103 mile fundraising walk ends; Clogher canons; St Patrick’s book launch; First eco inter-church conference; Press review – Will head of Irish review board step down?; US Youths retrace St. Patrick’s footsteps
103 mile fundraising walk ends
Four ambitious walkers from Willowfield Parish Church completed their 103 mile fundraising trek last night when they arrived back home in Belfast.
They set off from Donegal Town on Monday 17 September on a coast–to–coast trek across Ireland to raise funds for Willowfield’s hall refurbishment project.
Rector, Canon David McClay, Church Army officer, George Newell, children’s worker, Susan McFarland and youth worker, Stuart Douglas, were welcomed back at a family fun BBQ complete with a bouncy castle, face painting, crafts and more.
The hall was built in the 1950s but needs a major upgrade to provide modern, comfortable facilities for the youth, children’s and community work run by the church. Several hundred people are helped by its organisations and the practical support offered by members each week. The project is expected to cost £1 million and will represent a major investment in the area’s future. All money raised from sponsors will go towards the refurbishment.
http://www.facebook.com/willowfieldpc
Clogher canons
The Revd Bryan Kerr, Rector of Lisbellaw Parish, and the Revd Arthur Barrett, Rector of Rossorry Parish, have been appointed Canons by the Bishop of Clogher.
St Patrick’s book launch
On Thursday 13th September, the Dean of St Patrick’s, the Very Revd Victor Stacey, hosted the book launch of Albert Fenton’s book, ‘Past Lives’, in the Deanery. The book contains biographies of some one hundred of those commemorated in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and is the culmination of many months of work by Mr Fenton. The book is for sale in the Cathedral shop and also on the Cathedral web–site for €10.
First eco inter-church conference
Over 140 delegates from across Ireland and the UK attended the first ever inter-church conference on the environment to take place on this island.
The theme of Eco-Congregation Ireland’s inaugural conference, which took place in Dromantine Retreat and Conference Centre, near Newry, Co Down, on September 14 and 15, was “God’s Creation – Our Responsibility?”
Representatives attended from the European Christian Environmental Network, Churches Together in Britain and Ireland’s Environmental Issues Network, A Rocha, Christian Ecology Link, Operation Noah and Eco-Congregation Scotland.
In his opening address, “Is the Bible Green? Reading Scripture Ecologically”, Prof David Horrell, Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Exeter, suggested that, while the Bible did not offer a blueprint for creation or environmental ethics, passages like Psalms 19 and 104 and Job 38 helped generate a positive vision of the value, beauty and ultimate worth of the whole earth.
“Our contemporary context, with its pressing environmental challenges, suggests the need for a fresh reading of the Bible, and a reconfiguration of the Christian tradition,” he said. “Instead of focusing on humanity’s importance and future salvation, we might draw on certain biblical texts to stress how God has entered into covenant with the whole earth, calls the whole universe in all its diversity to praise, and promises to liberate the whole creation from suffering and decay.”
Prof Stephen Williams, Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological College, Belfast, spoke about “The Theology of Creation”, including the difficult interpretation of the word ‘dominion’. He argued that if Creation was good and fit for purpose, then the command to have dominion was not to do with subjugation, but rather a responsibility to nurture.
In her lecture, “Listening to the Future: Listening to the Present”, Dr Anne Primavesi, Fellow of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, Birkbeck College, University of London, focussed on the need to cultivate unity. Describing militarism, fuelled by a climate of fear and insecurity, as the greatest threat to planetary resources today, she said there must be a political and military dimension for sustainability to be achieved.
Dr Alastair McIntosh, Fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology, Glasgow, in his talk, “Money, Consumerism and the Spirituality of Our Times”, highlighted how consumerism fed off our insecurities, creating a sense of inadequacy and shame, which only increased our desire for more. The economy was no longer about satisfying needs; it was about generating wants.
Addressing the topic “A New Humanity: The Quest for Well-being in the 21st Century”, Rev Peter-Owen Jones said he believed there would be a revolution against capitalism in the next 20 years and that it would need to be one that recognised that “all life is connected”.
The Sussex-based vicar and author, who is well-known for his BBC series, Around the World in 80 Faiths and How to Live a Simple Life, said that a system that set each individual human being against each other was never going to engender a sense of communal, or individual, well-being. We could never have peace on earth until we made peace with the natural world. “Christianity needs urgently to embrace a bigger vision of peace on earth,” he said.
Nineteen workshops were offered during the weekend, with topics ranging from ‘Ecology and the Economy’ and ‘Ecology and the Eucharist’ to ‘The Destruction of Biodiversity’, ‘God’s Creation and Poetry’ and ‘Awakening to the Spirituality of a New Earth Consciousness’.
Six trees were planted in the grounds of Dromantine by representatives of the different denominations and communities attending the conference with a blessing read by Rev Elaine Murray, the Church of Ireland representative on ECI.
The other ECI committee members are Catherine Brennan SSL, chairperson and Roman Catholic representative, Joe Furphy, Presbyterian Church in Ireland representative, Helen Shiel, Methodist Church in Ireland representative, and Gillian Armstrong, representative of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Ireland.
www.ecocongregationireland.com.
Press review
Will head of Irish review board step down?
Catholic Culture – Ian Elliott, the head of Ireland’s National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC)—the independent board created by the Catholic bishops to monitor sex-abuse issues—will reach retirement age next year. The Irish Catholic …
US Youths retrace St. Patrick’s footsteps
Thousand Oaks Acorn – This summer, 10 teens from St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in in Thousand Oaks USA visited Ireland, homeland of the patron saint. As he climbed Ireland’s holy …
http://www.toacorn.com/news/2012-09-20/Faith/Youths_retrace_St_Patricks_footsteps.html