The Walk to Emmaus or Emmaus Walk is a three day movement

Three day movement

In Christianity, a three day movement is an organisation that conducts retreats to enrich the lives of other Christians, consisting of people who have themselves attended such a retreats...

 and Protestant version of the Roman Catholic Cursillo

Cursillo

Cursillos in Christianity is a ministry of the Roman Catholic Church...

 Movement. It started in the 1960s and 1970s when Episcopalians

Episcopal Church (United States)

The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 and Lutherans, and Tres Dias

Tres Dias

Tres Dias is an interdenominational Christian three day movement. Tres Dias communities around the world run retreat weekends for Christians.-History:Tres Dias traces its ancestry through Cursillo....

 offered Cursillo. In 1978, The Upper Room of the General Board of Discipleship

General Board of Discipleship

The General Board of Discipleship is one of 13 international agencies, boards and commissions of The United Methodist Church. It was established by the 1972 United Methodist General Conference...

 of the United Methodist Church converted the Roman Catholic program into a primarily Protestant version.

History

In the Catholic Church Emmaus began in 1978, with the approval of the Archdiocese of Miami. It was developed and conducted by a team of laywomen from St. Louis Church in Kendall (Miami). Father David G. Russell, who was pastor at that time, saw the need for and envisioned a parish based retreat that enabled lay women to minister to lay women. He approached the secretariat of the Cursillo movement and asked if they would allow a parish based Cursillo to be held at St. Louis. This request was denied. Since there was no other retreat of this type available at that time, Father Russell asked the Directress of Religious Education, Myrna Gallagher, to form a team and develop one. After intense prayer and much thought, it was established that the theme of the retreat would be based on the Scripture passage found in the Gospel of Luke 24:13-35, the Emmaus Reading.

In early 1985 several men from St. Louis Catholic Church, along with Fr. Jim Fetcher, were discussing what kind of ministry would be good for men within the church. The present men's club was not very active whereas the Hard Hat Ministry was very active, but not very spiritual in its goals. The group's consensus was that a ministry that would reach in to the heart of the Parish and pull out those men who "came to church" but were "not involved". From this discussion, a team was formed and the first Men's Emmaus was held at the Dominican Retreat House. Eventually, one of the candidates from a previous weekend called to say they would like to have the same retreat at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church. A group of several men from St. Louis went to St. Brendan’s and put on the first "not at St. Louis" Men's Emmaus weekend, held at the youth center next to Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove. Thereafter an event was held at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, and the program expanded thenceforth.

Emmaus Retreats are different from Cursillo

Cursillo

Cursillos in Christianity is a ministry of the Roman Catholic Church...

. Cursillo aims to form "Catholic leaders", Emmaus reaches out to Catholics and non-Catholics as well. Today Emmaus retreats are held worldwide .

External links

• Emmaus in the UK
• http://www.upperroom.org/emmaus/