Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 10 May 2008
General Synod to Meet in Galway
Next week, from Tuesday until Thursday, the General Synod will meet in the Radisson SAS Hotel, Galway. Although most of its meetings have been in Dublin, in recent years the Synod has met other locations – Cork, Belfast, Armagh and, last year, Kilkenny. This will be the first occasion on which the Synod has met west of the Shannon.
On Tuesday morning the Archbishop of Armagh will give his presidential address and in the evening there will be a Synod Service in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Dublin. President McAleese will visit the Synod on Wednesday when she will have a private meeting with the bishops and address the Synod and in the evening there will be a Civic Reception.
Four bills will come before the Synod this year. The most substantial is a result of the work of the Courts and Tribunals Committee and seeks to introduce a new disciplinary procedure sensitive to the concerns of clergy and the pastoral role of bishops while at the same time ensuring compliance with legislation at home and in Europe. Other bills deal with aspects of clergy pensions and the reform of rural deaneries while another will seek to have the Archdeacon of Belfast rather that the Archdeacon of Connor as Precentor of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. As usual the Synod will consider a wide range of reports from the various boards, committees and commissions which attend to the many and varied activities of the church throughout the year.
On Tuesday at lunchtime three volumes of clerical succession lists will be launched at the Synod by Dr Raymond Refaussé. Clergy and parishes of Tuam, Killala and Achonry and Clergy of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh are the work of Canon David Crooks and Clergy of Waterford, Lismore and Ferns has been edited by the Revd Iain Knox. All three volumes have been published by the Ulster Historical Foundation.
Tomorrow (Sunday) at 10 am RTE will broadcast a Sung Eucharist for Pentecost at which the celebrant will be the Revd Tom Gordon and the preacher Canon Ginnie Kennerley. In Glaslough there will be a Open Air Service at the old graveyard led by the Bishops of Clogher, Dr Michael Jackson and Dr Patrick Duffy, and the Bishop of Jerusalem while in Castropetre Church the Bishop of Meath & Kildare will preach at the GFS Diocesan Festival Service. In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Canon Kenneth Newell, one of the new ecumenical canons will be in residence and following Evensong there will be a recital by the cathedral’s assistant organist, David Leigh, of Messe de la Pentecote, as part of the celebrations to mark the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen.
On Monday in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, the British Post office will launch a new series of stamps one of which will show the choir and sanctuary of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. In Dublin the Dean of St Patrick’s, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will preach at the Trinity Monday Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving in the Chapel of Trinity College.
On Tuesday the lunchtime lecture in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on the 19th century restoration of the cathedral, will be given by the conservation architect, Paul Arnold who will speak on ‘G.E. Street: conservator or restorer?’ In the evening, at 7pm, in Rathmines Library the Revd Patrick Semple will speak about his book, The rector who wouldn’t pray for rain which was published last year by the Mercier Press.