CHARIS Nordic, 2025 review

Let's look back on an eventful year, here are some highlights:

January: Healing and deliverance services with P Dominic Valanmanal in Södertälje and Stockholm Cathedral 27-28 Jan. P Dominic regularly visits parishes in Sweden. His retreats gather large crowds of people and are prepared by a team of volunteers in Sweden, including Ludwig Gelot, member of the CHARIS Nordic team.

February: About a hundred people came to worship and intercession service on February 22 in the Catholic Cathedral in Stockholm, which was jointly organized by charismatic groups and communities in the Stockholm region. Deacon Pancho Chin A Loi held an appeal about opening our hearts to a new fire of the Spirit that empowers us to participate in the new evangelization. Sacramental worship was included. Practically everyone arrived at the altar round and were served with intercession by deacon Pancho and intercession teams. It all ended with a mass in English with F Maximus, chaplain of the Catholic Cathedral.  Afterwards, everyone was invited to the Cathedral Hall for social gatherings and coffee prepared by the charismatic community The Risen Christ GALILEA (Catholics from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church).

March: CHARIS Nordic's service of communion met in Järfälla near Stockholm. The Nordic NSC team was constituted in the autumn of 2024, and after having had several meetings digitally, they now met physically for a retreat weekend on March 7-9 in Holy Trinity Parish. On Saturday evening there was a public worship and prayer service with sacramental devotional where all members of the theme received personal prayer. 

April-May: Life in the Spirit seminars in Stockholm. About 40 people were registered for this year's seminars, a collaborative project between St. Clara (Swedish Lutheran) and the Intercession Group in the Catholic Cathedral.

June: Pentecost of the Movements in the Catholic Cathedral Stockholm with Cardinal Anders Arborelius. The Cardinal celebrated Pentecost vigil in the Catholic Cathedral on June 7 with the Spiritual movements. Under the heading “Church in motion”, there are 19 different spiritual movements and secular institutes listed on the Catholic Church's website. In his homily, the bishop emphasized that the church is dependent on the Holy Spirit and the contribution of the movements to the life of the church with their diversity of graces. 

July: 

Lillemor Hallin 1934 - 2025.

Lillemor Hallin fell asleep peacefully on the night of July 31 at the Birgitta sisters guesthome in Djursholm. Her life has been characterized by tirelessly encouraging people to receive the gifts of the Spirit and making the church a more vibrant and healing community. She was chair of AKKS, the NSC for Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Sweden from 1987 to 2007. Many people have been healed through her intercession, and she was involved in the ecumenical pastoral organization Wholeness through Christ.  The funeral took place in Our Lady's Church in Täby on August 20. She was the author of many books on charismatic renewal and prayer for healing. Just before she went home to the Lord, she had time to complete the project with a new edition of her books:

[ The books can be ordered from CHARIS-Nordic's web-shop]

August:  2 Aug: Ecumenical worship in Kungsträdgården, Stockholm. More than ten thousand gathered in Kungsträdgården for 9 hours of ecumenical prayer and praise.  The invitation was made by a large network of churches and organizations, including CHARIS Nordic.  After the Jesus Manifestation, the annual all-Christian event in Kungsträdgården that ended 11 years ago, there has been a vacuum where Christians have not taken their place in the public space, Patrik Sandberg, one of the responsible leaders said to the newspaper Dagen. Many spoke of a strong and indescribable presence of God. "When the day was over, many people still stayed. [Sweden worships Jesus]

Ekumenisk vecka i Stockholm 18–24 augusti, arrangerad av  Sveriges Kristna Råd. En hel vecka med seminarier, gudstjänster, folkfest i Kungsträdgården m.m.  Bl.a: hölls en lovsångsgudstjänst i Storkyrkan 20 aug kl 18.00 med karismatisk lovsång som alla samfund med stor glädje deltog i. Kardinal Anders Arborelius predikade tillsammans med flera.

September: P Dominic Valanmanal back in Sweden. Two retreats, deliverance and healing in Oskarström on 19 Sept and in Järfälla on 23 Sept.

Oktober:

3-5 Oct: The time has come; the kingdom of God is near" - retreat in Järfälla with deacon Larry Oney with wife Andi and evangelist Terry Quinn from Ireland.  The kingdom of God, the fire of the Holy Spirit and evangelization were in focus. The presence of Christians on earth represents the Kingdom of God. God wants us to expand the kingdom increasingly. For that, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. Terry emphasized that the Mass is not the goal of our faith but the sum of our faith, the culmination, the peak of the mountain where we refuel, and draw strength to live our faith. It is necessary that we go down from the mountain, that is where evangelization will take place and the kingdom of God will spread. On Saturday evening, a service was held where the spiritual gifts were demonstrated: praise, prayer for healing and several testimonies from people who were healed from various ailments, prophetic words, prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all those gathered. A mission to go out into the world and pass on what we have received. An important theme was to break shackles as a prophetic sign. Symbolically, we had to cut off the chains that hold us spiritually captive (breaking the chains).

November: On 29 Nov, an afternoon was arranged in St. Mary's parish, Helsinki with the theme Back to Pentecost. The program included worship, inspired teaching, and prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit. The speaker was Fr. Martti Savijoki SCJ from St. Mary's Parish's prayer group Hearts on Fire. A Malaysian prayer group, Anointed Fire Catholic Ministries, and the Filipino group Missionary Families of Christ also participated. About 80 people came, most of them Catholics. A website for charismatic renewal in Finnish has been established: Armon Virta.

Stavanger: New Life – weekend course was arranged by the community The Risen Christ GALILEA with about 30 participants from the Ukrainian community in Norway and Sweden. The spiritual leader was Mykola Lipitak CR from Lviv. New Life is a course created by St. Andrew's Evangelization School in Poland with the same content as the Life in the Spirit seminars in the newly developed form that is presented on CHARIS international homepage.

December:

1-3 Dec: Advent retreat in Järfälla with the participation of P Mihovil Filipovic, Monfortian Order, member of the CHARIS national team for Croatia.

7 Dec: Back to Pentecost, meeting in Tampere. The investment in the meetings in Helsinki and Tampere as well as the Life in the Spirit seminars means that the focus is now on starting another prayer group in the other Catholic parish in Helsinki, St. Henrik, and a prayer group in Tampere.

Contract signed with Neal Lozano for the publication of his book UNBOUND in Swedish. Translator Ulrika Classon, publisher Bengt Malmgren. Swedish title BEFRIAD, the book will be published in January 2026.

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[From CHARIS Nordic Newsletter Jan 2026] [CHARIS Norden nyhetsbrev jan 2026 sv]