Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 6 February 2010
Good Samaritan Service in Belfast Cathedral
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at 3.30 p.m. in St. Anne’s Cathedral Belfast, the annual Good Samaritan service will be held. In excess of £225,000 which was given to the Cathedral Chapter’s pre-Christmas sit-out will be distributed to over 130 local charities, community groups, medical research and support and to overseas projects. The Dean of Belfast, Dr. Houston McKelvey, has extended an invitation to all who are in the city to ‘come and join the real heartbeat of our society’.
In another way the Cathedral has experienced the heartbeat of the remarkably resilient and generous community which is Belfast. In response to the disaster in Haiti the Cathedral placed a barrel inside the door. Over £125,000 has been received and contributions are still coming in.
As further evidence of the Cathedral’s determination to serve the wider community, the Chapter has appointed two ecumenical canons. Last year at the General Synod the Dean and Chapter sought and obtained approval to appoint up to three Ecumenical Canons from the other mainstream christian denominations in the Dioceses of Down and Dromore and Connor.
Consequently the Chapter met and its call was conveyed to the Revd Ivan McElhinney, a former President of the Methodist Church in Ireland who is currently minister in Joanmount Methodist Church, and to the Revd Wilfred Orr, the minister of St. John’s Presbyterian Church on the Upper Ormeau Road and a chaplain with the Order of St. John.
These honorary appointments were based on the Chapter members’ first hand knowledge of both these colleagues’ established record in inter-church work. A service recognising their appointments will be held later this year.
For some time, St. Anne’s Cathedral has been a focus for the work of the Divine Healing Ministries organised by Brother David Jardine. On Monday evening at 8 p.m. the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rt. Rev. Harold Miller, will be the guest speaker at the Monday evening Healing Service. This will be the 17th anniversary of a service which started at the beginning of February 1993. Since then, people have been healed from a variety of serious illnesses, yet the organizers believe that possibly the most valuable work was the gradual peace, strength and healing that so many received as they came week by week for prayer. Bishop Miller will speak on the theme ‘My Experience of Healing’.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) RTE will televise a Service of Reflection on a recent ecumenical pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The service will be led by the Dean of Cashel, Dr. Philip Knowles and will involve the Cashel Cathedral Choir, and Tipperary Gospel Choir. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the cathedral choir will give the Irish première of James MacMillan’s Mass under the direction of Judy Martin and accompanied by Tristan Russcher, as part of the 11.00am Cathedral Eucharist, at which the preacher will be the Archdeacon of Dublin, the Venerable David Pierpoint. At Evensong in St. Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin, there will be a service of music and readings for Candlemas, sung by the Cathedral Choirs.
A new management system has been installed in the Representative Church Body Library. This will allow readers and researchers to consult the catalogue of printed books online via the Church of Ireland website (www.ireland.anglican.org). In addition, members of the Library (once they have obtained a new reader’s ticket) will be able to check their current loans and to reserve other books for loan. Details may be had from Mary Furlong at [email protected]