Editing Invitation to Life

{{Short description|French nonprofit organization}}
{{Infobox Christian denomination
|name=Invitation to Life
|image=Invitation_to_Life.jpg
|imagewidth=200px
|main_classification=[[New Religious Movement]]
|orientation=
|polity=
|leader=Yvonne Trubert
|fellowships=
|associations=
|area=France, Europe, America, Africa, China
|website=[http://www.ivi-international.org/ www.ivi-international.org/]
|hospitals=
|nursing_homes=
|aid=
|congregations=
|members=
|ministers=
|missionaries=
|temples=
|primary_schools=
|secondary_schools=
|tertiary=
|footnotes=
}}

'''Invitation to Life''' (often known as '''IVI''') is a not-for-profit organisation founded in Paris in 1983 by Yvonne Trubert.<ref>{{cite book|author=Yvonne Trubert|title=Le juste équilibre: Chroniques d'une invitation a la vie, Volume 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jl1fheK4v3EC&q=%22invitation+%C3%A0+la+vie%22+trubert&pg=PA131|pages=131|language=French|year=2007|publisher=Editions L'Harmattan |isbn=9782296048638|access-date=22 August 2009}}</ref> [[Régis Dericquebourg]] deemed the group as a “healing-oriented religion,” although it prefers not to be considered as a religion and includes members active in different religions.<ref name="Dericquebourg 2000">{{cite book|author=Régis Dericquebourg|title=Croire et guérir: quatre religions de guérison|language=French|year=2000|publisher=Dervy|isbn=2-84454-076-7}}</ref>

==History==
Yvonne Trubert was born in [[Laurenan]], [[Brittany]] in 1932 in a Roman Catholic family. While living in [[Paris]], she discovered what her friends believed to be effective healing powers and she started gathering them in informal groups. By 1982, she had gathered some 60 members who decided that an association should be formally incorporated. This happened in 1983, and the association Invitation à la Vie (Invitation to Life) was born.<ref name="Dericquebourg 2000"/>

Eventually, IVI developed in several other countries, and by 2000 it had several thousand members. Most of them remained active Roman Catholics and IVI became known for its mass pilgrimages, mostly to Catholic centers such as [[Lourdes]], [[Fátima, Portugal|Fatima]], and [[Mont Saint-Michel]].<ref name="Dericquebourg 2000"/> In 1987, however, the French Catholic Bishops published a declaration claiming that IVI was a “[[Gnosticism|gnostic]]” movement whose [[syncretism]] was incompatible with orthodox Catholicism.<ref>''La Documentation catholique'', April 5, 1987, p. 378.</ref>

In France in 1995<ref>Assemblée Nationale, [http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/rap-enq/r2468.asp “Rapport fait au nom de la Commission d’Enquête sur les sectes”], 1995.</ref> and 1999,<ref>Assemblée Nationale, [http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dossiers/sectes/sommaire.asp “Rapport ‘Les sectes et l’argent’”], 1999.</ref> IVI was included in [[governmental lists of cults and sects]] (in 1995 under the name “Invitation à la vie intense”).

==Main doctrines==
Déricquebourg believes that healing is the center of IVI, and the main reason it attracts members.<ref name="Deri 1988">{{cite book|author=Régis Dericquebourg|title=Les Religions de guérison|language=French|year=1988|publisher=Cerf|isbn=978-2204029841}}</ref> Healing, however, is seen by IVI as part of a larger process of “harmonization,” where members are seeking harmony with themselves, the nature, and God.<ref name="Dericquebourg 2000"/>

To achieve these aims, IVI proposes three “keys”: prayer, harmonization (intended as a specific technique), and vibrations. The Roman Catholic [[Rosary]] is the main prayer suggested, but prayer and harmonization are often practiced together. In IVI’s harmonization, an experienced member called “harmonizer” asks the “harmonized” to lie on a table and focus on the prayers recited by the harmonizer, who also practices a soft massage. “Vibrations” are collective chants and sounds supposed to create harmony and peace.<ref name="Deri 1988"/><ref name="Dericquebourg 2000"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.ivi-international.org/ Official site]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Christian organizations established in 1983]]
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Christian denominations founded in France]]
[[Category:New religious movements established in the 1980s]]
[[Category:New religious movements in France]]