APC #31 is scheduled for Sept. 18-22, 2013. Pilgrim and staff applications are available here on the Cursillo page.

APC #31 Pilgrim List as of TBA and APC #31 Staff List as of April 14, 2013. Mandatory Training is Aug 16 & 17, 2013 at TBD

Future Dates:
APC #32 will be April 2-6, 2014
APC #33 will be September 17-21, 2014

PRAYER BANNER - Our prayer banner is now located on the national prayer banner web site: www.prayerbanner.org the site houses prayer banners for cursillo weekends all over the country. Please add this site to your favorites. The site is very simple to use and you can request a list of pilgrims and staff by completing the request form located at the bottom of the banner for which you are taking a time.

ULTREYA- Sat. July 13th, 2013 at Christ Presbyterian, 8450 Whispering Pines Daphne, AL 36526 251-621-9444
Council meeting at 10:30. Lunch at noon. Please bring your favorite entree and side dish.

What is Sponsorship? Each person who attends a Cursillo weekend has a sponsor. A sponsor is a person who has been through a Cursillo experience and is willing to share that experience with another new Cursillo participant. The sponsorship of a previous participant frees the current participant from any personal responsibilities that might distract him or her while on the experience. Sponsorship also undergirds each participant's 72-hour experience with prayer and other expressions of God's love.
The Aim of Sponsorship: The aim of a sponsor should not be "to get all my friends to go," to fill up the weekend, to fix people's problems, or to reproduce one's own religious experience in others. Rather, the aim of the sponsor is to bring spiritual revitalization to Christians who will, in turn, bring new life and vision to the work of the church in the congregation, home, workplace, and community. The aim of sponsorship is to build up the body of Christ.
A Sponsor’s Responsibility: Sponsorship is an act of love for God, for the participants of a Cursillo weekend, for the Cursillo Community, and for the church. It is a demonstration of agape love. A sponsor will:
• Pray for the participant's openness to God's call to discipleship.
• Make an appointment with the participant (or participating couple) to discuss his or her participation in Cursillo.
• Invite the participant to take part in Cursillo for the sake of a more vital relationship with Jesus Christ. The sponsor shares his or her faith, explains the basic purpose, elements, and follow-up dimensions of the weekend.
• Ask the participant to make a commitment by filling out a registration form. If the participant is married, the sponsor will speak with both partners and encourage an equal commitment by both spouses.
• Support the participant's Pilgrim experience through prayers and otherwise. The sponsor will also support the participant's family by house-sitting, baby-sitting, watering plants, picking up mail, feeding pets, or just checking in with a spouse to see if any help or support is needed.
• Encourage the participant in his/her continued journey and take the participant to the 1st Cursillo Ultreya after the weekend is over.
• Help the participant re-enter his or her church and consider ways to act out new commitment and enthusiasm.
• Prepare a “placemat” 11 x 17, laminated, for their Pilgrim. Learning personal things about the Pilgrim and using it on the placemat is encouraged. Nothing that can cause embarrassment should be used. This must be at Beckwith prior to Thursday afternoon of the Cursillo weekend.
• Invite them to join a 4th Day group.
• Stay in close contact and follow up with your sponsored Pilgrim for the next year
• Encourage your participant to apply for a staff position.
• Encourage the participant to consider becoming a sponsor by giving them a copy of this document.
How to Become a Sponsor: In order to sponsor someone on a Cursillo weekend, a person must first have been on a Cursillo weekend itself. A sponsor should also be active in 4th Day group. Having been through the experience and being engaged in ongoing spiritual formation through Fourth Day gives one perspective on how to sponsor.
Beyond these requirements, the basic attitude of a sponsor is one of prayerful discernment. This results in intentional acts of unconditional love, or what is often termed "the first act of agape."
"Sponsorship can be unwise or wise. Unwise sponsorship results from unbridled enthusiasm that wants everyone to have the same experience. Sponsors with unbridled enthusiasm approach anybody and everybody with the admonition that "you need to go on a Cursillo weekend," and that open invitation is the primary (sometimes the only) emphasis. This approach lacks discernment and will result in a burden for the church. While the individual being sponsored may benefit, that individual does not go back into the church to foster growth and renewal. The lack of commitment at this point is contrary to the purpose of Cursillo.
Wise sponsorship is careful, intentional, prayerful, and purposeful because it results from God's leading. The pilgrims return to their churches and community renewed in their commitment to be effective disciples."
Additional Considerations in “Inviting” members to attend a Cursillo weekend: Cursillo is designed to affect a specific, identifiable, and qualitative response in the pilgrims. That response is to return to their various environments and there to serve to reform those environments after the kingdom of God. It is a call to the conscious and deliberate living of the Christian faith, seeking to make every relationship, every situation, every experience an occasion for the manifestation of God’s Kingdom according to the example of Jesus Christ.
Cursillo is not designed for a “new Christian”, but rather for one whose faith journey has brought them to a point where they will take a leadership role in their churches and out into the world. Inviting pilgrims with serious personal or health issues takes away from the experience of the others and affects the direction of the weekend. Cursillistas are asked to prayerfully consider their invitations and are discouraged from inviting those needing professional health and guidance. It is recommended that pilgrims be screened through the local pastor for appropriateness.

This web site is here to the glory of God.