Focolare Movement President to speak in Belfast Cathedral; Archbishop of Dublin’s address to National Schools Patron’s Day; US Presbyterian Committee on Northern Ireland honoured; Vacancies with Love for Life; 800 Irish Childline calls go unanswered every day; Abuse victim uses pulpit to urge atonement; Irish tricolour flies over Portora Royal school
Focolare Movement President to speak in Belfast Cathedral
Dr Maria Voce, President of the International Focolare Movement, will be speaking in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on Thursday June 14.
Dr Voce, from Coscenza, Italy, is in Ireland to speak at the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.
The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev John Mann, said her visit to Belfast for this Service of Prayerful Reflection would be ‘a wonderful chance for many people to hear a prophetic voice addressing the subject of what we understand by Communion.’
Dr Voce will speak on the subject ‘Building Communion through a Culture of Trust.’ Dean Mann said: “This in itself is indicative of not only The Focolare’s insistence on the core Christian desire for unity, but that that is found in its joy as much as its pain in the discovery that trust, risk in the offer of love, and abandonment into the hands of others on the pattern of our Lord is the way to progress through the self–imposed barriers that only too often surround us.”
The Focolare Movement was founded in Italy during World War Two and is now present in 198 countries throughout the world. It has given rise to many social projects and relationships between people of different ethnic background, religion and conviction.
Dr Voce has been the Movement’s President since the death of its founder, Chiara Lubich, in 2008. She has made dialogue and building relationships of trust a key priority of her Presidency.
During her visit to St Anne’s, Dr Voce will speak in Italian and her words will be translated. There will be a brief liturgy by the Cathedral and the Focolare.
The service begins at 5pm and all are welcome.
Archbishop of Dublin’s address to National Schools Patron’s Day
The Dublin and Glendalough Patron’s Day took place in the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley, and addressed the theme: ‘Challenging Times for our Schools’. A range of topics were covered during the day including school self–evaluation and an overview of changes in the recruitment process. Participants also had an opportunity to discuss issues facing schools under Protestant patronage.
Addressing the gathering, Archbishop Michael Jackson said:
“In speaking with those who are at the forefront of education in the National Schools of these United Dioceses, I want first to thank you for the work you do daily and also to express my hope that it remains enjoyable. Every time I meet and talk about education, it is a conversation in crisis mode. It is also, from what I can see, a conversation about something which is a moving target. My fear is that we might too easily be sucked into seeing education as a problem area and nothing else; and therefore we might prevent ourselves from seeing beyond the problem. Of course, I do realize that the problems are real and dig deep. But I also realize that teachers are a gift to education and I never want such a perspective to be lost.”
The remainder of the Archbishop’s speech – see –
http://dublin.anglican.org/news/2012/05/Archbishops-Address-to-Dublin-and-Glendalough-National-Schools-Patrons-Day.php
US Presbyterian Committee on Northern Ireland honoured
The Northern Ireland Bureau, the voice of Northern Ireland in Washington, D.C., hosted a dinner recently to honour members of the US Presbyterian Committee on Northern Ireland (PCNI) for their 20 years of work to aid the peace process in the once troubled British province.
“It’s a nice tribute from them that they appreciate what we’ve done,” says The Rev. Jim Macdonnell, a retired Presbyterian minister and PCNI president.
Catherine Bell, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education in Northern Ireland, and Norman Houston, the Executive Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, spoke at the event. Sixteen former board members from the PCNI from across the United States attended.
The PCNI was started in the late 1980s out of concern for the extreme violence in Northern Ireland resulting from a violent ongoing fight between paramilitary groups centred around Protestant loyalists and Roman Catholic nationalists ― a 30 year struggle known as “The Troubles.”
http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/4/30/presbyterian-committee-northern-ireland-honored/
Vacancies with Love for Life
The charity, ‘Love for Life,’ is offering two job opportunities in their Programme Delivery Team. There is one permanent contract and one lasting from September 2012–June 2013 (career break opportunity). These vacancies are ideal for individuals with a heart to help young people develop a healthy respect for themselves, for relationships and sex. If you are interested in either post please request an information pack by contacting the office:
info@loveforlife.org.uk
Tel: (028) 38 820555
Closing date is Thursday 24 May 2012 at 5.00pm.
800 Irish Childline calls go unanswered every day
Irish Times – More than 800 phone calls from youngsters in desperate need of support went unheard every day last year, a children’s charity has revealed.
The ISPCC’s Childline helpline received about 2,360 calls and messages a day in 2011, but more than a third (38 per cent) of calls went unanswered. The charity claimed poor funding was the biggest barrier to manning the phones and taking every call.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0521/breaking30.html
Abuse victim uses pulpit to urge atonement
Irish Examinser – A survivor of industrial school abuse, who took to the pulpit to call for a national day of atonement, has urged priests to give survivors an opportunity to speak to their fellow parishioners. On the third anniversary of the publication of the Ryan Report into child abuse, Christopher Heaphy spoke to the congregation at Aglish Church in west Co Waterford at 11am Mass yesterday about how he and his two brothers spent a total of 35 years at Greenmount, Passage West, and Lota industrial schools in Cork.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/abuse-victim-uses-pulpit-to-urge-atonement-194583.html
Irish tricolour flies over Portora Royal school
Belfast Telegraph – An Irish tricolour has been raised at a ‘royal school’ as a way of ‘’reclaiming Ireland”. But it was just a prank by A-level students of Enniskillen’s Portora Royal School who also erected photographs of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and hunger-striker Bobby Sands around the school.
Principal Neill Morton said he believed the pupils were “reminding the world that Portora Royal School is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious schools in the UK that pre-dates the establishment of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and belongs to the world”.
“It was not a case of the Republic claiming Portora, rather Portora was reclaiming Ireland,” he told the Impartial Reporter, adding that the A-level students were back studying for their exams to enable them to secure places in the “world’s top universities”.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/irish-tricolour-flies-over-portora-royal-school-16161580.html