Participants at the Arkansas Catholic Charismatic Conference Aug. 5 at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock offer a blessing to speaker Jim Murphy, a consultant to the National Service Committee for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal who lives in Michigan. During the conference Aug. 4-6, Jim and Dorothea O’Leary of Dardanelle received the Founders of our Faith Award from diocesan charismatic liaison Msgr. James Mancini of Tontitown and conference co-chairman Jim Morgan of North Little Rock. “They have really listened to the Lord all these years,” Morgan said of the couple who moved to Arkansas from Washington, D.C., in the 1970s to open a retreat center. About 400 people from around the Diocese of Little Rock attended the three-day conference and learned more about the theme, “Call to Unity.” Other activities during the weekend included a presentation by Father John Capuci, director of The Center of Jesus the Lord, a Catholic charismatic retreat center in New Orleans, and praise music by Dennis and Janet Holt of Pocahontas and local musicians. Adoration, confession, prayer, a healing service and children and teens ministries were also available.
