the then Bishop of Mannar, Rt Rev Dr Rayappu Joseph and the Bishop of Galle, Rt Rev Dr Raymond Wickremasinghe, more than 30,000 people including Bishops, priests and nuns, came together to pray for reconciliation. A poignant moment was when people exchanged their rosaries and prayed for one another.
Across the world too, with the CRL being invited to conduct the Four-Step Retreat, roots were being put down in Australia, Canada, England, Singapore and the USA.
In 2011, the CRL was invited to conduct the Catholic Charismatic Conference of British Columbia, Canada; in 2013, the Pentecost vigil of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Toronto, Canada; and from 2014-2016 it was part of the National Charismatic Renewal Convention in Walsingham, England. In 2020, the CRL spearheaded the prayer campaign ‘Strength in Weakness’ with the Archbishop of Canberra, Most Rev Dr Christopher Prowse, with more than 3,000 people attending, to support the Catholic Church which was facing a crisis at the time.
And so, CRL’s national and international ministry continues as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.