Cursillo-related Movements > in various Christian Churches > ECCO-I
ECCO-I
The Ecumenical Cursillo Community of Illinois (ECCO-I) is a community of Christians from diverse denominational backgrounds who seek to serve God and share God’s love in the greater Chicagoland area.
Almost 30 years ago, Lutheran men and women from the Chicago area, experienced a Cursillo weekend. This weekend was sponsored by a Cursillo community from Virginia. Their response was to a strong desire to share this experience with other Lutheran men and women. As their community developed toward its first weekend, they were joined by other Cursillistas from other Christian traditions - Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic. Thus the community of the 'Lutheran' Cursillo became "Ecumenical". After a year of planning and extensive help from the Chicago Catholic Cursillo, the first Ecumenical Cursillo for men was held on November 17th-20th 1977. The first Ecumenical weekend for women followed on December 8th-
In 1979 the Catholic Cursillo Community of Northern Ireland asked the lay leadership of ECCO-I if we could extend Cursillo to their "Protestant" brothers. In the spring of 1980 a team was called and trained. In October of 1980 the first "Protestant" men's weekend was done at Corrymeela Northern Ireland
To this day, the ECCO-I community continues to sponsor Cursillo weekends. Planned and organized by the laity with spiritual direction from clergy of the participating denominations.
This information is an extract from ECCO-I website
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On December 4, 2006, the following message was sent to us:
Hello and Peace to all of you,
I'm asking for prayer for our community ECCO-I of Northern Illinois. We are in turmoil. There is talk about dissolving our movement. It's hard for us to get a weekend together. Either we can't get the candidates and then there is a struggle to get the workers. There is a small group that do not want to see this ended. We need prayer from other communities for direction and peace in any decision that is made. If at all possible please send this out to as many places as possible. We are meeting Friday evening the 8th of December.
God's blessing and peace,
Karen [Karen Thoren-Day <thoren@mastercontrols.com>]
ECCO-I of Illinois