Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 29 July 2006
Summer Reading
August is as close as the Church of Ireland comes to closing down for the summer. The liturgical cycle continues, of course, but the administrative round slows perceptively and in many instances moves into suspended animation for a month. This much needed relief provides a welcome opportunity for those of a bookish nature to catch up with their reading and, in particular to sample those publications with a particular Church of Ireland dimension.
This year two of the bishops have published books. The Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson, had a productive sabbatical in which he wrote a study of the Book of Jonah. There is both an enduring relevance and a frightening topicality about this piece of scripture which speaks to broken or disillusioned communities that can no longer cling to assumed decency or former authority and power. The Jealously of Jonah, which has been published by Columba Press, has a striking cover illustration from one of the stained glass windows in St Fin Barre?s Cathedral, Cork.
Also published by Columba Press is a new book by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke. A Whisper of God, sub-titled ?Essays on post-Catholic Ireland and the Christian Future?, continues Dr Clarke?s interest in philosophical theology and the relationship between literature and theology. Essay titles such as ?Doing righteousness?, ?By what authority? and ?The frontiers of orthodoxy? give a flavour of this book.
On the historical front the major publication was The Clergy of the Church of Ireland, 1000-2000, a series of essays edited by Dr Toby Bernard and Canon W.G. Neely and published by Four Courts Press. The essays are rich in detail and analysis of clergy at home and abroad, and of their roles in, among other aspects of the Church?s life, education, administration, learning and liturgical reform This is a companion volume to the well received The Laity of the Church of Ireland, 1000-2000 which appeared in 2002.
A valuable related publication is The Parish in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland, edited by Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and Raymond Gillespie, and published by Four Courts Press. Unusually almost half of the essays in this volume deal with the medieval church, a topic which, with the notable exception of the work of Professor Adrian Empey, the Church of Ireland historical community has had little engagement in recent years.
As always there has been much activity in the field of parish and cathedral history although many of the publications are so local both in nature and distribution that even the RCB Library, which is anxious to acquire copies of all Church of Ireland histories, is unaware of their publication. Two, however, stand out ? the spendidly illustrated guide to St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, with text by Dr Michael O?Neill, and the revised, expanded and updated history of the parish of Derriaghy by the Very Revd Norman Barr. Local historians might also benefit from the second edition of Church of Ireland Records, by Dr Raymond Refaussé, a guide to sources which has been published by Four Courts Press. However, undoubtedly, the most significant sources publication is the three volume edition of the convocation records of the Irish church from 1101 to 1690. These are part of a twenty volume project which has made accessible all the convocation records of the Churches of England and Ireland. Edited by Dr Gerald Bray and published by the Boydell Press for the Church of England Record Society, this most valuable resource is the culmination of seven years of careful and painstaking scholarship.