The evangelization team of St. Antoninus Church in Newark, and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Orange including Liliana Soto-Cabrera, Coordinator of the Office for Evangelization of the Archdiocese of Newark spent the weekend of January 30 at an International Seminar held at St Edwards Church, Pembroke Pines, Florida, learning the leadership skills necessary to institute an exciting and amazing phenomenon known as the Parish Evangelization Cell (PEC) system in their respective parishes.

St. Edward’s Church in Pembroke Pines, Florida, is a thriving multi-cultural Roman Catholic parish with over a hundred nationalities that is aflame with the fire of the Holy Spirit and the spirit of evangelization. Since its inception in 1994, the church has steadily grown and now comprises of over three thousand five hundred families. At the heart of its phenomenal growth is the Parish Evangelizing Cell System instituted at the very beginning by its impassioned and evangelistic pastor, Monsignor Michael Eivers, who unabashedly heeds Jesus’ clarion call to “go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.”

When Liliana Soto-Cabrera, encouraged by Pope Paul VI’s exhortation to find different methods and means to “bring the Christian message to modern man,” heard about St. Edward’s remarkable success story, she went there in 2008 with Fr. Marianus Hough of the Community of St. John and parishioners of St. Joseph in East Orange and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Orange to learn and experience first-hand the Parish Evangelization Cell system. St. Edward’s parish cell system currently has eighty five cell groups, each group containing ten to twelve members. They meet every two weeks with a seven-fold purpose: to grow in intimacy with the Lord; to share the Christian faith by word and lifestyle; to grow in Christian love for one another; to minister to one another; to give and receive support; to raise up new leaders; and to deepen one’s Catholic identity.

An evangelizing mindset is at the heart of each cell. The cell’s evangelistic goal is to increase its members and to rebirth a brand new cell. The focus of every cell group conforms to the three-fold focus of the parish – to be Eucharistic, to imbibe and foster the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and to be evangelistic. Now, because of the cell system, over 800 parishioners currently attend an hour of Eucharistic Adoration each week. The fervent spirituality of the parish is also reflected in every aspect of the church’s liturgical celebration. Music and song are interwoven so beautifully with liturgical action which in Pope Benedict XVI’s words can be said to contain the “power to be transformed in Christ and to transform the world, radiating Christ's goodness, His mercy and His love for others.”

Monsignor Eivers first introduced the cell group evangelization model in 1983 at St. Boniface Church in Pembroke Pines. He made a rigorous study of cell-based evangelization in different parts of the world before structuring his highly successful parish-based Catholic evangelization cell model. St Edward’s cell model is being successfully adopted by Catholic parishes in many countries including Ireland, Australia, Fiji, and Italy. Monsignor Eivers truly believes that Parish Evangelizing Cells are a movement of the Holy Spirit in recent times in many Catholic parishes around the world.

Don PiGi Perini, Pastor of Sant’ Eustorgio in Milan, Italy, which has 150 cells, has sponsored an annual International Cell Seminar for the past 20 years. As a result, Cells are now operative in 10 European countries. Don PiGi now has requested official recognition of Parish Evangelizing Cells from the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome and has been informed that this recognition will soon be granted.

St. Antoninus Church will implement its leadership cell beginning in March and subsequently institute the full-fledged Parish Evangelizing Cell System at Pentecost. Pastors and parish evangelization teams in the Archdiocese of Newark can contact Liliana Soto-Cabrera at sotolili@rcan.org; 973 497-4353 to obtain more information on the Parish Evangelization Cell system.