Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Saturday 18 February 2012
Christmas Charity Presentations
Representatives from eleven charities will be at Morning Service in St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, on Sunday morning when cheques from the Black Santa Christmas Sitout will be presented. A total of over €34,000 will be shared among the Bishop’s Appeal, Society of St Vincent de Paul, Protestant Aid, Salvation Army, Trust, LauraLynn Foundation, The Samaritans, the Church of Ireland Discovery Committee, PACT, Barnardos and the Dublin Simon Community. The preacher at the service will be will be the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory and the lessons will be read by Mrs Alice Leahy of Trust and Mr Robin George from Protestant Aid.
The Revd David Gillespie, Rector of St Ann’s, said: “This year we raised a record sum of money and are delighted to be able to hand every cent of it over to the charities concerned. The service will honour the work of the many volunteers involved with these charities and we hope the money will go some small way to assisting them in the great work they do in these difficult economic times.”
Earlier this month funds raised by the Belfast Black Santa appeal, fronted up last year for the first time by the new Dean of Belfast, the Very Revd John Mann, were distributed in St Anne’s Cathedral. More than 200 cheques totaling over £180,000, were distributed to representatives of charities in the community and voluntary sector. The presentations were made by three distinguished guests – BBC newsreader, Donna Traynor, Lady Rachel Gregson, and Professor Alastair Adair, Pro–Vice Chancellor of the University of Ulster.
The Dean of Belfast said that the presentations of the cheques was a way of acknowledging not only the generosity of the giver of money, but the generosity of the giver of time, effort and ability.
Tomorrow (Sunday) at noon the Archbishop of Dublin will preach in St Mark’ Church, Pearse Street. A Church of Ireland parish church from 1707 until 1975 when the church was closed, St Mark’s is now a Pentecostal church.
On Monday evening at 8pm in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, the International Divine Healing Ministries will host a special service for those affected by anxiety or depression. On Monday and Tuesday the annual Church of Ireland Theological Lectures in Queen’s University, Belfast, will be held in the Lecture Theatre, Geography Building, Elmwood Avenue, beginning at 6pm each evening. The guest lecturer, the Revd Dr Graham Tomlin, Dean of St Mellitus College, London, will speak on ‘The Church and the Crisis of Character’. Monday’s lecture will be on ‘Culture and Character’ and on Tuesday the subject will be ‘Community and Virtue’. Refreshments will be served in the Hub Café from 5pm and immediately following the lecture on both days.
The final two lunchtime lectures in association with the exhibition on the 19th century restoration of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be held in the Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin, on Tuesday and Thursday at 1.15pm. Mrs Lesley Whiteside, author of the guide to the cathedral’s stained glass, will speak about the stained glass on Tuesday and on Thursday Dr Michael O’Neill, the curator of the exhibition, will speak on ‘The Victorian Restoration – Before and After’.
On Wednesday there will be a lunchtime Healing Service in St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, while in the evening in St Peter’s Church, Bandon, at 9pm, there will be a concert featuring the LSU University Laboratory School Choir from Louisiana State University and the Cantabile Vocal Ensemble from Cork.
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’