Clergy Conference blends head and heart; MU Branch celebrates 90 years;Kilbroney Centre’s new website; Services in Irish at Christ Church Cathedral; Education focus at Dublin Synod; Derry institution; Events this week; Media review – Concern at role of NI Attorney General re abortion clinic; Northern Ireland: ‘Groping its way towards the modern era’; Gladys Ganiel finds happiness amid academics, athletics; Three-quarters of voters to back children’s poll
Clergy Conference blends head and heart
The Down and Dromore Clergy Conference which took place in Co Donegal from 15 to 18 October, welcomed as its speakers the author and social critic Dr Os Guinness and Michele Guinness, author, speaker and freelance journalist.
The time away together, a biannual event, is an opportunity for leaders in the diocese to be refreshed by worship, Bible teaching, discussion and relaxation. This year’s large group included Church Army evangelists, parish workers, clergy spouses, Bishop Bill Love and several clergy couples from our link diocese of Albany. Bishop Harold welcomed other specially invited guests, including the Methodist President Elect, Canon Dr Heather Morris.
A programme of seminars ran on Tuesday and Wednesday covering topics relevant to ministry and the conference enjoyed a regular pattern of worship with a mixture of musical styles lead by Alison Cadden and Revd Mark Harvey.
The Revd Canon Bob Haskell, from Albany, reflecting on the few days, spoke for many when he described the conference as, “a wonderful blend of head and heart.”
The ‘heart’ came from Michele, who grew up in a practising Jewish home and married Peter, a Church of England minister who, like Os, is a great great grandson of the famous brewer, Arthur Guinness. She gave the Bible readings under the title, ‘The Invitation to the Party’ and drew on her rich Jewish heritage and northern humour to issue a serious challenge to the church – to rediscover the fun and people–loving Creator and make celebration a way of life.
Os Guinness spoke with the utmost clarity on the theme, ‘Serving God’s Purpose in our Generation’. Os left participants with deep questions to ponder but in no doubt about God’s power to restore and revive Christian faith in the West. “Why not again?” was his challenge to us all.
Other highlights included celebrating Canon Norman Jardine’s 65th birthday, a lively table quiz (in which Bishop Harold’s team came a humble second) and commissioning the team which left for Sudan on Sunday 21 October. It was also the last opportunity as gathered diocesan clergy and leaders to send off with their prayers, Bishop Darren and Karen McCartney who leave for the Arctic in January 2013 and Revd John and Rebekah Ewart who will head for East Asia with OMF International next July.
MU Branch celebrates 90 years
In early October the Seagoe Branch (Portadown) of the Mothers’ Union celebrated the 90th anniversary of it’s founding.
Branch leader, Winnie McLoughlin, organised an afternoon tea party in the Parish Centre for members and invited guests. Approximately 90 attended, including three ladies from the MU in Seagoe’s link parish of Zion, Dublin. In addition to the refreshments, the MU committee had organised a variety of entertainment co–ordinated by the Girls’ Brigade Acting Captain, Jenny Chambers. The girls of the Brigade performed a variety of musical pieces, as did some invited guests.
At 7.00 pm Members and friends gathered in Church, together with the regular congregation, to celebrate the anniversary and Harvest Thanksgiving. Revd Canon Robert Howard (Diocesan Chaplain) addressed the gathering near the start of the service. Mrs. Roberta Rogers (Diocesan President) read one of the scripture passages and Lady Christine Eames (former World–wide President) gave the address. All present thoroughly enjoyed the events and prayed that Mothers’ Union will continue to flourish in Seagoe.
The parish has a large and active branch of approximately 80 members. Members contribute significantly to the life of the church and an anniversary initiative has been a committment to encourage new families. Members of the Mother’s Union will present those who bring their children for thanksgiving or Baptism with a useful book of prayers and scripture readings by members of the MU. Anniversary cards will also be sent to them for the years following until they are old enough to attend Sunday School.
Winnie McLoughlin presented the first two such books at a recent Baptism service in church. In addition Winnie was presented with one of the babies to carry round the church during the congregation’s welcome of the newly baptised.
Kilbroney Centre’s new website
The Church of Ireland residential Centre at Kilbroney (Co.Down) is undergoing several changes as part of its new vision and plans for the future. It has just launched a new website.
The Centre, which has been used by church groups for over 30 years, is now being managed under a new Board with the responsibility for expanding the potential of the ministry at Kilbroney.
This includes plans to expand the capacity of the Centre (from 55 to 78 beds) as well as providing new activities at the site for visiting groups to use.
The Centre in Rostrevor is in the parish of Kilbroney, in the Diocese of Down and Dromore. The aim of the Centre is to help provide a positive residential experience for groups staying there. Especially, but not exclusively, those groups who work with children and young people.
www.kilbroneycentre.org
Services in Irish at Christ Church Cathedral
Holy Communion will be celebrated in Irish in Christ Church Cathedral on Monday October 22 at 12.45 pm. A bilingual service of Evensong (in Irish and English) will take place in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday November 25 at 3.30 pm.
Education focus at Dublin Synod
Archbishop Jackson addressed Synods on changes taking place in the Church of Ireland College of Education. He pointed out that although located in Dublin, the College was not in any way the responsibility or the remit of the Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan Synods. Board Members were strictly bound by the requirement of confidentiality and this obtained at all times.
