Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Saturday 3 March 2012
Training Weekends in CITI
Over the next two weekends the Church of Ireland Theological Institute will be brimming with activity. Today (Saturday) this years’ introductory weekend for the Foundation Course, ‘Fit for the Purpose’, continues, facilitated jointly by Dr Christina Baxter, the Revd Dr Andy Angel, both from St Johns’ College, Nottingham, and Revd Dr Maurice Elliott, Director of CITI. A total of 25 participants from 8 dioceses will be taking part. For the first time this year this group will be joined by 21 people who are embarking on the agreed new course in Diocesan Reader training. This course will extend over a two year cycle.
From 9 to 11 March one of the regular monthly residential weekends for part–time M.Theol students will be held. In addition to the input from the academic staff at CITI, Dr Catriona Russell from the School of Religions, Theology and Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin, will be lecturing in the area of cosmology, anthropology and the Church. On the Saturday morning there will be further sessions in the Children’s Ministry Certificate course currently running both in Dublin and in Lisburn.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the preacher in the Lenten series on the Psalms at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, will be the College’s Catholic Chaplain, Fr Paddy Gleeson, who will speak on Psalm 51. In the evening in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Clogher, the Revd Maurice Armstrong, Rector of Tempo & Clabby, will be installed as Prebendary Tullycorbet.
The Bishop of Connor will give a lunchtime lecture on Tuesday in St Bartholomew’s Church, Belfast, where he will re–visit some of the themes in his book, Shadows on the Journey, which was published by Columba Press last year. In the evening the Zacchaeus Outreach Project, which is a Church of Ireland/Church Army initiative in the Diocese of Armagh working with local marching bands, will have a bus, which will act as a mobile café and meeting place, dedicated by the Archbishop of Armagh.
The lunchtime recital in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick on Wednesday, in aid of the Companions of St Mary’s Cathedral Music, will be give by pianist, Stuart O’Sullivan. The second in a series of Lenten meetings in the Malahide area will be held at 8pm in St Andrew’s Church, where, under the general theme of ‘Reaching Out’, Agnes Rowley from Aware, will speak about depression.
The Rathfarnham Ecumenical Lent Series on’ Hope in a Time of Crisis’ will begin on Thursday evening at 8pm in Rathfarnham parish church where the Ven. Gordon Linney and Fr Des O’Donnell will speak on ‘Finding a Faith Compass in a Time of Recession’.
At the same time in St Paul’s Parish Centre, Glenageary, there will be a celebration of the completion of a €200,000 project, funded by the parish, to build operating theatres and train a surgeon at Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda
Next Friday the Bishops’ Conference on Human Sexuality in the Context of Christian Belief begins in the Slieve Russell Hotel, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan. The bishops believe that it will be helpful to the church for members of the General Synod to explore and discuss issues of human sexuality in a non–adverserial setting. The conference will examine the teaching of scripture, the current stance of the Church of Ireland, and contemporary understanding of the nature of human sexuality. To facilitate a free exchange of views and to encourage respectful listening, the proceedings will not be open to the public or the media.
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’