Covenant

Chapter Nine

Throughout this book, we have spent the majority of our time investigating the origins and theological problems with the Renewal, but this heretical movement does not exist merely in the realm of ideas or historical movements. Real people have been affected by it and their experiences should be told. Now, many people who have spent time in the Renewal will tell you that their experiences were largely positive, even if certain moments may have been chaotic and rocky. Looking back on my brief sojourn in the movement I could say the same thing.

After all, I wasn’t well-formed as a Catholic prior to spending time in Renewal settings, so I had no standard of orthodoxy or tradition that I could reference to judge what I saw and experienced. It was only when I discovered Catholic Tradition and started reading works from before Vatican II that I realized there were real doctrinal problems. Of course, there were moments when certain things felt “off” to me, but given that I had no theological formation to make sense of what was happening, I merely brushed off some of the stranger things I witnessed as being aberrations or perhaps eccentricities. We are all different and will react to different scenarios in different ways, so when I saw someone getting extremely emotional or animated I told myself, “Well, that is just their personality.”

Remember, the whole justification for the Renewal is that the movement is a work of the Holy Ghost, who has raised up “anointed” believers who have received special gifts directly from God, gifts that are there for the taking. So, if that is the case, then wouldn’t we expect to see the odd thing that seems strange? Don’t certain parts of the Bible seem strange to modern sensibilities?

I am sure that anyone who spent time in the Renewal and who subsequently distanced himself from it can relate. However, most people who encounter the Renewal don’t go “all in.” For most, it is a way of praying that they enjoy, or maybe they attend various conferences every so often. Some people enjoy the praise and worship aspect of prayer gatherings, and the setting provides an opportunity to engage in fellowship with other Christians. Also, the vast majority of people I met in the Renewal were truly wonderful people who really did act like Christians. I do not doubt for a moment that most Charismatics are trying to be good Christians. The general “niceness” of the community is probably one of the reasons that many people do not speak out against it — I know that was the case for me for the longest time.

However, while this sort of “fair weather” Charismatic Catholicism may be the most common experience or interaction that people have with the Renewal, it is not at the heart of the movement. There is a much darker side that has ruined so many lives and led so many souls away from the Church. I am speaking about the Covenant Communities. Many readers will be unaware of these communities because the climax of their drama occurred before the rise of the internet, so unless one is willing to do a lot of research and comb through scans of old documents, it is unlikely that the topic will be considered at any length. It should also be noted that it is wrong to brush off the Covenant Communities as a “minority movement” in the Renewal, as nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the number of those living in the communities is small compared to the plethora of Catholics who associate with the Renewal in one way or another, but the influence of the Covenant Communities on the movement as a whole cannot be understated. As will be seen below, the spiritual heads and founders, both priest and lay, of the Renewal were all associated with and lived in these communities, which have been described as the “Mecca of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.”¹ In fact, the Covenant Communities have been ground zero for the Renewal, and it is impossible to speak of the Renewal without exposing the veritable madness of these communities. In a very real sense, the Covenant Communities are the logical conclusion of the Renewal, and their continued presence is intrinsic to the Renewal itself, and not merely an exception.

Before I continue this chapter, I would like to thank all the brave people who reached out to me to share their stories. When I first began researching, I had no idea what a Covenant Community was, and I had no idea that they were so common. The more I researched the phenomenon, the more I realized that the Covenant Community fiasco deserves its own work, perhaps a book or even a documentary series. After receiving a deluge of testimonies from people from all over the world who were involved with Covenant Communities, I debated whether I should even include a chapter in the book on that issue, because the people harmed by the Renewal in these settings deserve more than a chapter.

Nonetheless, given that this book will reach a wide audience, it was necessary to provide at least some information on the topic. To all those brave souls who spoke with me or reached out to me, please understand that if your testimony or experience is not specifically mentioned in this book, it does not mean that I have forgotten what you told me. Also, please pray for the author, as I plan to produce a wider work on the Covenant Communities apart from this book, which will afford me the opportunity to dive deeper into the subject and give the history the attention it deserves.

The Backstory

The Renewal is based on the idea that the gifts and charisms of the Early Church — mostly seen in the Book of Acts — have returned to “renew” the Church. So, not only were the first Charismatics concerned with the charismata, but they wanted to adopt a “radical” way of living out the Gospel as they saw it.

The early Christians were, in many ways, set apart from the wider community. Thus, we see in the Acts of the Apostles the first Christians living in a communal setting:

And all they that believed, were together, and had all things common. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as every one had need. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their meat with gladness and simplicity of heart; Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord increased daily together such as should be saved. (Acts 2:44-47)

Of course, this happened in Jerusalem and under the guidance of the prelates — the Apostles — who were present. It was not the way that all the first Christians lived, as many of them did not live in the Jerusalem community but in other cities and countries. Nonetheless, some of the first Christians indeed lived in this setting, and it was integral to their growth as Christians. Now, this way of life was never established as the norm for laypeople in the Church. As the Church began to grow, those who wanted to live in a more devout setting would become monastic, or join a religious community under the guidance of a priest or bishop.

We can gather from assessing Church history that, just like the widespread presence of the charismata in the Early Church, this sort of community was necessary for the initial establishment of the Church and did not continue as time progressed. Taking this event from Acts as a template, the early Charismatics sought to recreate this type of setting, with the hopes that they could live out their new supposed calling from the Holy Ghost with other like-minded Charismatics. The results have been utterly disastrous.

Almost immediately after the Renewal began, the first Covenant Community started in Ann Arbor, Michigan, under the guidance of the founders, including Ralph Martin, the head of Renewal Ministries and world-famous charismatic proponent. The community, called Word of God, was founded in 1967. Soon after, Kevin Ranaghan and others founded the People of Praise covenant community in South Bend, Indiana in 1971.

Other Covenant Communities were formed throughout the United States and elsewhere, and eventually, two main umbrella organizations were formed that handled the majority of communities: The Sword of the Spirit and the People of Praise.²

There are dozens of Covenant Communities in existence today, and they operate as religious non-profit organizations. In some cases, the communities own their own land and residences, and in other cases, the settings have been more ad hoc, with members moving into new development suburbs and essentially purchasing the majority of homes in a neighbourhood or cul de sac.

The communities operate as “parachurch” organizations, at times with the permission of local bishops and, in some cases, in a state of tension with the diocese.

Also, all of these communities were established as ecumenical and not strictly Catholic, even if the majority of members were Catholic. Doctrinal requirements for entry included things like accepting the Nicene Creed and the authority of Scripture, but submission to the magisterium of the Catholic Church was never required. Again, we see that the Renewal is not Catholic in any substantial way, and the heresy of religious indifference is part of the very fabric of the movement.

One former member — we will call him Jack for anonymity purposes — who shared his story with me said: “It [Covenant Community] was never Catholic. And it was 100% Pentecostal. It was always Pentecostal… When I was a kid, they used to drag [us] down to these Pentecostal temples… this ecumenical movement, woefully neglecting any education in the sacraments and the things that truly mattered.”