Community of the Risen Lord

The community of the Risen Lord began as a prayer group of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, in the late 1980’s, at a house down Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 3, the then residence of Brother Lalith Perera, the lead coordinator of the community. There were no more than 12 members at the beginning, but the numbers grew. Shortly afterwards they shifted their operations to a convent down Rhineland Place, where they became a covenant community. A few years after that, they moved out of Rhineland Place and started conducting their weekly prayer meetings at the St. Paul’s Milagiriya Church Hall. Although it was during this time that they received the revelation of the four steps, the numbers remained stagnant at around 300 for a long time.

The year 2000 was a significant milestone in the community’s history. Several of their members attended retreats at the Divine Retreat Center, Porta, Kerala and experienced a conversion. Thereafter, their work received a mighty anointing. God led them to Catholic Priests who had visited the Divine Retreat Center and they started working together. The community began to experience the fulfillment of the promise in Mark 16:20 as they witnessed God confirming the preached word with signs and wonders. At Wednesday Prayer meetings, miracles such as healings and conversions started occurring during praise and worship. The four step retreats began to touch lives and the community began to witness powerful life changing conversions.

The attendance at four step retreats began to be counted in multiples of thousand. The Wednesday prayer meeting outgrew successive venues and subsequently it ended up at the St. Peter’s College Hall. The estimated attendance now is around 3,000. The community started a Prayer Meeting in Sinhalese at St. Mary’s Church Mabole. This meeting now attracts around 10,000 people every week. In addition to these meetings, they conduct several other large scale prayer meetings at outstations such as Negombo, Wennappuwa and Kandy.

In the Parish of Katukurunda there is a little community attached to the Risen Lord Community gathering for prayer in selected houses within the parish limits. The parish priest invited them in the year 2021 to actively engage in the parish work focusing on community building and especially in assisting the parish RCIA program at two levels: firstly to help the new converts seeking Baptism to achieve the desired conversion worthy of a true Baptism through accompaniment of prayer and catechesis and secondly to seek and bring back the lost sheep—the Catholics who have lost their faith and left the Church community within the parish for various reasons.

Coordinator: Mr. Roshan Priyantha Vass (0776517473, 0701917073)