Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 2 September 2006
Archbishop of Dublin?s Course in Theology
A new term begins in the autumn in the Archbishop of Dublin?s Course in Theology which will run from October 2006 until summer 2008. The aim of the course is to provide a programme of study leading to greater understanding of the Christian faith.
The course will consist of six modules. The first three of these, which will take place in autumn 2006 and spring and summer 2007, will consist of exploring the role of theology, reading the Bible, and looking at the mystery of God. In autumn 2007 and spring and summer 2008 the three modules will deal with Christian?s understanding of Jesus, the challenges of believing and belonging, and the Christian tradition and the abundance of life.
The course is open to everyone who wishes to explore the Christian faith at a deeper level and no previous study in required. The lectures will be held on eighteen Tuesday evenings each year in the Church of Ireland Theological College, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 15. Those who wish to obtain the Archbishop?s Certificate will be assessed on the basis of attendance and the successful completion of five short pieces of written work. The course fee is ?225 per year.
Applications and full details may be had from the Secretary, The Archbishop?s Course in Theology, The Willows, Ballyman Road, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow.
Today (Saturday) the Friends of St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, will visit Armagh, where among their ports of call will be St Patrick?s Cathedral. In Dublin there will be a rare opportunity to visit the Minot Tower of St Patrick?s Cathedral as part of Heritage Week: there will be tours at 9.30, 11.30 and 15.30. The building of the large north-west tower of the cathedral is attributed to the fourteenth century Archbishop of Dublin, Thomas Minot, who occupied the see from 1363 to 1375. The tower was restored in 1897 by Lord Iveagh under the supervision of the architect , Sir Thomas Drew. It is well known to Dubliners both for its clock, which unusually for institutional clocks, tells the correct time, and as the home of the cathedral?s bells which have, for long, been an integral part of Dublin life. In more recent times the tower was used as the cathedral?s archive repository before the records were transferred to the RCB Library.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning marks the end of cathedral choir vacations and in both Christ Church and St Patrick?s cathedrals the choirs will make their first appearance since the summer break. The Archbishop of Dublin will visit St James? Church, Crinken, Bray, where he will preach and celebrate the Eucharist. Crinken is one of only three trustee churches in the diocese of Dublin: that is, their assets are vested in parish trustees rather than in the Representative Church Body. Of the trustee churches, St John?s, Sandymount, is of the Anglo-Catholic tradition, St Catherine?s Church, Thomas Street, is an evangelical congregation under the auspices of CORE, while the Crinken congregation is also evangelical in outlook. In the afternoon, at 4.30 pm the Rt Revd Michael Burrows will be enthroned as Bishop of Ferns in St Edan;s Cathedral where the dean is the Very Revd Leslie Forrest.
On Wednesday the annual conference of Irish College of Preachers begins in the Church of Ireland Theological College, and continues until 9 September. The guest speaker will be the former Bishop of Chester, the Rt Revd Michael Baughen, who following his retirement in 1996, has been assisting in the Diocese of Southwark.