Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 3 March 2007
Lenten Disciplines
Lent, as the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church notes, is generally observed as a time of penance by, among other things, devoting more than the usual time to religious exercises. One such exercise, which has increased in popularity in recent years, is attendance at study groups and lecture series, a number of which are already under way or just beginning.
In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Monday evening at 8 pm the speaker at the second of the Lenten lectures will be Professor Sean Freyne, TCD, who?s topic will be ?The Person of Jesus and Christian Belief Today?, while on Tuesday in Christ Church a new lunchtime series of history lectures will begin with a lecture on ?Silver in Christ Church? by Douglas Bennett, Secretary of the Company of Goldsmiths. On Tuesday evening at 8 pm, in the Knox Hall, Monkstown Rural Deanery will host the first in a series of Lenten meetings on the Hard Gospel at which Professor John Monaghan will speak on ?Poverty?. An ecumenical Lent series has been organized by the churches in Rathfarnham and the second of their meetings will be held on Thursday evening in Rathfarnham parish church at 8 pm. The topic will be ?Are we ready for a multi-cultural Ireland?? and the speakers will be David Begg, General Secretary of the ICTU, and Dr Pat Claffey from Milltown Institute of Theology.
Today (Saturday) the Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Barry Morgan, begins a visit to Cork. This evening, following the graduation for the Bishop?s Course in Theology, he will give a public lecture in St Fin Barre?s Cathedral on ?Scripture and Sexuality? and tomorrow morning (Sunday) he will preach at the Sung Eucharist in St Fin Barre?s where the Bishop of Cork will preside.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Bishop of Meath and Kildare will be the celebrant at the Sung Eucharist in St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, while in the Chapel of Trinity College, the final lecture sermon for Hilary term, ?On Serving he People?, will be delivered by the Secretary General to the Government, Mr Dermot McCarthy. The Bishop of Cashel & Ossory will preach in Clonbeg, Agherlow and Mogorban churches in the Cashel group of parishes. In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Armagh, the GFS Diocesan Festival Service will be held while in the Chapel of Jesus College, Cambridge, the preacher at the Evening Service will be the Revd Colin Young, Assistant Priest in St George?s Church, Belfast.
On Monday evening the Bishop of Derry will be the speaker at the Healing Service in St Anne?s Cathedral, Belfast while in Derry on Tuesday there will be a Hard Gospel seminar on racism. Another Hard Gospel seminar will be held on Tuesday evening in Belvoir parish church where the Bishop of Down and Dromore will introduce Michael Wardlow, Chief Executive of the N.I. Council for Integrated Education, and Brendan McCarthy, a former Church of Ireland rector who now leads a community church in Omagh.
On Wednesday evening the Archbishop of Dublin will celebrate the Eucharist in the Chapel of the Church of Ireland Theological College where the preacher will be Archbbishop Diarmuid Martin. This will be the first occasion on which the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has preached in the College Chapel.
The Bishop of Limerick and Lord Eames will be in London on Thursday for the installation, by the Bishop of London, of the former TCD Chaplain, the Revd Dr Alan McCormack, as Parish Priest of St Vedast-alias-Foster.