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| The historical
antecedent of the Mountain Top Walk to Emmaus® is Cursillo®
("cur-see-yo"). Cursillo developed in response to a "crisis of faith" in
the Catholic Church in Spain during the late 1940's under Bishop Juan Hervas.
The first Cursillo weekend
was held in Spain in 1948. It was a three day event consisting of 15 Christian
talks given by clergy and lay leaders.
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 Cursillo
spread from Spain to the Americas. The first English Cursillo was held
in Texas in 1961. As a result of Vatican II, Christians from other denominations
were invited to Catholic Cursillos®.
The first Episcopal
Cursillo® was held in 1969. Soon other "mainline" denominations began
having Cursillo weekends.
In the fall of 1976,
The Upper Room®, an ecumenical agency under the Board of Discipleship
of the United Methodist Church, asked the (Catholic) Peoria Cursillo Community
to model two Protestant Ecumenical weekends. Those two weekends were Cursillo
#108 held on April 21-24 and #110 held on May 19-22 at the St. Augustine
Cursillo Center in 1977.
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 The
Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church voted to hold a Cursillo
in August, 1977. This is the official beginning of the Upper Room®
Cursillo Movement. The first Upper Room® Cursillo was held in Nashville.
The Upper Room®
Cursillo in Nashville parented the Mountain Top Cursillo. The first
Mountain
Top Cursillo was Men's #1 held in March, 1980, at the Hinton Rural
Life Center.
In March, 1981, the
decision was made to give up the name of Cursillo and keep the ecumenical
participation. The Upper Room® Cursillo experience in the ecumenical
setting was one of understanding, appreciation, and strengthening of a
broader and healthier theology. The Upper Room® Cursillo decided to
change its name to the Walk to Emmaus®. |
 Mountain
Top Cursillo changed its name to Mountain Top Walk to Emmaus®. The
content and experiences are essentially the same as Cursillos sponsored
by other denominations, but the Walk to Emmaus® may not use any copyrighted
Cursillo® material. Cursillo® terms were Anglicized: Palanca
became Agape; Rollos became Talks; Ultreyas became Gatherings,
etc. The Walk to Emmaus® has the added dimension of being ecumenical.
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 The
Mountain Top Walk to Emmaus® has parented Emmaus Communities in Georgia,
Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. Some participants have attended
with the intention of starting an Emmaus® community in their state.
This is how the Walk to Emmaus® movement has spread throughout the
world and counts over 1,000,000 participants. The movement has had time to
perfect its methodology and expand to meet special needs.
|
 In
response to a need to serve young people, the Walk to Emmaus® movement
developed Chrysalis®. The image of growing from a caterpiller
to a butterfly is used. The young person's event is called a flight. Chrysalis®
is available to high school persons in tenth through twelfth grades. Journeys® is designed for people aged 19 through 24.
|
 In
response to the need to bring renewal to God's people in prisons, Kairos®
developed.
The Walk to Emmaus®
continues to expand and develop new programs to meet special needs and
opportunities throughout the world.
It must be remembered,
however, that the roots of the Walk to Emmaus® grew out of an urgent
need to respond to a crisis of faith in our churches -- yes, even your
church!
Rev. Steve Holcomb
Mountain Top Cursillo
#1 |
"Did
we not feel our hearts on fire as he talked with us
on
the road and explained the scriptures to us?" |
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or God or Jesus or Christ or Holy or Spirit or Christianity or Christian
or resources or spiritual or renewal or retreat or ecumenical or Methodist
or Cursillo or history or road. |
