Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
New Issue of Search
The summer 2004 issue of the Church of Ireland journal, Search, has appeared and is available from the Religious Education Resource Centre, Holy Trinity Church, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6.
This issue is devoted to publishing the contributions to a colloquium, on 21st century liturgy in the context of the Book of Common Prayer 2004, which was sponsored Search earlier in the year. However, as the editorial makes clear, the function of the colloquium was not to discuss the new prayer book in detail but to look at wider issues which would arise as the book was introduced to different settings and different types of congregation; to look at both the heartlands and margins of worship; and to consider liturgical ministry which might require more sensitivity and creativeness.
The principal article is by Dr Ann Loades, Emeritus Professor of Divinity in the University of Durham, who writes on ?Christian Spirituality and Sacramentality? and there is a response to this from Fr Patrick Jones, Director of the National Centre for Liturgy in Maynooth.
Three ?new styles ?of worship are then considered. The Revd John Morrow reflects on the Corrymeela tradition which seeks to accommodate worshipers from many traditions; the Revd Conrad Hicks writes about the multi-cultural congregation which has developed in Clontarf Methodist Church; and the Revd Geoffrey O?Donnell introduces the new Romanian Orthodox community in Dublin.
The needs of some particular groups within the church are addressed by Canon Maureen Ryan and the Revd Robert Heaney who have written, respectively, of the experiences of women alienated by patriarchal language and symbol, and the spiritual dilemma of those deeply affected by tragedy and disaster. There is a reflection on these two contributions by Professor Liam Ryan from Maynooth.
The two concluding contributions are more obviously Anglican in orientation. Peter Davis and Canon Brian Mayne consider the responses to recently composed Anglican collects while the Chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin, Dr Alan McCormack, reflects on the opportunities for liturgical experiment within the College Chapel which offer a glimpse of what the future might hold for the Church of Ireland.
This issue comes with a most useful index volume to the contents of Search from its inception in 1978 to 2003.
Today the parish of Donabate and Lusk will hold its annual garden fete in the glebelands, beginning at 2.00 pm.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTÉ will broadcast a Service of Holy Communion conducted by the Revd Tom Gordon. Due to maintenance work broadcast worship on RTÉ has been transferred from medium wave to long wave 252 and his is expected to continue until November. In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, the services will be sung by the East Wickham Singers from Kent. At 4.00 pm the 50th anniversary Open Air Service at Clonmacnoise will be held at which the Bishop of Meath and Kildare will preside. Further afield, Dr Alan Acheson will be the preacher at the patronal festival in St James Cathedral, Toronto, where he will explore the links between the Church of Ireland and the Diocese of Toronto.
On Wednesday evening, beginning at 7.00 pm, the Ardamine Union Summer Bazaar will begin in Riverchapel Community Centre.
In Co. Cork on Thursday there will be two musical events. In St Fin Barre?s Cathedral, at 8.00 pm, the Cathedral Choral Scholars, with Ian Sexton and Colin Nichols, will give a concert in support of the choir tour to Ely cathedral in August. At the same time in St Barrahane?s Church, Castletownshend, the third recital in the 24th Festival of Classical Music will feature the Martin family.
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