Dean Tom Salmon remembrance; Fears over O’Dowd’s school funding plans; In conversation with Fran Porter; “Credo: I Believe” series at Trinity College Dublin Chapel; Annual Catherwood lecture; Irish Charity postpones 350-volunteer-strong Kenya trip
Dean Tom Salmon remembrance
Patrick Comerford writing in his blog earlier this week – We remembered Dean Tom Salmon and his contribution to the life of the Church of Ireland in Christ Church Cathedral tonight.
The Very Revd Thomas Noel Salmon who died on 20 July 2013 in his 101st year, was the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, from 1967 until his retirement in 1988.
At the Cathedral Choral Evensong this evening, the former Precentor, Canon Adrian Empey, recalled Tom Salmon’s clerical and academic career. Both had been Vicars of Saint Ann’s, Dawson Street, and both were involved in the training of ordinands in the Church of Ireland for countless decades.
With amusement, and with relevant punch, Adrian recalled how Tom Salmon had been ordained on the 1930s by Bishop Frederick MacNeice, a prophetic but often unheard voice in Northern Ireland at the time.
And he asked challengingly whether the Church of Ireland is a welcoming or a closed church today.
The service was conducted by the present Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, and Canon Ted Ardis. The present precentor and another past precentor, Canon Peter Campion and Canon John Bartlett, were present in the chapter stalls, along with a number of chapter members, the present Vicar of Saint Ann’s, the Revd David Gillespie, as well as the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson.
The attendance included family members, many present and former members of the cathedral board, and the Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Very Revd Victor Stacey.
The preces and responses were by William Byrd, and the canticles were sing to settings by Charles Villiers Stanford.
It was a fitting tribute to decades of faithful service to the Church of Ireland – a church that needs to listen to and to respond to the challenges posed by Canon Empey this evening.
Fears over O’Dowd’s school funding plans
Around 670 primary schools in Northern Ireland will lose millions of pounds in funding if new proposals by the Sinn Fein Education Minister John O’Dowd are passed, it was claimed yesterday.
Newsletter – DUP chair of the Education Committee Mervyn Storey said last night in the Assembly that non-Catholic schools would suffer most.
Earlier the Principal of Cregagh Primary in Belfast, Ronnie Milligan, said the plan “will see 80 per cent of primary schools across the board lose out on funding”.
He said the proposals — published in June and due to be closed for consultation in October — are a “crude attempt to put more money into schools with a large number of children who are socially deprived and are entitled to free school meals”.
“Schools with a high number of pupils requiring free school meals are going to receive a considerable amount more funding than schools requiring less free meals,” the member of the Northern Ireland Primary Principals Action Group added. “Only roughly 20 per cent of schools will gain out of these proposals.”
Mr Milligan, 59, said his school of 155 pupils “along with every other school in Northern Ireland during the economic recession has seen an increase in the number of children claiming free meals”.
“I have seen an increase from 25 per cent to 36 per cent in the last two years,” he said. “My school is a state school serving the Cregagh estate and you would expect under these proposals I would be a winner, if you put it in crude terms, but I am going to be down £5,500 per year which is 1.2 per cent of my budget. This is not a desperately large amount, but it is a real kick in the teeth for socially deprived children. He has robbed Peter to pay Paul and it is totally and utterly unacceptable.”
He said that teachers and special assistants will be lost in some schools.
North Antrim MLA Mr Storey said that of the five school boards “only Belfast would see an increase [in funds]”.
Looked at by sector, he said, “85 per cent of Controlled Primaries lose while 15 per cent will gain. In the Maintained sector 76 per cent will lose while 24 per cent will gain”. He said that if the DUP advanced such plans “there would be uproar on the benches opposite and calls for an equality impact assessments and accusations of sectarian politics”.
Mr O’Dowd said an independent review had recommended funding be directed to deprived pupils.
“One of the key reasons I initiated the review of the Common Funding Scheme was because I did not believe that the current scheme properly supported our children and young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds,” he said.
In conversation with Fran Porter
Contemporary Christianity presents – In conversation with Fran Porter on Tuesday October 8 at 7.30 pm.
