Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 16 September 2006
National Council of the Blind Commemorated
The 75th anniversary of the National Council of the Blind will be celebrated tomorrow (Sunday) morning in the context of a Harvest Festival Service in Magorgan Church which is part of the Cashel group of parishes in Co. Tipperary where the incumbent is the Dean of Cashel, Dr Philip Knowles.
Magorban churchyard is the resting place of Dr Thomas Armitage, founder of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London in 1868 and the developer of Braille literature, Miss Doris Armitage, former President of the National Council for the Blind and Mrs Nancy Quinn, founder of the Little Shop for the Blind in Dublin. A memorial plaque will be unveiled to their memory and also to the memory of Thomas Armitage?s daughter, Alice, who founded of the National Council for the Blind in Ireland in 1931.
The Church of Ireland makes its core liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer, available in Braille and also produces large print editions of both the Book of Common Prayer and the Church Hymnal. More recently a Disability Working Group has been established to ensure that the Church of Ireland not only conforms with the law but implements policy to make all aspects of church life and worship accessible to all.
This afternoon (Saturday) at 2 pm in Taney Parish Centre, Dundrum, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, the Rt Revd Richard Holloway, will give a lecture entitled ?Shaking the Kaleidoscope: 21st Century Religion? This event is under the auspices of the Open Christianity Network and all are welcome. In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Trim, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will preach at a eucharist to mark thirty years in the priesthood and ten years in the episcopate by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare.
Tomorrow (Sunday) at Evensong in St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a commemoration of the Battle of Britain at which the preacher will be the Revd Robin Noble who was a chaplain to the Royal Air Force from 1971 to 1998.
On Tuesday the Standing Committee of the General Synod and the Executive Committee of the Representative Church Body will meet in Church of Ireland House, Dublin. In the evening, at 8 pm, the Archbishop of Dublin, will introduce the Revd Tim Irvine as Chaplain of St John?s Church, Sandymount. Mr Irvine, who will combine this post with that of the chaplaincy of Rathdown School, has been curate in the Christ Church Cathedral group of parishes since his ordination in 2003.
The All-Ireland Chaplain of the Mothers? Union, the Bishop of Tuam, will be the preacher at the MU Service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on Wednesday evening and on Thursday he will be back in the west to preside at the Tuam, Killala and Achonry Diocesan Synod in the Downhill Hotel, Ballina.
On Thursday the Archbishop of Armagh will be the guest of honour and speaker at Speech Day in the Royal School, Armagh, while in Waterford the Rt Revd Michael Burrows will be enthroned as Bishop of Waterford in the Cathedral of the Blessed Trinity. In St Comgall?s Church, Rathcoole, the Bishop of Connor will institute the Revd Alan Miller, as incumbent. Mr Miller has been Rector of Dromara and Garvaghy in the Diocese of Dromore since 2002. An initiative of the Revd David Frazer, the Meath and Kildare Diocesan Social Officer, will come to fruition on Thursday with the dedication by Bishop Richard Clarke of a prayer room in Mosney, which is now used as a centre for asylum seekers.