Chapter Five L)3

To sum up, there has been a flowering of all kinds of enterprises in Tignish in the past twenty years; the village is no bigger than it was in 1980, but it has more services. There was only one licensed electrician at that time; now there are several - and much more diversity. True, this is a widespread trend in North America. It not only points to a much better standard of living among the area’s residents, but to more acceptance of the unusual and to an appreciation of more variety. And variety too contributes to survival. From the economic point of view, Tignish today is an improved version of what it was a hundred years ago.

Turning to the Charismatic Renewal, its effects on the community as a whole cannot be measured. For the first few years after a Charismatic Prayer Group started in Tignish, it was under the auspices of the Sisters, and it did not attract a large number of participants. This all changed with the arrival of Father Claude Shea in 1981. Father Shea, a native of the region who had just retired, had his life changed through the Charismatic Renewal some years previously. In September of that year, he presented Life in the Spirit, an introductory course to the Renewal. A group of twenty—five or more people turned out the first evening, and more came to the subsequent sessions reaching a peak figure of about one hundred. After the eight-part course was over, many of these peOple joined the Prayer Group. Not only were individuals changed. Aside from their influence on their families, many of the Prayer Group members took leading roles in such parish activities as teaching catechism and distributing communion. They have continued to do so, and, while this Group is no longer as large as it was in