Tres Dias
Encyclopedia
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
three day movement
Three day movement
In Christianity, a three day movement is an organisation that conducts retreats to enrich the lives of other Christians, consisting of people who have themselves attended such a retreats...
. Tres Dias communities around the world run retreat weekends for Christians.
History
Tres Dias traces its ancestry through CursilloCursillo
Cursillos in Christianity is a ministry of the Roman Catholic Church...
.
Cursillo had its beginnings amid the turmoil and destruction of civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
fare and of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, which left Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
with empty churches. Late in the 1940's, a sense of revival was stirring within the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Small groups of friends in various Catholic action groups began to share their faith regularly. Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
s were organized whereby men and women could rededicate their lives toward Christian ideals. Bishop Juan Hervas, who was active in action groups and renewal activities with the men on the island of Majorca, and Eduardo Bonin, who was involved with organizing pilgrimages, met through these sharing groups.
With a broadening vision of what these small sharing groups (reunion groups) could accomplish, weekly meetings produced periodic retreats where the reality of living a Christian life was intensely taught and experienced through support by reunion groups. These retreats became known as Cursillo de Christiandad, which means "short course in Christianity." Originally the retreats grew out of the reunion groups.
There were few men in the Church after the tragedy of war in Spain
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. One prime objective in the early years was to revitalize the church by bringing men back into the activities of the church.
The Cursillo movement was confined to Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
speaking countries until the late 1950's when a group of men from the Spanish Air Force
Spanish Air Force
-The early stages:Hot air balloons had been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with the help of Alfredo Kindelán, Leonardo Torres y Quevedo directed the construction of the first Spanish dirigible in the Army Military Aerostatics Service, created in 1896 and located...
, who were in training in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and were in a Reunion Group, conducted the first Cursillo in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Among the Spanish-speaking people the movement began to spread across the United States. The first English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
speaking Cursillo was held in the early 1960's.
Protestants who attended the weekends, saw the need to make the experience available to other Protestants. This led to the development of the interdenominational Tres Dias. The first Tres Dias weekend was held in Newburgh, New York, November 2-5, 1972. Dave McManigal was its rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
. He was a Protestant who had attended a Roman Catholic Cursillo and was instrumental in forming Tres Dias. That weekend, then as now, was open to all Christian traditions. [Info About the Genesis of Tres Dias]
Others involved in starting Tres Dias were Helmut Maier; and Bob and Mary Essert.
Starting from the Mid-Hudson RegionMid-Hudson community in Newburgh/Poughkeepsie, New York, the movement spread rapidly. Pittsburgh was the second community; then Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Fairfield County is a county located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The county population is 916,829 according to the 2010 Census. There are currently 1,465 people per square mile in the county. It is the most populous county in the State of Connecticut and contains...
, Northern New Jersey, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, Central Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and South Hudson.
In the Spring of 1979, with the encouragement of the Mid-Hudson Secretariat, John McKinney formed an ad hoc "National" secretariat with Jim Thornley, Anton Wellbrock, Gerry Hoernes, and Bob Decker. That group produced initial drafts of a "National" constitution and "Essentials of Tres Dias". All other communities were invited to participate and refine the drafts.
On July 11, 1980, at Poughkeepsie, NY, the constitution and essentials were ratified and adopted by all of the above listed communities. The Tres Dias organization was formed as a national organization. The secretariats of the communities were chartered as local secretariats. John McKinney was the first president. Subsequently, Tres Dias was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in New York state ... and was recognized by the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
.
A "charter" member of the first National/International Tres Dias Secretariat, Peter Scharfenberg, labored for more than two decades ... stocking and shipping manuals and materials to Tres Dias people all over the world.
In 1985 Tres Dias became an international organization when communities were chartered in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Tens of thousands of people have participated in Tres Dias weekends.