Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
General Synod meets in Dublin
From Tuesday until Thursday the annual meeting of the General Synod will be held in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. On Monday at 8.00 p.m. there will, as is customary, be a special Evensong on the eve of the Synod, in St Patrick's Cathedral where the preacher will be the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke.
The legislative programme for the Synod includes provisions for the use of the Revised Common Lectionary, improvements in pensions for bishops and bishops' widows, and some reform in the membership of general vestries, while the special presentation this year will be from the Christian Unity Committee.
Among the reports which will be considered will be those on synodical reform, ministerial breakdown and liturgical revision although it seems inevitable that the report of the Sub Committee on Sectarianism will command most attention.
However, despite new initiatives and occasional controversies the General Synod is, in essence, a review of the Church's work over the past year. Much of this is routine and unremarkable but no less valuable for that and the Book of Reports for 1999 is, as always, a chronicle of dedication by a relatively small Christian community determined, within the confines of its all too evident humanity, to be faithful to the will of God.
Today (Saturday) the Dublin and Glendalough GFS Festival Service will be held in Redcross Church where the preacher will be the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast Morning Service from St Phillip's Church, Milltown, Dublin, where the preacher will be Dr Raj Rajkumar, a CMSI mission partner working in India. Dr Rajkumar, who will be in Ireland until 21 June, will be receiving further training in the Coombe Hospital and will undertake preaching engagements in Lucan, Arklow, Ballybrack and Clondalkin. Details of his work, requests to speak and offers of accommodation should be directed to the Dublin office of CMSI (01-4970931).
In the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, the preacher at the Sung Eucharist will be the distinguished theologian, the Revd Dr Gabriel Daly OSA, while in Wexford the Ferns Diocesan Choral Festival Service will be held in St Iberius' Church. In Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Rt. Revd Edward Darling, will commission the Revd Sue Watterson as project leader of the Clonfert based Christian Training Institute's "Listening Skills" programme which is under the auspices of the Acorn Healing Trust.
The Trinity Monday Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving will be held in the College Chapel where the sermon will be preached by the theologian and broadcaster, the Revd Dr Leslie Griffiths, sometime President of the English Methodist Conference.
On Tuesday the the lunchtime lecture in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in the "Irish Cathedrals in the Middle Ages" series will be given by Dr Alan Fletcher from UCD, while in the evening the AGM of CMS Ireland will be held in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines where the speaker will be the newly appointed President of CMS, Lady Gill Brentford. The annual three day Summer Festival in St Stephen's Church, Dublin, begins. The programme will include lunchtime organ recitals by students from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and a lecture on Friday evening by Professor Michael McCarthy from the Department of the History of Art in UCD.
In St Nicholas' Collegiate Church on Wednesday there will be a service for all the schools in Galway at which prayers will be offered for the plight of Kosovo. The Bishop of Galway will give the blessing.
On Friday the Armagh Church Choral Union Festival Service will be held in St Patrick's Cathedral while in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin the lunchtime organ recital will be by David Adams.