How did New Beginnings come into being?
In 1996, Paul Wilkes traveled to a church in New Jersey to speak at a “revival.” Although Wilkes is a lifelong Catholic and regularly writes about religion and religious belief, he had an experience during that week unlike anything he’d ever had before. The church was exciting. The people loved to be there. They welcomed strangers into their community. The outreach and the reverence were real. Service and ministry were a natural part of their lives. And, all the while, they were enjoying themselves; there was no sense of obligation, only of opportunities. Wilkes interest was peaked, for he had sat in many a church that didn’t have this same sense of excitement and spiritual depth. What made this church so appealing? Were there other such wonderful “homes for the spirit?” What did they have in common? And so, with a grant from the Lilly Endowment, he began to search for other excellent local churches and Catholic parishes. The churches and parishes he found are featured in two books: Ex
