Ministry of Healing Training; Armagh Bicentenary Flower Festival; New law to clear up paternity confusion; Church complaints on seal of Confession ‘a diversion’; Irish group protests Vatican move to silence dissident priests; Fr D’Arcy is victim of mafioso treatment by Vatican bullyboys; “Silencing” our way out of trouble
Ministry of Healing Training
The Church’s Ministry of Healing : Ireland together with the Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Committee have announced a new training programme for those wishing to enter prayer ministry. Prayer ministers participate in the liturgy, praying, laying on of hands and anointing with oil in the context of a healing service.
The programme consists of a two–day course (two Saturdays) followed by a period of mentoring before the commissioning service in October. The course, led by Dean Dermot Dunne and Canon Sue Watterson, explores best practise, listening skills, and a theological understanding of the healing ministry. It will take place from 10.00 am to 4.30 pm on Saturday, 19 May, in the music room of Christ Church Cathedral and on Saturday, 26 May, in All Saints Hall.
Participants are asked to contribute a total of €20 to cover the cost of food and materials. Attendance on both days is required to complete the course, but for those who cannot attend in May, there are plans for the course to be presented again in the autumn.
To apply for training, candidates should complete an application form and return it to their rector. The Ministry of Healing is a collegial ministry which focuses on the health of the community as well as that of the individual. For this reason, and also to ensure the ministry’s integrity, applicants must have a recommendation from their rector before their application can be considered. Therefore, all applications must go through the appropriate clergy before reaching the central office.
For further information or to let us know how best we can serve you, please contact Jessica Stone at healing@ireland.anglican.org
Armagh Bicentenary Flower Festival
It is well known that Armagh has two very fine Cathedrals, both dedicated to St. Patrick; what may not be so well known is that Ireland’s Ecclesiastical Capital city also boasts many other beautiful churches. Of these one of the finest is St. Mark’s Parish Church. It is approached by a tree lined avenue rising from the east side of the city’s famed Mall. This year the people of St. Mark’s are giving thanks for two hundred years of Christian worship and witness on that hill. As part of their celebrations they are holding a Flower Festival with the appropriate theme “Yesterday, Today and Forever” from Friday 4th to Monday 7th May. The renowned flower arranger Alan Beatty is responsible for the displays which will be reflective not just of the church’s history but also of its mission in the present. Not only will the Festival be sure to delight but the church itself, with its fine stained glass windows, provides a wonderful backdrop for such an event and is itself well worth visit
ing.
In staging and promoting the Festival the people of St. Mark’s are not just thinking of themselves for the proceeds will be in aid their Bicentenary Projects of which the main one is of the work of the Shyogwe Bible and Development School in Rwanda. This school not only trains pastors for the church in Rwanda but also equips them and other lay workers to build up the economic and agricultural life of their communities.
Alongside the Flower Festival there will be an exhibition of art and various musical items. A wide variety of refreshments will be available from a ‘nice wee cuppa’ to a full meal. The Festival will be formally opened by the Mayor of Armagh, Councillor Freda Donnelly and Mrs Jessie Weir, at 7.00pm on Friday 4th May. However the doors will be open from 2.00 pm. The Festival continues over the weekend until Monday
Why not make a visit to the Festival as part of a whole day out and also visit the many attractions Armagh has to offer including the Cathedrals, the superb Robinson Library, the Planetarium, the Museums, the Navan Centre and also enjoy a leisurely walk round the famous Mall.
For a day out next weekend – think ‘St. Mark’s, Armagh, Flower Festival; it would be well worth a visit’.
Lunchtime Concert at St Ann’s Dawson Street
Fuse – The fourth in a series of chamber music concerts by students of the Royal Irish Academy of Music takes place on Thursday May 10 at 1.15 pm in St Ann’s Church on Dawson Street. Entrance is free but there will be a retiring collection at the end of the concert with a suggested donation of €5.
New law to clear up paternity confusion
Joan Burton will bring in legislation that will end the presumption that a husband is the father of all the children born during a marriage.
http://www.thejournal.ie/new-law-to-clear-up-paternity-confusion-430745-Apr2012/
Church complaints on seal of Confession ‘a diversion’
Irish Times – The Minister for Justice has said that complaints that the child protection Bill would break the seal of Confession were a “diversion” from the Catholic Church’s own failure to report clerical child abuse to the Garda. Alan Shatter said he did not …
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0427/1224315233843.html
Irish group protests Vatican move to silence dissident priests
Catholic Culture – A group of Irish Catholic laymen have announced plans for a demonstration outside the office of the apostolic nuncio to protest the Vatican’s silencing of several dissident priests. We Are Church Ireland announced that its members are “very, …
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14144
Alison O’Connor: Fr D’Arcy is victim of mafioso treatment by Vatican bullyboys
Irish Independent – These are priests who are intelligent and questioning and who genuinely appear to have the best interests of their church at heart. Ireland may have tolerated this sort of behaviour from the Vatican in the past, but as Taoiseach Enda Kenny made clear …
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/alison-oconnor-fr-darcy-is-victim-of-mafioso-treatment-by-vatican-bullyboys-3094843.html
“Silencing” our way out of trouble: Shutting down reform by shutting up an …
U.S. Catholic magazine – Raising questions and organizing pastors around issues of concern, including the church’s sexual teaching and the new English translations of the Mass, and lining up with victims of abuse in the ravaged Irish church. To be honest, this smells a bit of …
http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2012/04/silencing-our-way-out-trouble-shutting-down-reform-shutting-irish-priest-and-american-s