Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
General Synod Meets in Dublin
Next week, from Tuesday until Thursday, the General Synod will meet in the Stillorgan Park Hotel, Dublin. Some 660 representatives, clerical and lay, together with the bishops, will travel from all parts of the country to consider legislation, to receive and debate reports and, perhaps most significantly, to meet together and renew old friendships and resume old rivalries.
This year the Synod will consider three bills to amend the Constitution of the Church of Ireland. These will deal with the provision of marriage registers, the appointment of diocesan architects, surveyors and conservation specialists, and a reform of the Board of Down Cathedral. The Synod will also consider a number of motions which, among other matters, will deal with marriage legislation, local covenant partnerships for Church of Ireland-Methodist communities and educational endowments.
On Tuesday evening at 7 pm the General Synod Eucharist will be celebrated in St Patrick?s Cathedral where the preacher will be the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James Jones. The collection at the Synod Service will be for the Bishops? Appeal.
On Wednesday morning at 7.45 am the Church of Ireland Council for Mission will host a Missionary Breakfast in the Stillorgan Park Hotel. Members who have recently participated in visits to Paraguay, Lithuania and the Arctic will speak.
Click here to visit the General Synod website at http://synod.ireland.anglican.org
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning RTE will broadcast a celebration of the Eucharist from Cashel Cathedral where the celebrant and preacher will be the Dean of Cashel, Dr Phillip Knowles, while in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, the preacher at the Sung Eucharist will be the former Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Donald Caird. At Evensong in Belfast Cathedral the Revd Douglas Goddard, Chaplain to the Mission to Seafarers in Belfast since 1977, will be installed as a canon while in St Macartan?s Cathedral, Clogher, the former Bishop of Connor, Dr Samuel Poyntz, will preach at the annual Friends? Service. In Inistioge parish church the annual Songs of Praise Service will begin at 3.30 pm.
The second in the current series of healing services, organized by Bro. David Jardine,
will be held on Monday evening in St Anne?s Cathedral, Belfast. The preacher will be the Revd Kevin Brew, Rector of Ahoghill and Portglenone and soon to be Rector of Howth.
On Tuesday afternoon in Christ Church Centre, Taney, Dublin, Bishop Samuel Poyntz will address the Dublin Retired Clergy Fellowship on ?Clergy in Retirement. In the evening the Friends of Bangor Abbey will celebrate St Comgall's Day by hosting the fourth annual St Comgall?s Lecture in the parish church of Bangor Abbey. The speaker will be the Revd Dr Ian Bradley, Reader in Practical Theology and Church History in St Andrew?s University, and his subject will be ?Colonies of Heaven ? Models for Today?s Church?.
In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Wednesday, following Evensong at 6 pm, there will be an organ recital by Professor Gerard Gillen and on Thursday Evensong in St Patrick?s Cathedral will be sung by the choir of Wesley College, Dublin.
On Friday the Archbishop of Armagh will institute the Revd Sandra Pragnell to the incumbency of Dundalk. Ms Pragnell has been Curate of Castleknock since her ordination in 2001. In Monkstown parish church, Dublin, a Festival of Flowers, entitled ?All Things Bright and Beautiful? will be opened and will continue until the following Sunday. The festival is in support of the Church Restoration Fund.
Today week, Saturday 14 May, there will be a secondhand book sale in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in memory of Geraldine Willis, former Librarian in the RCB Library.
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