KAIROS

ORIGINS OF KAIROS
By Ike Griffin

The Kairos program came out of the Cursillo movement created by Eduardo Bonnin and other young men active with Catholic youth in 1944 as a means to soften the hearts of Spanish men, hardened by war, back into a loving relationship with community and the church. The name Cursillo is a short form of El Cursillo en Cristianidad, or Short Course in Christianity. “Kairos” is a Greek word meaning “in the fullness of time” or God’s special time, or at the right time, as contrasted with “chronos” or linear time.

Spanish men had largely given up participation in the church, leaving that socially required connection to their women. Boys, born into the church, would participate up to their Confirmation, after which they typically withdrew. Men were obligated to fight, first a bloody civil war spanning decades, then through the harshness of World War II. Spanish Christianity had long suffered the effects of the Inquisition. Twentieth century Iberia had inherited large migrations of Moors, Muslims, Jews and Christians, each adding complexity to civil strife over dominance. The Inquisition left a Christian Spain, but eroded the self-image of churchmen and accelerated their flight from daily participation in the church. That trend may still be present today, but in 1940’s Spain, they were already experiencing a post-war collapse of the institutional church.

Bonnin’s efforts to ignite an interest in religion led him to consult the brightest modern theologians and to study the work of leading psychologists of that period, including Carl Rogers and Erich Fromm. They began to understand that people need to find joy, mutual support and acceptance in religion, and that those elements were largely missing from the local experience. Bonnin’s group felt that small groups were the best way to deliver Godly healing, igniting love and compassion among participants. Through some divine intervention, they were led to shape an experience steeped in original blessing rather than original sin.

The first Cursillo experience occurred in 1944. Only the laity participated. Priests came in to conduct Mass, but otherwise had little involvement. Not until 1949 was Cursillo recognized by the Catholic Church, allowing it to rapidly spread around the world. Recognition by the Roman Catholic Church cost Cursillo its ecumenical approach, but the cost to the Catholic Church was an awakening of the laity and corresponding end of their total dependency upon the clergy. Whatever the costs, Cursillo became the most significant spiritual renewal movement to come out of the church in several hundred years.

A Cursillo was formed for women about the time the movement broke from the confines of Spain. Psychological aspects of confession and confrontation of personal failures required programs to remain single sex experiences.

In 1957, Cursillo came to the United States as a Roman Catholic program modeled after the Spanish movement. The success of the program in igniting the fire of God’s love in men’s hearts, renewing their interest in the church, and service to the community helped it grow rapidly into a nationwide movement. Other Christian denominations and churches recognized the power of the movement, but some of the non-liturgical churches could not abide with restraints put on the movement by the Catholic Church.

When a creative energy is oppressed, it seems to find a path to another form, manifesting itself in new and beautiful ways. So it was with the ecumenical aspects of the earlier Cursillo. Through newly empowered laity, real ecumenicity became possible, breaking forth in new form. The new ecumenical Cursillo, sprang forth as The Walk to Emmaus, Tres Dias, Via de Cristo, The Great Feast, Koinonia, El Camino, The Great Feast, Jubilee Journey and a score of other ecumenical expressions of the parent model. New coed programs spawned Marriage Encounter.

By 1975, the collective expressions of Cursillo had gathered considerable momentum. Models of the movement exploded through the liturgical churches as Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian expressions became evident. The movement spread rapidly across the United States and around the world with great force. In the year 2000, more than eighty-thousand people experienced the United Methodist Church’s “Walk to Emmaus” weekend. Ecumenical models of the movement continue to grow, while most denominational models seem to have peaked and show less growth.

Kairos Prison Ministry began in Florida in 1976 at Union Correctional Institution, with a group of men inspired to present a “Cursillo” in prison. Their program was fashioned from the ecumenical models of Cursillo, shaped and refined to address the unique environment of prison. Kairos is the prison expression of those movements. The effort spread beyond their wildest imagination! By 1990, there were 53 programs presented in eleven states. At the millennium year 2000, there were 246 programs in medium and high security institutions in 28 states, Canada, England, South Africa, and Australia vigorously maintaining active Kairos ministries. At the beginning of 2010, there are more than 440 programs in 36 states plus 8 foreign countries.

Kairos Outside is a program designed for women whose loved ones are incarcerated. Significant women of the incarcerated “do time” right along with their loved ones – often a lonely vigil of shame and isolation. Kairos Outside provides a safe place for these women to honestly confront their pain and begin healing, by experiencing Christ’s love in a way not always available in their denominational churches.

Kairos Torch is presented for juvenile offenders within the juvenile justice system and is growing rapidly. Many younger prisoners (under age 25) have reached physical maturity without having experienced unconditional love delivered through another human being, preventing, or at least retarding, their emotionally and spiritually maturity. Kairos Torch provides that experiential opportunity for them, belatedly but powerfully delivered.

Those who are fortunate enough to participate in a Kairos, Kairos Outside or Torch, are drawn, at least for a few days, from a familiar cold and harsh environment into a warm, nurturing environment. Almost invariably they recognize something they have longed for all their lives, probably without knowing how destitute and void of love their lives have been, not knowing the nature of the hole they carry in their heart. For this particular audience, the incarcerated, Kairos is a life changing experience. Kairos, it is said, moves ones world-view a short but critical distance, from the head to the heart.