Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Saturday 5 May 2012
General Synod Meets in Dublin
The General Synod will begin its annual three day meeting next Thursday in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The Synod Eucharist will be held in St Patrick’s Cathedral at 7.15 on Thursday when the preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper As is the custom the most recently elected member of the House of Bishops, in this case the Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd John McDowell, will conduct the daily devotions.
This year the Synod will debate proposed legislation relating to the compilation of church statistics, the establishment of a commission to examine the scope and nature of contemporary issues in the provision of episcopal ministry, the operation of provincial mediation panels, the administration of clergy pensions, aspects of clergy discipline and tenure and the ecumenical canons of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. In addition there are twenty–three motions for consideration. Some are of a routine nature while others reflect current concerns – primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, clergy pensions, mediation and arbitration, episcopal structures. As always the reports of the Representative Church Body, the Standing Committee and its sub–committees will reflect the work of the past year and provide an opportunity for comment and clarification.
Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) the Bishop of Clogher will preach at a Service of Dedication in St Salvator’s church, Glaslough, Co. Monaghan, while in Colebrooke, Co. Tyrone, the annual Friends of St Ronan’s Service will be held in Aghalurcher parish church. At 6pm tomorrow evening (Sunday) the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, will be the preacher at the Patronal Festival in the Church of St John the Evangelist, Sandymount, while will be followed by a reception in Pembroke Cricket Club.
On Tuesday the lunchtime lecture in St Bartholomew’s church, Stranmillis Road, Belfast will be given by the Rector of Carnmoney, the Revd Mercia Malcolm. ‘The Damaged Doctor’ is an exploration of the effect of violence and particularly violent loss on the Doctor himself in the first four series of the revised BBC TV programme Doctor Who. It will go on to examine a number of inter–related aspects of that theme and invite connections with a Christian view of the world and of human relationships in particular.
The lunchtime recital in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on Wednesday will be given by Irina Dernova (piano) and Helen Houlihan (soprano) who will perform works by Vivaldi, Bach, Bridge and Gounod.
In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, the spring/summer series of talks continues on Thursday evening when Dr Paula Murphy from UCD will speak about the cathedral’s nineteenth century sculptures.
On Friday Changing Attitude Ireland will hold a lunchtime meeting in St Audoen’s Church, Dublin, where the Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd Revd Dermot Dunne will launch of a Parish LGBT Welcome leaflet. This will be followed by a 30 minute extract from the recent documentary “Love Free or Die” about the debate in the US Episcopal Church on the question of the ordination of gay persons.
Three contributions from the recent Cavan Conference on human sexuality, which will be published in the summer issue of Search, will be available at the RE Resource Centre stand at the Synod – Doug Baker on ‘Handling Conflict in the Church’, Bishop Gregory Cameron’s summary reflections on the conference, and the Revd Stephen Farrell on the legal issues north and south of the border as articulated at the conference plus a consideration of canon law factors.
::irishtimes: