News
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Good News from Gaza
Solar panels which the people of the Diocese of Dublin & Glendalough raised funds to buy for Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City over a decade ago have saved thousands of lives. The Programme Director for the Diocese of Jerusalem, Sawsan Batato, says that the solar panels still work sufficiently to be able to generate power for Al Ahli Hospital.
Al Ahli Arab Hospital is the only Christian hospital in Gaza. It is owned and run by the Diocese of Jerusalem and serves all people, no matter what their background. Led by the Dublin & Glendalough Council for Mission, the ‘Prepare a Place Appeal’ raised over €110,000 for solar panels and on call facilities for staff at Al Ahli in Advent 2014. The solar panels were installed in 2017.
A formal partnership link between the United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough and the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem began in 2016. Since then Dublin & Glendalough has run a number of fundraising appeals including the ‘Shine a Light’ campaign in 2024 and 2025 which raised over €250,000 for initiatives of the Diocese of Jerusalem dealing with the impact of war. The partnership has also provided the opportunity for prayerful solidarity and support between the people and clergy of both dioceses.
This evening (Friday) the Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory the Rt Revd Adrian Wilkinson, will institute the Revd Daniel Fleming as incumbent of Kiltegan union of parishes in St Peter’s Church, Kiltegan at 7.30 pm. He has been serving as curate in the Waterford union of parishes since 2024. In St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, on Sunday the Bishop will license the Revd Cameron Mack as curate of the Kilkenny union of parishes and Bishop’s Vicar at a service of Choral Evensong. He was ordained in 2023 and has been curate in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, since 2024.
On Sunday evening at 7pm the autumn series of organ recitals continues in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, where the recitalist will be Simon Harden. He lectures in organ performance at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and is Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford.
On Wednesday evening at 6pm the writer, Julie Parsons, will give a talk in the Lexicon Library in Dun Laoghaire on the story of her Church of Ireland family, the Purefoys, Chamberlains, Parsons and McClenaghans, which she has published as ‘People Like Us’. It mainly focuses on the Chamberlains – her grandfather, Canon George Chamberlain, editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette from 1919–1924, her grandmother, Elsie Chamberlain, whose father was the Revd. Amyrald Purefoy, Rector of St Lawrence’s Church, Chapelizod, her daughter, mother Elizabeth, sister, Jean and brother, Harry and the parishioners of the Mariners’ Church, Dun Laoghaire, and their lives from 1924 until 1959.
On Thursday evening the BIshop of Clogher, Dr Ian Ellis, will preside at the Clogher Diocesan Synod in St. Macartin’s Hall, Enniskillen.