Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 20 February 2010
Spring Issue of Search
Climate change and what churches and individuals can best do to shield future generations from its worst effects, is the leading article in the latest edition of the Church of Ireland Journal, Search. Written by Paula Clifford, Head of Theology for Christian Aid, it argues that no developed country should be exempt from paying for polluting habits of the past, otherwise the third-world countries who stand to suffer most from rising sea levels may simply not survive.
Hope for survival - this time the survival of the Anglican Communion – is the underlying theme of an article by the Revd Dr Maurice Elliott, one of the Church of Ireland representatives at the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica last year.
Reconciliation and mutual respect, so much needed within the Anglican Communion, are equally imperative for the people of Israel and Palestine. Dr Susan Hood, of the ecumenical Friends of Sabeel Ireland, introduces some of the voices for peace from both communities and from Ireland and urges us to follow their lead.
A new contributor to Search is Dr Heather Crawford, who shares some of the results of her research into Protestant identity and self-awareness in the Republic, and another new recruit, the Revd Peter Campion, chaplain of the King’s Hospital, writes on ‘Protestant ethos’ as experienced in schools under C of I management.
In the shadow of the Murphy Report, there is renewed concern about how we value our children in the church. The former Dean of Kilmore, the Very Revd David Godfrey, argues that we must put children at the centre, not on the margins, of church life, seeing them as Jesus did “in a special sense as a sacrament of the presence of God”.
Finally, Fr Michael Hurley SJ offers an updated version of his Spirituality article on George Tyrrell and John Sullivan, Church of Ireland converts to Rome over a century ago.
www.searchjournal.ireland.anglican.org
Today (Saturday) St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, will be closed to visitors for the DIT graduation ceremonies.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Archbishop of Dublin will preach and celebrate the Eucharist in Crumlin and Chapelizod. The Watoto Children’s Choir from Uganda will sing at the Parish Communion in Rathfarnham parish church where they will give a free concert, in association with GORTA, at 7.30pm. Since 1994 the choir, whose members have had the tragic experience of losing one or both parents to AIDS or war, has toured internationally spreading a message of hope for Africa’s children
In the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, a series of Lenten sermons begins tomorrow (Sunday) morning at the Choral Eucharist. The theme will be ‘Future Tense?’ and the first preacher will be the Revd Maureen Ryan from St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway.
The Dublin parishes of Drumcondra & North Strand and St George & St Thomas are holding a series of Lenten services and addresses on Wednesday evenings in Drumcondra parish church where next week’s speaker on the theme of ‘A Wilderness Lent?’ will be Jenny Scholtz. On Thursday evenings Booterstown & Mount Merrion parishes will join with the local Roman Catholic parish and Presbyterian congregation for Lenten discussions in the Stillorgan Park Hotel. Each session will be chaired by Dr John D’Arcy May, from the Irish School of Ecumenics, and next Thursday Fr Ray Moloney SJ and Dr Andrew Pierce will speak on ‘The Eucharist’.
On Wednesday evening in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute the Archbishop of Dublin will speak to the Marsh Society on ‘Anglicanism and the Covenant’.