Six short reports from various dioceses
New Musical Director Takes Up Christ Church Post
The new director of music for Christ Church Cathedral has taken up his post. Ian Keatley took up his new role earlier this month.
Prior to his appointment to Christ Church Cathedral, Ian was director of music at Westminster Abbey Choir School and was previously deputy master of music at the Chapels Royal, H M Tower of London. From 2004–2006 he was organ scholar at Westminster Abbey where he played for a number of Royal and State Occasions including the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and State memorial services for former Prime Minister Lord Callaghan and comedian Ronnie Barker.
Ian is a graduate of the prestigious Royal College of Music where he was awarded the Haigh prize for organ playing. While studying at the Royal College of Music, Ian spent two years as assistant director of music at Croydon Parish Church and a further two years as organ scholar at Southwark Cathedral. Before moving to London he spent a year at Downside Abbey School and Wells Cathedral as a choral scholar while studying the organ and singing.
Ian has performed regularly in Westminster Abbey’s organ recital series and has performed at Westminster Cathedral, St Paul’s Cathedral, Southwark Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, Liverpool Cathedral, St Alban’s Cathedral, St John’s and Clare Colleges in Cambridge and Magdalen and the Queen’s Colleges in Oxford.
’Life Begins at 40’ in St Saviour’s, Craigavon
On Easter Sunday, one of our parishes will reach a milestone in its history. That day will mark 40 years since the first ever service in St. Saviour’s, Craigavon (then Tullygally).
To mark this important occasion the parish is planning a whole week of events and activities to suit all ages and tastes. Many people say that ‘Life begins at 40,’ and that’s the title of this special week which runs from 31st March to 8th April.
“We are delighted to have special guests from England and all over the province coming to join us for the week,” says Evangelist in Charge. Sr Myrtle Morrison (CA). “Included are Roger Murphy, a gifted communicator and Paul Woodman, an escapologist and street theatre artist who is a clergyman in the Church of England in his spare time. Leading up to that, we have a team of 40 visitors who will be visiting in the parish to share their faith and personally invite folk along to the week’s events. We have already had some training for these visitors – one for each of the 40 years we’re celebrating.
“We hope and pray that this will be a significant week in the life of St Saviour’s as we prepare for the next 40 years under God’s leadership and direction.”
Limerick – Back to church event
Michael Harvey, UK and Ireland Co-ordinator for Back To Church Sunday will visit Limerick diocese to encourage people to think about taking up a very simple challenge. The meeting is on Friday March 2nd at 11:00 a.m. in the Woodlands Hotel, Adare.
Back to Church Sunday is about “reaching out” to all those people who seem to have faded away and become lost from the Church. There are plenty of people like that all over Ireland. People who for one reason or another have turned away from the Church, maybe also turned away from God. Maybe they just “fell out” with the Rector years ago and have never gotten up the courage to return, maybe their lives were blighted by some horrible event or deep grief that they could not fit into any sane understanding of God. Maybe they just drifted off, their lives swamped by the pressures of work, and family life. Back to Church Sunday is about reaching out to such people, encouraging them to think again about the Church and saying, “well things maybe have changed, why not come and give it another try?”. It’s not some high pressure piece of evangelism, emotional blackmail or scaring people with visions of hell-fire. It is just a simple invitation, a hand outstretched, an offer of comfort, support and welcome.
Last year a number of Churches dipped their toes in the water of Back to Church Sunday and found it a success. People did “come back” for the Sunday, and some have even stayed and started out again with God and the Church. In Britain many thousands have returned. It does have a positive and encouraging impact. Yet it is a simple enough idea. All it takes is someone to say to a friend, a neighbour or family member “So why not come along with me?” One regular Church member brings one absent friend and the congregation is doubled at a stroke.
Meetings are being held in various C of I dioceses.
A couple of Titanic challenges!
Titanic Quarter Chaplains, Chris Bennett and Karen Spence recently hit the newspapers as they helped to launch the Christian Aid Titanic Cycle Challenge – a ride from the Titanic Quarter to Cobh in May this year. (Neatly connecting up the last place the Titanic stood on dry ground, and the last place she called in to port).
If you’re interested in taking part in the challenge check out the Christian Aid website for all the details.
Alternatively, a gentler option is to complete the Yardmen Cycle and Walk in Belfast on Sunday 1 April.
The idea is to dress up in scoops and dunchers ( the old docker’s cap) and re–trace (on foot or on two wheels) the route taken every morning by the 15,000 men who worked in the shipyards in 1912, starting in various points throughout Belfast and converging on the Drawing Office in the heart of the TQ.
You have to register now to be part of the walk and places are limited to 1000. Registering just takes a few moments at the website (click here) and your £5 ticket includes a duncher, refreshments, and a donation to Bowel Cancer research.
The Dock joint service
The Dock is joining forces with Westbourne Presbyterian, the ‘shipyard church’ on the Newtownards Road, for a joint service at 11.00am on 1 April. After the service you’ll be able to enjoy a drop of coffee and then just stroll across the road to begin the walk – it leaves from Pitt Park, just over the road, at 12.45pm.
On arrival at the Titanic Quarter, the plan is to recreate the old photographs which show the men in their scoops and dunchers making their way down the Queens Road with the Titanic towering in the background.
Death of Tom Smail
Bishop Harold Miller pays personal tribute to a great theologian and friend:
Tom Smail was one of the great theologians of Charismatic Renewal in these islands, and a great friend and colleague. He entered into eternity on 15 February 2012, trusting in the Lord.
Those who knew him in Northern Ireland might have encountered him in a range of different ways. He was, for a time in the 1960s, minister of Whiteabbey Presbyterian Church. I first heard his name when at Belfast High School, just down the road from that church, when the power of the Holy Spirit was being experienced there in a particularly focused way. Later he became the Director of the Fountain Trust, an organization encouraging Charismatic renewal in churches. During that time Tom often spoke very powerfully and theologically, at the large Dublin renewal conferences in the RDS.
My first real meeting with him was when he and I joined the staff of St John’s College, Nottingham on the same day in 1979. He was a warm and strong–minded person, with a healthy determination both to receive what was good in renewal, and to critique things he believed should be challenged; and he was a very popular teacher firmly grounded in his old lecturer, Karl Barth.
During his time at St John’s he was ordained as an Anglican, but he never lost his love for the metrical psalms and paraphrases of his Church of Scotland roots. He has left us a range of classic books, such as The Forgotten Father, on the first person of the Trinity, Windows on the Cross, on the second, and Reflected Glory on the work of the Spirit.
My last meeting with Tom was last August, when I went to see him at St Barnabas’ Home in Lingfield, Surrey, where John Stott was also a resident. We put the world to rights theologically, had a Thai lunch, and then he drove me to see Truda, his wife, who is suffering from dementia. He was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.
The way he wanted to be described at the end was in some of the last words to me: ‘A sheep of God’s own fold, a lamb of God’s own flock, a sinner of God’s own redeeming’. Thank you, Tom, for all you gave us. You are Christ’s forever.