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JOHN
MICHAEL TALBOT'S HERMITAGE DESTROYED BY FIRE
At
midnight on April 29, 2008 the Chapel and Common Center
of Little Portion Hermitage of the Brothers and Sisters
of Charity burned to the ground.
Founded by John Michael Talbot in 1980, the covenant
community of celibate brothers, celibate sisters, and
families is located in Berryville, Arkansas.
John Michael Talbot tells about the event in his own
words in his weblog on April 29th:
“Last night the sleep of the Brothers and Sisters of
Charity, Monastic, was interrupted close to midnight as
a raging fire burned our Chapel and Common Center to the
ground.
“Viola and I were the first on the scene as I saw the
orange/red glow through our hermitage's back windows.
Upon arriving we found there were no hoses capable of
stopping the raging flames. I ran up the hill and woke
up the community, and we started the almost futile task
of spraying down the part of the Common Center that had
not yet burned and retrieving anything from inside we
could still find.
“Although I have seen some house fires, I have never
seen anything this big. The flames reached high into the
sky. The smoke was very dense, as was the heat. Despite
this, our people ventured into the smoky building to
retrieve whatever they could reach.
“Some of us suffered from smoke inhalation. I spent a
lot of time trying to get people out of the building
before it exploded into flames. We finally surrendered
to the inevitability that our Chapel and Common building
were going to burn to the ground before the fire company
could get to us.
“After 30 to 40 minutes the firemen and women began to
arrive, followed soon after by the fire trucks and water
trucks. Four fire companies responded and did heroic and
valiant work at saving the other buildings from being
consumed. We are most grateful for our volunteer fire
departments!
“We lost some most valuable things in the fire. Our
community archives were lost and all of the books in our
library. The Troubadour stockroom and inventory were
lost to the flames. All of the various awards received
were melted in the intense heat of the fire. We have
some back-ups from computers, but nothing current. It is
our hope that most of this is covered by our insurance.”
The community lost their offices, dining room, meeting
rooms, archives, library, and storeroom in a blaze that
brought firefighters from four different departments to
battle the blaze. The firemen were able to keep the fire
from spreading to the living quarters of the members.
In an official statement from John Michael Talbot, he
thanked all those who had already offered love,
assistance, and encouragement in their re-building.
“Eventually we will have to rebuild. We will rebuild
with stone and earth in a way that is environmentally
‘green.’ At that point we may ask for donations from our
benevolent benefactress. We are humbled and grateful
beyond mere words for the outpouring of offers to help
with food, housing and other things.”
Little Portion is especially known through the music and
ministry of John Michael Talbot, who is probably the
most well known Catholic recording artist in recent
history with sales of more than four million records
worldwide. He has recorded more than forty albums.
Talbot was an early rock recording artist in the 1970’s
who had a powerful conversion experience while
performing with his brother, Terry, in the group Mason
Proffit. He left the group to seek a deeper relationship
with Jesus Christ and became a part of the growing Jesus
Movement in America.
Upon further prayer and discernment he sought
full-communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
SHARMANE ADAMS WINS 2008
KCCM AWARD
Pensacola, FL, April 28, 2008-Prayerful Hearts Ministry
is pleased to announce that Contemporary
Catholic/Christian performing artist-SHARMANE-was
recently recognized as an award recipient at the
2008 KCCM Awards held in Kansas City on Saturday, April
26th. SHARMANE received the award for FEMALE VOCALIST of
the Year. This is the first-time award for SHARMANE-who
also was invited to perform her 2007 radio single titled
I SURRENDER, (which spent over 20 weeks on the Christian
Radio & Retail Weekly I-chart), at the multi-faith
awards presentation. I SURRENDER was also recognized as
a final nominee for the Song of the Year category.
The KCCM Awards are sponsored annually by KingCat Music
based in the Kansas City area. This organization serves
to recognize artists who are part of the KingCat Music
network in a variety of award categories including
Artist of the Year (in each music genre), Group of the
Year and Song of the Year. KingCat Music includes local,
regional and national independent artists that perform
in the Christian music genre. The awards are held each
spring at a Kansas City area venue. Sponsors for the
event include notable businesses, professionals in the
Christian music industry, along with several radio
stations, and news periodicals.
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