Guyana - Worldwide Marriage Encounter

The Marriage Encounter Movement is a worldwide movement aimed at bettering the lives of married couples and their families.

Worldwide Marriage Encounter was introduced to Guyana in November 1980 by the M.E. movement in Trinidad. W.I.   The first Weekend was held 7th to 9th November 1980 at the Park Hotel in Georgetown with 3 Team Couples from Trinidad and a Guyanese Resident Jesuit Priest, and was experienced by 21 couples and 3 priests.     The teams for that Weekend were -
            - Wilfred & Kay Holder (Guyanese by birth - resident in Trinidad)
            - Tony & Merle Look-Tong (Trinidad)
            - David & Jackie McCartney (Trinidad)
            - Fr. Michael Coutts, SJ
Other Weekends followed in 1981 with teams from Trinidad until Guyanese teams were trained to take over and in February 1982 the first weekend with all Guyanese Teams was held at the Park Hotel.
The teams for that weekend were -     Billy & Sandra Fernandes
                                                           Terry & Pat Solomon
                                                           Chris & Noelma Lam
                                                           Fr. Anthony Metcalfe, SJ
Rising costs resulted in a change of venue for the weekends from the Park Hotel to St. Paul's Pastoral Centre, Better Hope, E.C.Demerara in July 1982. A total of 48 Weekends were held between the period November 1980 and November 1999.

Our Teams have been most instrumental in WWME's success in Guyana.

In our efforts to promote better family life in Guyana M.E. Couples are encouraged to give their full support to all
family life programs in the Diocese. At present there are 6 M.E. couples serving on the Family And Life
Commission Of The Roman Catholic Church Of Guyana.

The Worldwide Marriage Encounter Movement took on the responsibility of preparing Couples for Marriage in the Diocese of Georgetown, with sessions for couples at the Catholic Life Centre.Plans to convert the weekly sessions into a weekend experience have been realised; we now hold "Weekends for the Engaged" (See our Upcoming Events).
The weekends are not carried on by a single couple but by our Marriage Preparation Team.

The Coordinators for 2002/2004 are:
Richard & Gillian Van Sluytman, 450-1 Aubrey Barker Street, South Ruimveldt, Georgetown
Fr. Derrick Maitland, S.J., Springlands