Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Down & Dromore reconciliation conference
Today (Saturday), in the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, the Diocese of Down and Dromore will host a conference entitled ‘A Time to Heal’ which is part of the diocese’s ‘Think Again’ campaign for reconciliation in the community. Some 400 delegates from parishes in the diocese, with their guests, will attend to encourage and affirm new initiatives in building up community relations.
The conference was organized by the Revd Charles Leeke, the diocesan Reconciliation Development Officer, and it will be opened by the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rt Revd Harold Miller. The principal speaker will be the Revd Jerome Munyangaju, Rector of Killeleagh, who was trained in Tanzania, India and Britain and came first to Northern Ireland was a missionary in 1995. He has experienced the pain of living through the Rwandan genocide that killed his sister and other relatives and friends. There will also be contributions from Dr Caroyln Yoder, an American psychologist, and from Dr Jayne Docherty, Professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia.
The conference will also offer some thirty workshops covering a broad range of topics form sectarianism to community relations, trauma awareness to Protestant-Catholic identity.
Today (Saturday), the Feast of St Cecelia, the patron saint of music, the Dean of Christ Church, Dublin, the Very Revd John Paterson, will be in the cathedral from 10.00 until 5.00 to receive gifts towards the restoration of the cathedral organ. At 3.30 pm the Cathedral Choir will give a recital while at 8.00 pm in St Patrick’s there will be a concert by the St Patrick’s Cathedral Chamber Choir.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the Archbishop of Armagh will preach at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. At Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral the Archbishop of Dublin will commission five lay readers while in St Patrick’s there will be a service of commemoration for those who lost their lives in Irish ships, 1939-45, at which the preacher will be Canon R.C. Reed. In Kill o’ the Grange parish in Co. Dublin a team from the Church Pastoral Aid Society, led by evangelist Roger Murphy, will conclude a parish mission which began last Sunday.
On Tuesday, in Kilkenny College, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will address the Mothers’ Union Diocesan Council on the theme of ‘Human Sexuality. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the final lecture in the current lunchtime series on archbishops of Dublin will be given by the Dean of St Patrick’s, Dr Robert MacCarthy, who will speak about Archbishop John Bernard.
The Archbishop of Armagh will visit the Theological College on Wednesday when he will celebrate the Eucharist for the students and staff.
On Thursday the Archbishop of Dublin will dedicate and switch on a new floodlighting system at Whitechurch parish church, Co. Dublin, which is one of John Semple’s most graceful essays in ecclesiastical architecture.
A one day workshop for liturgical ministers in Dublin and Glendalough on the Book of Common Prayer 2004 will be held in All Hallows College, Drumcondra, on Friday. The theme of the meeting will be ‘Renewing Worship’ and the principal speaker will be Canon Jeremy Fletcher, Precentor of York Minster, while the Revd Tom Gordon and Mark Duley will comment on the use of music in liturgy. The workshop has been arranged by Canon David Pierpoint, Diocesan Liturgical Officer. In Zion Church, Rathgar, at 8.00 pm, the Mageough Fellowship will host a concert by the Young European Strings as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Mageough Home.