At the request of Bishop Gerard County CSSp, himself a meditator, a team from WCCM Caribbean visited St. Vincent for a week in June 2019 with funding provided from the “Emerging Communities fund” of WCCM. At the beginning of the visit, the team met with the Bishop and a newly appointed team for Christian Meditation in the diocese and mapped out the programme which included:
- Giving talks at six parish Masses on Saturday and Sunday
- Revisiting Christian Meditation in one primary and three secondary schools who continue the practice in their schools
- Visiting and reintroducing Meditation in the male Prison
- Introducing Meditation to teenage girls in a Home for Abused teens
- Giving talks to the priests, deacons and their wives at the Pastoral Centre
- Giving three Radio Interviews
The Bishop was in high praise of the team who conducted the sessions with a great deal of confidence. They had previously attended Essential Teaching Weekends (ETW), John Main Seminar and retreats with the help of funding from the USA and Australia and this in no small way prepared them for the task and helped set up a team model that could be replicated in the other Islands of the Caribbean. This visit has helped the Bishop to encourage each parish to have a meditation group, the schools to continue their practice on a daily basis and those in the Prison Ministry to be faithful to the practice. As well the Bishop has asked Fr. Laurence Freeman to address the Caribbean Bishops at their annual meeting in 2020. This will surelyanchor Christian Meditation firmly in the Caribbean.
