Charismatic movement

In the late 1960s another movement began to sweep through churches across the world: the charismatic movement, so called because of the ‘charisma’ (gift, or special blessing) that individual Christians began to experience. This experience included miraculous gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues- glossolalia, prophecies, miraculous healings, etc), more informal forms of worship, and a greater emphasis on personal Bible study, and this resulted in a breaking down of some of the barriers between members of different denominations, because they realised that they were all undergoing the same spiritual experiences. Interestingly, this movement infiltrated all denominations, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox included, helping to break down negative attitudes that had been entrenched for centuries. At the same time however, it also split some congregations: between those who were in support of the new experience, and those who opposed it. The charismatic movement has gone on to impact the church worldwide, and estimates are that today a quarter of all Christians worldwide might be classified as charismatic, or it’s nearby corollary, Pentecostal.