Lay Canon Appointed; Bishops’ Appeal projects funded; Summer issue of Connor Connections; Religious minorities ‘better treated in North than South’; Teens with autism refused school places due to cuts; When you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism; Well known NI professional quits English health post
Lay Canon Appointed To St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh
The Archbishop of Armagh has announced the appointment of Mr Graham Richards as a lay Canon of Armagh. Mr Richards succeeds to the stall formerly occupied by the late Canon J.L.B. Deane. Armagh Cathedral has six Lay Canons – the first were appointed in 1997 and Mr Richards will be the eleventh to take up office.
Archbishop Harper said, ‘It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce the appointment of Mr Graham Richards as a Lay Canon of Armagh Cathedral. Mr Richards has given distinguished and varied service to the Church of Ireland for many years from his time as Chairman of the Youth Council to his deep involvement with the Representative Church Body Executive and its Committees and in the field of education. He continues to serve the Church of Ireland with great dedication as Chairman of the Allocations Committee. I am delighted that he now takes up this stall.’
Mr Graham Richards, who was educated at The High School, and Trinity College Dublin, is a Consultant with the law firm Matheson Ormsby Prentice in Dublin, where has was a partner for 31 years. He advises clients from all sections of the Irish and international community, including charities and trustees as well as individuals. A Notary Public, Commissioner for Oaths and member of the Law Society of Ireland, in 2004 he was appointed by the Government of Ireland as a Commissioner for Charitable Donations and Bequests for Ireland.
Mr Richards, a parishioner of Sandford Parish all his life, is a member of the Dublin Diocesan and General Synods. He has been a member of several of the Church’s important central committees since the 1980s, having first been elected to the Representative Church Body in 1982. He is currently Chairman of the RB’s Allocations Committee, and is a member of its Executive Committee, having served for the past 25 years.
He was involved in Church youth work from 1966, culminating in his election as Chairman of the Church of Ireland Youth Council from 1979 to 1982. He served on the General Synod Board of Education for 15 years, and is Chairman of the Incorporated Society, which comprises Bandon Grammar School, Dundalk Grammar School, Kilkenny College and Sligo Grammar School. He has been a Governor of Wilson’s Hospital School since 1979. Mr Richards also plays a prominent part in the work of Protestant Aid and the Brabazon Trust, where has been Chairman since 1986. He is also a member of the Management Committee of the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook.
Bishops’ Appeal: Project Funding
Since the beginning of 2012 a substantial sum of money has been allocated by Bishops’ Appeal to projects in 17 countries in the Majority World. The three main ‘Educate for Life’ projects 2012 have already received €33,000 each: Mother’s Union for their literacy programmes in Burundi, Tearfund for their community development programmes in Myanmar and SAMS for their higher education and youth leadership training in Peru.
Further money has been released to a food security project in Uganda (€21,650), HIV/AIDS programme in India (£19,434), two separate school building projects in Rwanda (16,672), a skills training programme in Palestine (€19,710), a community project in Ethiopia (€16,633) and a disaster preparation and prevention project in El Salvador (€22,705).
At the most recent Bishops’ Appeal committee meeting, £30,000 strl and €15,000 was released for poverty alleviating projects around the globe:
£10,000 strl was assigned to USPG Ireland for two community run HIV/AIDS education programmes in Swaziland. One of the programmes will focus on training grandmothers as educators who can then teach their grand daughters about healthy living using traditional customs and family roles to break the cycle of HIV/AIDS in the little Southern African kingdom. Currently, approximately 43% of the population is HIV positive. In order to break the poverty cycle for the upcoming generation, education on how to prevent contracting the virus is crucial.
Christian Aid received €15,000 for a project in Cambodia seeking to conserve and manage natural resources, improve food security and to enable rural communities to become more resilient to natural disasters. The money will be spent on community pump wells, ponds, fish, pigs, cows and biogas tanks.
£20,000 strl was allocated to Dr. Graham’s Homes in India for a restoration project after a girls’ boarding house was severely damaged in an earthquake. The homes have provided education and care to mainly impoverished and deprived Anglo–Indian children since 1900.
The total amount of money allocated in the first half of 2012 is therefore €223,830 and £49,434 strl respectively. This does not include the ongoing fundraising throughout many dioceses, not least the four dioceses with specific ‘Educate for Life’ link projects supporting initiatives that lift people out of poverty in Haiti, Rwanda, Swaziland, Kenya and Nigeria.
Summer issue of Connor Connections
The summer issue of the award–winning Connor Connections – the magazine for the Diocese of Connor – is now available. Articles include an interview with the new Master of the Chorister’s at St Anne’s Cathedral; a visit to Uganda by a team from Christ Church, Lisburn; St John’s Malone’s pilgrimage to Egypt and Jordan; the work of the Mission to Seafarers, and a look at the Fusion youth project in Lisburn. The latest in Connor’s Vision Strategy and news from parishes across the diocese are also included in the magazine which features, on its front cover, one of the wonderful floral arrangements at the recent Flower Festival held at Christ Church, Lisburn, to celebrate 100 years of the Mothers’ Union. Connor Connections, named best Diocesan Magazine in the 2012 Church of Ireland Central Communications Board competition, is distributed free of charge to all parishioners in the diocese. Additional copies are available from the Diocesan Communications Officer, email dco@connor.anglican.org or telephone 028 9082 8874.
Religious minorities ‘better treated in North than South’
Irish Examiner – Northern Protestants treated their minority community better after partition than Southern Catholics did theirs, an Orange Order leader suggested to the Seanad. In a historic address, the order’s grand secretary Drew Nelson urged Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth and hold an Orange parade in Dublin.
Teens with autism refused school places due to cuts
Irish Examiner – Almost 100 teenagers with severe autism in Munster have been refused school places due to cutbacks in funding, cutting off their access to crucial educational and psychiatric support.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/teens-with-autism-refused-school-places-due-to-cuts-199559.html
When you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism
Independent – Nicky Clark, a parent, writes from Rainman and reality.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/07/04/when-you%e2%80%99ve-met-one-person-with-autism-you%e2%80%99ve-met-one-person-with-autism/
Well known NI professional quits Health post
Newry born, Gabriel Scally who has held senior medical posts in Northern Ireland and at Queen’s University, Belfast, has quits a government departmental post due to changes which he finds unacceptable in the National Health Service in England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/03/financial-austerity-dismantle-state-gabriel-scally