Bishops’ Appeal – Urgent Funds Needed; Dublin Lock Out Symposium; Loyal Orders ‘could be part of voluntary parades panel’ – Gazette editor; Have you got what it takes to volunteer abroad?; FG TD was told not to help with communion
Bishops’ Appeal – Urgent Funds Needed
Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal requests harvest and advent funds for the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria and for the refugees in surrounding Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. (Tearfund and Christian Aid partners). Eight million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. As little as €30/£25 can buy rice, beans, lentils, sugar, salt as well as cheese and milk to combat malnutrition in children.
Funds are also urgently required for very worthwhile projects such as agricultural self help groups in Uganda (CMS Partners) and a garden project among the malnourished and displaced Wichi people in Argentina (SAMS). Statistically if female farmers in the developing world had access to basic agricultural training and basic tools, a further 430 million people could be lifted out of poverty by 2020. Empowering rural people is an essential first step to eradicating poverty. Other projects include a gender based violence awareness and action campaign in Zambia (Us) and a HIV/AIDS project in India (Friends of Hope). Due to funding constraints, worthwhile projects such as these are on hold. Bishop Patrick Rooke, chairperson of Bishops’ Appeal circulated a letter to all clergy at the end of August regarding Harvest and Advent giving. In it he urged those with Diocesan Link projects to continue focusing their efforts on these and Dioceses who do not have Link projects to support the named projects above.
‘At the heart of every human experience is the desire to survive and prosper. To live without fear, hunger or suffering. To imagine how your life could be better and then have the means to change it. Yet, every day, 1.4 billion people – nearly one fifth of the world’s inhabitants – cannot fulfil their most basic needs, let alone attain their dreams or desires.’ UN Report on Rural Poverty 2013
Donations should be sent by the parishes and individuals to: Bishops’ Appeal, Church of Ireland House, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6.
Dublin Lock Out Symposium
A free Symposium to examine the Dublin Lock Out, organised by the Church of Ireland Historical Commemorations Working Group, is to be held at Liberty Hall, Dublin on Saturday 16 November 2013, 10.30am–3.30pm.
This symposium will seek to examine the Dublin Lock Out of 1913 in its own context but also focus on some of the less well–known people who influenced events or were influenced by them. In this way it is hoped that the historical canvas for commemoration will be broadened beyond constitutional matters.
The event will commence at 10.30am and conclude at 3.30pm. Dr Fearghal McGarry of the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) will give a general historical introduction, followed by an examination of the part played by William Martin Murphy, a very influential employer in Dublin in 1913, by his biographer, Fr Thomas Morrissey SJ. Dr Valerie Jones, who has conducted recent research into the Church of Ireland in this period, will look at some of the Church of Ireland personalities who sympathised with the strikers and some who played a role in the events surrounding the Lock Out. The Symposium will be chaired and facilitated by Mr Kieran Mulvey who is Chief Executive of the Labour Relations
Commission and Professor David Hayton of QUB will chair a roundtable discussion.
There is no charge for this event and a light lunch will be provided. For catering purposes, advance registration is required.
To attend, please register by Friday 8 November by contacting
press@topstorey.org
Loyal Orders ‘could be part of voluntary parades panel’- C of I Gazette editor
Have you got what it takes to volunteer abroad?
VSO Ireland says – You could surprise yourself – and make a real difference.
http://www.thejournal.ie/vso-have-what-it-takes-1121796-Oct2013/
FG TD who was told not to help with communion insists he’s ‘very much pro-life’
Derek Keating has been told not to fulfil his duties as a minister of the Eucharist at St Mary’s Parish in Lucan in the wake of his support for the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill last July.
http://www.thejournal.ie/fine-gael-derek-keating-church-lucan-eucharistic-minister-1128307-Oct2013/
Scaffolding stolen from Magheralin church
http://www.lurganmail.co.uk/news/local-news/scaffolding-stolen-from-magheralin-church-1-5581745