Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from the Irish Times
Saturday 23 February 2008
Lisbon Treaty Debate
Early this summer Ireland will face a referendum on whether or not to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. It is the only member state of the Union to hold a referendum. The other twenty-six (including the United Kingdom) will make the decision in their parliaments. This means that the Irish electorate has a veto on whether or not the changes proposed in the Treaty should go ahead. Those in favour point, for instance, to the need for new structures to meet the needs of a greatly enlarged Union (originally composed of six countries, but now twenty-seven). There are critics who see in the proposals further inroads on national sovereignty, and dangers to Ireland’s position on neutrality. It is anticipated that it will be the last significant reform of the organisational architecture of the European Union for some time.
The Church in Society Committee’s ‘Working-group on Europe’ which is chaired by Dr Kenneth Milne, is urging members of the Church to study the Treaty carefully before voting, and to examine all points of view. The National Forum on Europe is holding regional meetings, open to the public, at which proponents and opponents defend their cases. Many of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty are not new, and are already in force as the result of previous treaties. It is, according to Peader Ó Broin, editor of Consolidated version of the treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, like a collection of jigsaw pieces. This publication by the Institute of International and European Affairs (of which the Church of Ireland is a corporate member) is intended to form these pieces into an overall and readable design. A copy is available for consultation at the Representative Church Body Library in Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14.
This afternoon (Saturday) the Annual Quiet Day of the Church of Ireland Mens’ Society will be held in Holy Trinity Church, Ballysillan, Belfast, where the conductor will be Canon Trevor Williams.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) the preacher at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, will be the Revd Grace Clunie, Director of Celtic Spirituality in Armagh Cathedral. This will be the penultimate sermon in the ‘Holy Irrelevant’ series for Hilary term and will deal with ‘The Church and a Spirituality for Our Age’. Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be sung by the choir of St Bartholomew’s Church, Ballsbridge.
On Monday evening in Belfast Castle the Bishop of Connor begins the second series in his seminars on prayer entitled ‘Equipping the Saints’. This seminar will be a practical session looking at liturgical prayer, signs and symbols for prayer, journaling, silence and meditation. In Killeshin, Co. Carlow, the Bishop of Cashel & Ossory will launch Heaven’s Kitchen, a recipe book which has been published to raise funds for the continued restoration of the parish churches of Killeshin, Cloydagh, Castletown and Mayo.
In St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast on Thursday evening there will be a concert ‘Across the Bridge of Hope – Concert for Peace’ by the Warrington Male Voice Choir which, following the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993, has given many concerts throughout Ireland.
On Thursday evening in the Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham, the second in the ecumenical Lent lecture series organized by the local churches will be held on the topic of ‘The Role of Church & State in Education’. Mgr Dan O’Connor, CPMSA, will speak on faith based management of schools and Paul Rowe, from Educate Together, will deal with the secular management of schools.