Katherine Bennett talks to Brenden Thompson, the new UK director of Word on Fire, about establishing the ministry here.
In the nowhere place of Dante’s Divine Comedy we find the lukewarm – those who, in life, never took a stand for good or for evil and so find themselves with a bunch of other Ken Barlows waiting aimlessly in the lobby of hell. Even Hell won’t have them. “I know your works,” we are told in Revelation, “you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!” (Rev 3:15-16).
Christians, we know from the lives of the saints, come in a wonderful array of shapes and colours, but what they can never be is lukewarm.
In a culture where man has not taken “care to learn what he ought to know” (Aquinas, De Malo, 8:1-7), those with the gifts to teach him must step up. One man who has taken up the challenge is the American Bishop Robert Barron, who has answered the call with his aptly titled Word on Fire ministry.
Established in 2018, this ministry harnesses beauty, goodness and truth to proclaim Christ in a hostile culture, drawing people into (or back to) the Catholic faith. It is a community of evangelist members driven to enhance their knowledge of the faith and their skills in apologetics.
Twenty years ago, a young lukewarm Catholic Londoner was given an all-expenses paid trip to Sydney, Australia, from his mother. It was only shortly before his departure that mum suggested he swap the snorkel for rosary beads because he was, in fact, going on a Catholic pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2008. That man was Brenden Thompson, who is now the new UK programme director of the Word on Fire ministry.
“The experience of World Youth Day lit a fire under me, and I experienced a profound conversion” Thompson tells me. “I have spent my adult life serving the Church in Great Britain in every way open to me.”
I first met Thompson at a training day for Catholic educators six years ago. After pinning a ribbon on a tree, creating an origami cross and singing “Colours of Day”, I was just about ready to throw in the wet paper towel from the unisex toilets when Thompson got up to speak. I was immediately struck by his authenticity. Here was a man who didn’t just know his faith but loved it and lived it.
So rare a sight was he that I pushed through the crowd queueing for angel-shaped shortbread and introduced myself to him. We talked about the need for what Bishop Barron calls “a vibrant, smart beautiful and compelling Catholicism” to replace the dumbed-down faith that had been fed to us by those attempting to make it “relevant”. Thompson, fully alive and strikingly different, was doing his bit.
It came as no surprise to me to learn that it was Thompson whom Bishop Barron chose to head up his UK arm of Word on Fire. As Thompson recounts, their paths had crossed a few times over the years. “I was in the library one day while studying at Oxford and I saw that Bishop Barron was across the road filming segments for his Pivotal Players episode on John Henry Newman. I took the opportunity to go and say hello and to express my profound thanks to him for the positive influence he had played in my life of faith. I earnestly offered my help should they ever want to do any activities in England.”
Fast-forward to 2023 and after years of planning, interrupted by Covid and the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Thompson delivered a national evangelisation conference (sharing the Church’s story) with Bishop Barron as the keynote speaker. “This event and week-long tour with Bishop Barron were the highlight of my life in Catholic ministry, and my role now working for Word on Fire is a fruit of this encounter,” he says.
I was interested in why Word on Fire, which has been hugely successful in the United States, decided to invest in the UK. “During World Youth Day, Bishop Barron was struck by how many European Catholics knew him” Thompson says. “For most Catholics over 40, French is the lingua franca, but for those under 40 it’s English, and they are soaking up English-speaking US content. Having Word on Fire in the UK makes it easier to launch online content through a dedicated UK institute, and to offer in-person meetings for members across the UK and for those in Europe who would find a UK hub easier to access.”
It is young people who are the engine of the new evangelisation. Behind the scenes, they, with a little help from the institutional Church, managed to get Bishop Barron to the UK for the first national evangelisation conference in recent years. The average age of those involved was 27. These young people know how to use new media to reach the lost and hungry. They themselves have been fed by Bishop Barron’s intellectual rigour.
Thompson has talked about this role being the good fruit of the conference he organised with Bishop Barron. What does he expect the good fruit of this UK movement to be?
“My hope is to engage with those who are inspired by the vision of Bishop Barron and help to catalyse them for mission,” he replied. “The UK tour and its associated talks, events and retreats were the beginning of Word on Fire becoming embedded in the UK Church, and I want to continue to deepen connections with UK ministries and apostolates. Word on Fire is uniquely placed to evangelise the culture by catalysing Catholics in their different spheres of influence, whether it be politics, the arts, entertainment, education or medicine. I want to give a platform to UK-based speakers and thinkers.”
There is much we have in common with our brothers and sisters in the US, but there are unique challenges for UK Catholics. Is there an appetite for it here?
“There’s definitely an appetite and I think it’s growing,” Thompson says. “Despite the depressing census figures showing a decline in Christianity, the biggest Christian group in London is Catholicism. Ever since the Reformation, English Catholics have had to operate as a dynamic minority and there are real opportunities to bring Catholics together to equip and embolden them in their faith. There are many signs of life and vitality. My prayer is that Word on Fire can help bring an increase of hope and confidence to Catholics in the UK.”
Without doubt, Bishop Barron and Word on Fire are mentioned by many of those undertaking RCIA programmes across the country. So many spiritual seekers and former Anglicans have spoken about Bishop Barron’s videos as part of their testimony.
In a lukewarm sea of anything-goes, an age which has given birth to university leaders unable to speak with moral clarity – as Bishop Barron exposed in his article “Ivy League Presidents and the Collapse of Moral Reasoning” – we need Catholics to turn up the temperature and light a fire under those comfortably snoozing their way to Hell’s lobby.
None of us can be sure where we will end up, but one thing is for sure – neither Bishop Barron nor Brenden Thompson could be accused of being lukewarm.
For more, visit wordonfire.org
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