Bishop presents Certificates to 45 Children’s Ministry leaders; Lisbon consecration; Bishop pledges to heal wounds left by abuse scandals; Anglican Peace Alliance
Bishop presents Certificates to 45 Children’s Ministry leaders
On Saturday 20th April 2013 Bishop Paul Colton celebrated the Eucharist at St Luke’s Home Education Centre for 45 volunteers who were marking the completion of the Church of Ireland Children’s Ministry Certificate Course.
Also present were the Diocesan representative on the Church of Ireland Children’s Ministry Network (the Reverend Anne Skuse) and experts who had helped to deliver the training course throughout the past six months. Afterwards the Bishop presented the Certificates to those who completed the course – 41 of them from Cork, Cloyne and Ross, 1 from Kerry and 3 from Waterford.
Lisbon consecration
On Thursday the Archbishop of Dublin will travel to Lisbon to attend the consecration of the next Bishop for the Lusitanian Church thus renewing a historic partnership.
Bishop pledges to heal wounds left by abuse scandals
Irish Examiner – The cleric set to become the next head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has pledged to work to heal the wounds of those who have lost trust in the institution.
Eamon Martin delivered a call for renewal in the church as he was ordained into an interim post ahead of eventually succeeding current Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady.
The Derry-born former teacher yesterday became Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh and will act as an assistant to Cardinal Brady for at least another two years.
The 52-year-old takes up his new post after a period of unprecedented turmoil for the church in Ireland, during which its influence has been damaged by a series of clerical child abuse scandals.
At his ordination ceremony in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh this afternoon – during which a letter endorsing his appointment signed by former Pope Benedict was read to the congregation – the new Coadjutor Archbishop reiterated his belief that the time had come to ’sing a new song to The Lord’.
“Of course there are some who will not want to listen,” he said.
“There are others too who have been so hurt and betrayed in the past, that understandably they find themselves unable to trust our message.
“That is why we must continue, as Pope Benedict XVI exhorted us in his letter, ’to reflect on the wounds inflicted on Christ’s body’, and persevere in our efforts to bind those wounds and heal them.”
Archbishop Martin said he felt a whole mixture of emotions on being chosen to take up the role.
“Excitement, nervousness, a sense of my unworthiness and inadequacy,” he said.
The cleric then referred to Pope Francis’s call for the church to reach out to people.
“Pope Francis has spoken recently about the need to ’go out of ourselves’, beyond our usual comfort zones to the ’edges of our existence’,” he said.
More at:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/archbishop-pledges-to-heal-592029.html
BBC report at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22238437
Anglican Peace Alliance
The Dean of Ferns, the Very Revd Paul Mooney, is attending the 2nd World Wide Anglican Peace Conference in Okinawa, Japan.
The conference, which is chaired by the Primates of Japan and Korea, is discussing peace and security in north–east Asia and Anglican humanitarian initiatives in North Korea.