Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
Saturday 10 June 2006
Summer issue of Search
The Church of Ireland Journal Search recently ran a one-day colloquium to encourage a more carefully considered understanding of Islam and to begin to develop understanding, respect and at least the possibility of friendship between Muslims and Christians in Ireland today. An expanded version of the proceedings is published in the summer edition of Search, available from the R.E. Resource Centre, Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines, Dublin 6, from mid-June. (Cost ?6.)
This Search colloquium was a sign of hope for many. For some of the thirty-seven participants, it must have been their first opportunity to discuss matters of faith and religious identity with a Muslim counterpart in person. This in itself was valuable and equally so has been the encouragement given to the Muslim community in Ireland through the leading Muslims who attended to speak, to listen and to converse.
The keynote speaker from England, Dr Chris Hewer, has spent over 20 years teaching and enabling both Muslim and Christian lay people to respect one another and to understand more about their commonalities as well as their differences. Another visitor from England was Dr Alan Race, who contributed a study of inter-faith work and life in Leicester, a city famous for its harmonious relations between people of different faiths. There was much to learn also in terms of respect for the intellectual and cultural traditions of Islam from Dublin Islamic experts, Dr Maha El-Kaisy of TCD and Dr Elaine Wright of the Chester Beatty Library.
Most important of all, though, for the future of relationships between Muslim and Christian in this country, was all that was learned from contact with local Muslim leaders: Sheikh Yahya Al-Hussein, Ali Selim and Siraj Zaidi, each of them hailing from a different part of the world and based in a different Dublin setting.
Today (Saturday) the Cork, Cloyne and Ross Diocesan Synod will be held in Cork while the Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert Diocesan Synod will take place in Cloughjordan. In St Andrew?s Church, Malahide, at 2 pm, the Archbishop of Dublin will dedicate the new St Marnock?s Chapel at a service at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will televise a Eucharist for Trinity Sunday with the Dean of Cashel, Dr Philip Knowles and the Cashel Cathedral Choir while RTE radio will broadcast morning worship from Kill o?the Grange parish church, Co. Dublin, where the rector is the Revd Ferran Glenfield. Canon John Bartlett, former Principal of the Theological College, will preach at the Trinity Sunday Eucharist in St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, while in Christ Church Cathedral the preacher at the Patronal Festival Eucharist will be the Ven. Gordon Linney, former Archdeacon of Dublin. The Archbishop of Armagh will ordain Mr Matthew Hagan to the diaconate in Derryloran parish church while in St Fethlimidh?s Cathedral the Bishop of Kilmore will ordain Mrs Bobbie Moore as a deacon at a service at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Burundi.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is the 60th anniversary of the ordination of Canon Edgar Turner, Rector of St George?s, Belfast, 1958-1990., which he will celebrate by presiding at the Eucharist in St John?s Malone. On Wednesday morning he will preside in St George?s on the 60th anniversary of his first celebration of the Eucharist
On Tuesday evening in St Michael?s Church, Castlecaulfield, the Archbishop of Armagh will institute the Revd Peter Thompson to the Donaghmore group of parishes. Mr Thompson has been curate of Clooney in the Diocese of Derry since his ordination in 2003.