Women bishops – first in C of I this year?; Ordination of Deacon; Let’s all pray for end of rain, urges bishop; One third of births in Ireland ‘outside marriage’; Suicide in Ireland increased by 7 per cent last year; More men than ever contacting Irish family resource centres
Women bishops – first in C of I this year?
The Irish Times comments: The churches seem to have an innate ability to shoot themselves in the foot at present. The Catholic Church has of late struggled terribly with issues surrounding clerical sex abuse and women’s ministry. The Church of Ireland likewise in May when its General Synod appeared to vote in favour of prejudice against gay clergy. Now many are asking whether the Church of England has shot itself in the foot too by postponing a vote on women as bishops.
Most dioceses in the Church of England – 42 out of 44 – have already approved proposals for women bishops. This week, however, the General Synod voted to wait until November to make any decision on women bishops. The true effect of the manoeuvre was to frustrate a move presented by bishops as an eleventh-hour compromise but one that would allow parishes to seek oversight from male bishops where a diocese has a woman bishop.
The Church of England falls far behind many other Anglican churches in making decisions on women’s ministry. When the General Synod rejected the ordination of women in 1978, Una Kroll famously cried from the gallery: “We asked for bread and you gave us a stone.” When women were eventually ordained to the priesthood in the Church of England in 1994, the Church of Ireland was already ordaining women priests since 1990. Since Barbara Harris was consecrated in 1989, women have become Anglican bishops in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The Church of Ireland faces a series of episcopal elections later this year, and could possibly have its first woman bishop within the next 12 months.
This week’s decision is a setback for Archbishop Rowan Williams ahead of his retirement from Canterbury. Yet it may not be giving women a stone instead of bread. What was presented by the bishops as a concession and a compromise would enshrine discrimination and prejudice, potentially reducing any woman bishop – and any man who ordains women or who is ordained by a woman – to a second-class category. The same amendment would have been unpalatable had it pandered to anyone who rejects foreign-born bishops, black bishops or divorced bishops. When a woman becomes a bishop, she must be a bishop on the same terms as her male counterparts. Bishops are charged with being the focus of unity in their dioceses, and any “opt-out” clause that diminishes that role makes the prejudice of some more important than the unity of the church.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0711/1224319792886.html
Ordination of Deacon
Colin Darling will be ordained deacon (intern) on Sunday 26 August at 4.00pm in Saintfied Parish Church (Down and Dromore). The preacher at the service will be Very Revd John Dinnen.
Let’s all pray for end of rain, urges bishop
Independent – The apocalyptic Irish summer weather has prompted a bishop to call on his flock to pray for an end to the incessant rain.
Ferns Bishop Denis Brennan made the plea this week, the day after the cancellation of the county’s biggest agricultural show.
The Bannow Rathangan Show in Duncormick, Co Wexford, was called off due to the severely waterlogged surface.
Afterwards, Bishop Brennan said that prayers would be offered in parishes across the county this weekend, and this call to prayer to try and end our wet summer was reproduced in newsletters and parish websites.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lets-all-pray-for-end-of-rain-urges-bishop-3166676.html
One third of births in Ireland ‘outside marriage’
The baby boom continues.
http://www.thejournal.ie/cso-vital-statistics-marriage-births-death-516987-Jul2012/
Suicide in Ireland increased by 7 per cent last year
TheJournal.ie – New figures show 525 people took their own lives in Ireland in 2011.
http://www.thejournal.ie/number-suicides-ireland-cso-517632-Jul2012/
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0712/1224319860861.html
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/7-surge-in-people-taking-their-own-lives-200457.html
More men than ever contacting Irish family resource centres
Examiner – More men than ever before have accessed services at family resource centres around the country, but counselling hours have been reduced due to cutbacks. The Family Resource Centre National Forum met in Dublin this week to publish its annual report which showed an increased demand for services at a time when funding has been reduced.
Chairperson Claire Dineen said family resource centres needed to keep working in as many communities as possible to ensure no family in need fell through the cracks. Speaking at the publication of the report, which was launched by Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, Ms Dineen said more men and more teenagers were engaging with centres — the men because of growing employment and a need to use their skills; young people to access clubs that are an alternative to pubs.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/more-men-than-ever-contacting-resource-centres-200442.html