EARLY HISTORY OF RETROUVAILLE

During 1977, a Worldwide Marriage Encounter presenting team couple in Hull, Quebec, Canada became increasingly concerned about the growing number of troubled couples attending their local WWME Weekends. Guy and Jeannine Beland were also dismayed by the fact that the Marriage Encounter experience did not adequately meet the needs of these couples in difficulty, nor, in fact, was it expected that such would be the case.

The Belands presented the first Retrouvaille Weekend as a French language experience in Hull in July 1977. They had made a number of minor changes to the WWME Weekend outline. Rather than expending their time on making major revisions of the WWME Weekend content, they relied heavily on a more somber, healing spirit being present throughout the Retrouvaille Weekend. They realized it was not enough, but they had to start somewhere. All of who have followed thank God they did.

Early in 1978, Ian and Gobnait McAnoy, WWME Area Coordinators of Southern Ontario, learned of the Belands' efforts. Due to the deteriorating state of marriage, especially in the populous metropolitan Toronto region, they were excited about the possibilities for this healing ministry called Retrouvaille, a French word meaning "rediscovery" or "the finding again."