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Retrouvaille in Singapore
How We Started
Retrouvaille in Singapore started on 18 January 1993
when the late Fr Edmund Dunne CSsR, President of our Archdiocese's Family
Life Society, having read about Retrouvaille in the Matrimony magazine wrote
to the co-ordinating couple of Worldwide Marriage Encounter in Singapore: "I
wonder whether you will consider bringing it to the attention of the ME
Executive. The possibilities are to send a couple to US to get all the
information or to bring a couple from there to help us. Finance invested in
this is worthwhile."
Michael & Lucy Yeo, then a team couple who has been with ME for about
fifteen years, felt a need to bring this programme to Singapore. After
seeking permission from our then Archbishop Gregory Yong, they called Bob &
Marie Pate to enquire about bringing Retrouvaille to Singapore on 17 April
1993. Within five months, a Retrouvaille Formation Weekend was held at the
Marriage Encounter House, Singapore. The Formation team comprised Chuck &
Anita Lewis from the USA and Rev Fr John McCarthy of Melbourne, Australia.
11 couples, most of them ME team couples, and five priests experienced the
training from 15 - 17 October 1993.
Retrouvaille Singapore Now
The first Retrouvaille Weekend was held on 30 April - 1 May 1994.
We have been hosting three weekends every year since we first started. Our
weekends were always small averaging 12 couples. Due to the size of our city
state and the racial mix, we always had couples of other faith expressions
attending the weekends. They are not just couples from other Christian
denominations but also of Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism, Buddhism faiths to name
a few. Here in Singapore, Catholics are only four percent of the population
of four million. In fact we even had couples coming from Malaysia,
Indonesia,
Hong Kong and even Taiwan.
Retrouvaille Singapore is an affiliate of the Family Life Society under the
Archdiocese of Singapore. The Society funded our initial start-up but we
have been self-funding ever since, depending entirely on the participants'
contributions.
We have always used the latest versions of the weekend and post weekend
talks. We fully support and abide by the by-laws of Retrouvaille
International. We stand by the declared Vision and Mission Statements and hope to reach out to more couples to help
them renew their marriages.
Vision Statement of
Retrouvaille International
A Beacon Of Hope
For A World Accepting Despair
The unchallenged
acceptance of divorce has infected our world with hopelessness, but we
believe that every marriage deserves the opportunity to survive, be healed
and thrive as a covenant of life and love. Retrouvaille is the place where
we, as hurting couples, found hope and so we are passionately committed to
dramatically increasing the number of couples served in both new and
existing communities worldwide.
Mission Statement of
Retrouvaille International
Retrouvaille is an International
community of disciples committed to the continued healing of their marriages
and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, sharing their stories, talents and gifts
to promote and spread the healing ministry of Retrouvaille.
Patron Saint
The Patron Saint of Retrouvaille is
St. Joseph.
Retrouvaille Logo
The
logo indicates the "Lifeline" that is given
to marriages, via Retrouvaille, to be healed through the Paschal Mystery of
Christ's Death and Resurrection.
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