Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
Saturday 8 October 2005
Theological College Term Begins
A busy term of activities has begun at the Church of Ireland Theological College where there are twenty-five ordinands in training for the stipendiary ministry and thirty-one on the non-stipendiary programme. The two pre-term weeks of a new pastoral programme were preceded by a special residential orientation and welcome for new students and their families. This academic year also sees a new staff team with the arrival of Dr Lindsey Hall to teach systematic theology and the departure of the Chaplain-Tutor, the Revd Kevin Moroney for a new appointment in the United States. The College Council has appointed in his stead, for one year, the Revd Dr Livingstone Thompson, who has been studying in Ireland for some years and who has considerable pastoral experience in his native Jamaica.
The beginning of term at the Theological College is also linked with a new educational enterprise in the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory where, in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, a new Bishop's Foundation Certificate in Liturgy and Worship begins. The course runs over six sessions from September to December and is part of a recent educational initiative within the diocese and in association with the Theological College. The course has engendered an enormous response from across the diocese and plans are already in place for further developments in lay ministry formation in the New Year. Both programmes are planned and coordinated by the Revd Tom Gordon who is Consultant Director of Pastoral Formation at the Church of Ireland Theological College and also Theological and Educational Development Officer in the Cashel and Ossory diocese.
Today (Saturday), in St Kieran?s College, Kilkenny, the Principal of the Theological College, the Revd Professor Adrian Empey, will speak on ?The Diocese of Ossory during and after the Reforms of the Twelfth Century? as part of a conference to commemorate the diocesan historian, Canon William Carrigan.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast a service of Holy Communion from the Chapel of the Theological College with the Non-Stipendiary ordinands who are in residence for the weekend. At Evensong in St Anne?s Cathedral, Belfast, there will be a commemoration of the hymn writer, Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander. Mrs Alexander?s famous hymn ?All things bright and beautiful? is the theme of a new stained glass window in Christ Church, Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, which the Bishop of Clogher, Dr Michael Jackson, will dedicate tomorrow afternoon to the memory of a former Dean of Clogher and Rector of Ballybay, the Very Revd Robert Mollan and his wife, Dona. In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, there will be an open afternoon for prospective choristers and their parents followed by a Past Choristers Reunion Evensong while in the Mageough Home, at 7 pm, there will be a Harvest Thanksgiving Service at which the Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven. David Pierpoint, will preach.
On Monday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, will be in Norway for a four day meeting of the Primates of the Porvoo Churches in Trondheim.
The second in the current series of ?I Believe? talks in the Church of St George and St Thomas, Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin, takes place on Thursday at I pm when the speaker will be the All Ireland President of the Mothers? Union, Mrs Paddy Wallace.
The Fourth Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift on the theme of ?Swift, Power and Corruption? will take place in St Patrick?s Deanery on Saturday 16 October at 2.30 pm. Details of registration may be had from
dean - at -stpatrickscathedral.ie or by telephoning +353 (0)1-453 9472.