COLUMBIA — Clapping, singing and arms outstretched, charismatic prayer groups gathered for a weekend of prayer and inspiration during the 1998 South Carolina Charismatic Conference at St. John Neumann Elementary School Oct. 23-25.
With a theme of "The Holy Spirit, our Hope for Unity," the annual conference, combined liturgies, a healing service and praying ministry for the people who came from the Carolinas and Georgia. It was sponsored by the South Carolina Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, and staffed by the Open Heart Prayer Group from Columbia. The event was knit together by Babsie Bleasdell an international speaker and author who shared her inspirations about the Holy Spirit with the crowd for all three days.
Babsie Bleasdell speaks with Ouest Nazon of Summerville Bleasdell is a native of Trinidad who has been traveling the world since 1976 in charismatic renewal and as a motivator in traditional parish situations. She talks of healing through prayer and the acceptance of God's gifts.
It is with great dynamism that this 77-year-old woman sings, dances, stomps her feet and laughs her message across with the gift of the storyteller that she is. Her audience was often smiling and nodding their heads in accord to what she said and in delight of her spontaneous animation.
Bleasdell has an impressive resume of speaking commitments. She has addressed some 6,000 bishops and priests at the International Priests Retreat in Rome and has assisted at priests' retreats at universities in America, including Steubenville University in Ohio and in Eastern Canada. She is the Caribbean area Representative for Magnificat, an international ministry to Catholic women. She is founder of Word of Life Prayer Community in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, and is involved in caring for underprivileged children by working to provide housing, education and medical care.
Bleasdell speaks from personal experience. She has been called a healer but quickly dismisses that misconception.
In matriarchal style, she urged people to reverentially partake in the sacraments they are offered and to actually keep the Sabbath holy. She related an anecdote from a Bible study she attended where a priest had the class read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient, love is kind …" He had them insert Jesus' name into the reading, then he had them insert their own names.
All of her topics and stories were interspersed with messages of inspiration and reminders of Catholic tenets.
"Babsie is a storyteller, she teaches us by life experiences," said Franciscan Father Paul M. Williams, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in Greenville. He attended the conference and celebrated the liturgies.
That message is right on time, he said, because he had heard that members of the Catholic charismatic community felt the church was dry and were called to Pentecostal churches.
Though Bleasdell recognizes gifts of other faiths, ecumenically, she believes that the fullness of Christ subsists within the Catholic Church, Father Williams said.
Ruth Falter, a member of the Open Heart Prayer Group said the conference was attended by approximately 150 people each day, smaller than in previous years but equally enthusiastic and open to the Holy Spirit.