Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Archbishop of Dublin to chair interfaith consultation
Today (Saturday) the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at a Quiet Day for lay readers after which he will leave for Oslo where he is to chair a major consultation for Anglicans and Lutherans from Northern Europe on interfaith encounter which will continue until Wednesday. The consultation will aim to provide a draft set of guidelines for churches in an area which is new to many. The Church of Ireland will be represented at the consultation by the Bishop of Clogher and Canon Desmond Sinnamon, Rector of Taney, within which parish lies the largest mosque in Ireland. Canon Sinnamon has considerable experience, both at an academic level in the Irish School of Ecumenics, and at a practical level of interfaith encounter.
In Cork today (Saturday) there will be a Special Regional Synod, for the dioceses of Cork, Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert and Cashel and Ossory, to discuss the document produced by the Sectarianism Education Project, ‘The Hard Gospel’, at which the address will be given by Mr Gareth Higgins, Head of the Research Team. ‘The Hard Gospel’ will also be considered at a special Diocesan Synod in Armagh, on Thursday, at which the Archbishop of Armagh will preside.
This morning (Saturday) at 11.00 in the Arts Building in Trinity College, Dublin, there will be a public lecture, under the auspices of the College Chaplaincy and the Dublin University Far Eastern Mission, by Dr Joseph Precker, on ‘The Changing Perspectives of the Spirituality of the East’. In the evening, at 8.00, in the Lady Chapel of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a concert by the Gaudete Singers, directed by David Leigh, of the music of Christobal de Morales and other Spanish composers.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Advent Sunday preacher at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin will be Canon David Whittington from Durham Cathedral. In the afternoon there will be Advent Processions in Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals and in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, while at 8.00 pm in Powerscourt Church the Enniskerry Gospel Choir, which was formed earlier this year, will lead the music at the monthly Gospel Eucharist at which the speaker will be Mr Ian White, Director of the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation. Meanwhile at 7.00 pm in All Saints Church, Ballinakill, which is part of the Abbeyleix group of parishes, there will be an Advent Procession by candlelight. Music by Praetorius, Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Weelkes will be provided by the choir Voxtrot, directed by Mark Duley. There will be a collection in aid of the restoration of the church, a project supported by the Heritage Council.
In the Friends Meeting House, 82 Lower Churchtown Road, Dublin, at 5.00 pm this evening Christian Aid will host a programme of music and reflections to mark World AIDS Day.
On Monday evening in Belfast Cathedral there will be special service on the theme of the relationship between faith and sport. Three Irish League footballers, Alan Nixon (Glentoran), Peter McCann (Portadown) and Tommy Elliott (Ards), who are members of the Christian organization, Athletes in Action, will speak and the music will be provided by the Salvation Army band.
On Wednesday evening in the Centre for Christian Studies in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, there will be a public lecture by the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, on ‘Models of a Post-Clerical Church’
This Friday, in All Saints Church, Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin at 8.00 pm there will a concert of seasonal music with the St Cecelia Singers.