Dr Fran Porter is a freelance social and theological researcher, writer and teacher. Fran has carried out two research projects for the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland, published as Changing Women, Changing Worlds: Evangelical Women in Church, Community and Politics (2002), and Faith in A Plural Society: The Values, Attitudes and Practices of Churches in Protecting Minority Participation (2008).
She is now living in the Midlands, England where she is a Research Scholar at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Foundation in Birmingham and an Associate at Coventry University’s Applied Research Centre in Sustainable Regeneration. Fran is currently writing Women and Men After Christendom for the Paternoster After Christendom series. Venue is Contemporary Christianity’s office, 3rd Floor, 21 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.
“Credo: I Believe” series at Trinity College Dublin Chapel
Among those who will speak about their guiding beliefs, principles or passions at Trinity College Dublin Chapel, will be the well-known RTÉ broadcaster Joe Duffy, the Abbot of Glenstal Abbey Mark Patrick Hederman, and the independent Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell.
Commenting on the series, the TCD Dean of Residence, the Revd Darren McCallig, said: “In Latin, the word ‘Credo’ means ‘I believe’ but some scholars tell us that it was originally derived from two other Latin words, ‘cor’ meaning heart, and ‘do’ from the verb meaning to give. In other words, to believe in something is to give our hearts to it, to make a loving commitment to it. With the help of our guest speakers we will, Sunday by Sunday, explore those commitments and those principles by which we choose to live our lives. It promises to be a fascinating and thought-provoking series.”
The full list of visiting speakers is as follows: Dr Gillian Wylie, Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD (6 October); Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman of Glenstal Abbey (20 October); Professor John Monaghan of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (3 November); Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell, Member of Seanad Éireann (17 November) and Mr. Joe Duffy, Broadcaster and presenter of RTÉ Radio’s ‘Liveline’ (1 December). The TCD Dean of Residence, the Revd Darren McCallig, will preach on the other Sundays (29 September, 13 and 27 October, 10 and 24 November and 10 December).
All the addresses will be given in the context of the Sunday morning Choral Eucharist at 10.45am. All are welcome. Full details of the series and recordings of the addresses are available on the TCD Chaplaincy website: www.tcd.ie/chaplaincy
Annual Catherwood lecture
David Porter will give the annual Catherwood lecture in Belfast on “Justice, Mercy and Walking with God: The mission of the church and the future of reconciliation in Northern Ireland”
David Porter is well known as a co-founder and then Director of ECONI (Evangelical Contribution on N Ireland). He has served on the N Ireland Community Relations Council, the N Ireland Civic Forum and the independent Consultative Group on the Past (Eames/Bradley). He represented N Ireland on the Evangelical Alliance UK Board, for three years as its chair.
Since 2008, David has been the Canon Director for Reconciliation Ministry at Coventry Cathedral and in February 2013 was appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Director for Reconciliation. In Lambeth he is one of three advisors supporting Archbishop Justin Welby.
It will be held in the Sainos Centre, 239 Newtownards Rd on Thursday, 10th october at 8.00 pm.
Further details at:
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Irish Charity postpones 350-volunteer-strong Kenya trip
thejournal.ie – An Irish charity has had to postpone a week-long school building trip to Kenya.
In light of the Westgate Mall attacks, the Niall Mellon Township Trust said that the safety of their volunteers must come first, cancelling the 12 October trip.
The 350 volunteers were due to spend a week building schools and classrooms in the poorest parts of Nairobi.
The charity’s founder said that the decision was made on safety grounds.
“Our charity has earned a prestigious reputation over many years for the excellence with
which we look after our volunteers,” said Niall Mellon.
“If I don’t feel we can take enough security measures to protect them ,then we will not bring them.”
Mellon said that the two schools will still be built before Christmas, with volunteers’ funds being sent over regardless.
“Of course I am extremely disappointed to not be bringing the amazing Irish people who fundraised so hard all year, but thanks to their fundraising efforts we are still going to get our two schools built and finished in the Mukuru slum, this year.
Their security is always mine and the Board of Directors absolute priority and we have reassessed the ongoing security threat in light of what happened. It will take a few months to fully assess whether repeat attacks are likely.
The charity is currently building schools and classrooms for 3,300 of the poorest Kenyan children in Nairobi as part of its new education initiative. Using local labour, they have already built a substantial extension to a school and aim to have the project fully completed by Christmas.