Delivering the report of the Diocesan Board of Education, Rachel Fraser (management committee) spoke of a very difficult year with small schools under threat and special needs assistance being squeezed. She said they were aware that cuts had to be made and that there was no money to cushion small schools. She also spoke of the Our School Community Survey which found that patronage and ethos of a school were very important to Protestant parents. However, she said: “We must not erode the goodwill by constant grumbling and unwillingness to adapt. We must be the drivers of change rather than wait for change to be visited upon us”.
Seconding the report, Canon Peter Campion (Kings Hospital) congratulated East Glendalough School on celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and commended all who had worked on the bid for the new secondary school in Greystones. He thanked Greg Fromholz and Susie Keane of 3Rock for all the work they had done with the youth of the dioceses. He stated that fee–paying schools were not elitist and actually ended up costing the tax payer less per student than State schools. He suggested that entirely private education would result in considerably increased fees which many parents could not afford and private schools would become smaller and economically elitist.
Speaking to the report Susan Hall (Malahide) said that what separated a democracy from a totalitarian state was that citizens had a choice. She said she would be against fee paying schools if the alternative State schools were sub–standard. But she said in Ireland the standard of State schools was excellent thus providing parents with a choice.
Revd Norman Gamble (Malahide) expressed concern on the definition of a small school with reference to the Value for Money Report on small schools which is still ongoing. He said 59 pupils seemed to be the magic number for grants and a reduction on this would put small schools in an extremely difficult financial situation possibly resulting in closure. He added that education was the sector in greatest crisis in society at the moment.
Glascott Symes (Kings Hospital) pointed out that some children had to rely on grants to attend a fee paying school of their ethos. He said that higher schools fees and lower grants would result in fewer pupils and negotiation was needed to ensure that children of less well off families could attend private schools. He warned that unless urgent action was taken most schools would be changed irrevocably.
Dr Ken Fennelly (Board of Education) said that Temple Carrig School in Greystones would open in September 2014 and building was due to start in the new year. He said more information would be available on templecarrig.ie in due course.
Brian Good (Tallaght) commended the report to Synods. Revd Stephen Farrell (Zion) said parishes were facing up to new ideas and realities and that the challenge was to look at how the Church of Ireland ethos and what the church had to offer could be brought to bear in central schools rather than simply saying no.
Ken Stanley (Castledermot) said that at a time when the Roman Catholic church was trying tentatively to disengage in part from a monopoly on education in Ireland, it was time to stop obsessing with ethos.
The report of the Diocesan Board of Education was accepted by Synods.
Derry institution
This evening the Bishop of Derry will institute Canon David Ferry to the incumbency of Balteagh group of parishes.
Events this week
On Tuesday evening at 7.30pm in the Knox Hall, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, the actor Frank Kelly, will launch a novel by the retired Church of Ireland clergyman, Patrick Semple. Transient Beings is a story of country parish life in rural Ireland of the 1970s.
The Derry & Raphoe Diocesan Synod will be held in Ballybofey, on Wednesday. In the evening in St Mary’s cathedral, the Revd Sandra Pragnell will be installed as Dean of Limerick while in Dublin City Library and Archive, at 6.30pm, the Very Revd Dr Robert MacCarthy will address the Old Dublin Society on the subject of St Patrick’ cathedral. In Ferns, Canon Patrick Comerford, Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy & Church History in CITI, will speak at a meeting of the Ferns Ecumenical Group in Saint Mogue’s Cottage on the present state of the Church of Ireland.
On Thursday at 8pm in Belvedere House, Mullingar, Dr Kevin Mulligan will give a lecture on the restoration of Ballyfin House, in aid of the Kilbixy church restoration fund, and at the same time on Friday the Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir will give a concert in Kilternan parish church.
MEDIA REVIEW
Concern over NI Attorney General’s role re abortion clinic
A justice committee member has insisted the body has no power to investigate Northern Ireland’s first private abortion clinic — despite being asked to do so by the Attorney General.
Sinn Fein’s Raymond McCartney said that the only body with the power to launch an investigation is the PSNI….
….It also emerged yesterday that Northern Ireland’s Attorney General John Larkin, who is the chief legal adviser to the Stormont executive, had written to the Justice Committee inviting them to investigate the operations of the Belfast clinic.
Mr Larkin said that while in his official capacity he cannot intervene, in his non-statutory role as guardian of the rule of law he can become engaged.
He also said he would be happy to give every possible assistance including acting as counsel and questioning witnesses on their behalf.
However, Mr McCartney said he was uncertain if Mr Larkin’s offer to act as counsel and question witnesses on the committee’s behalf as part of an investigation would be appropriate.
Larkin abortion comments ‘wrong’
Sinn Fein describes comments made by attorney general John Larkin four years ago comparing abortion to shooting a baby as “totally wrong”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20010143
Northern Ireland: ‘Groping its way towards the modern era’
Irish Times – This week’s opening in Belfast of the Marie Stopes sexual- and reproductive-health clinic, which will offer early medical abortions to eligible clients, has sparked an intense and emotive debate in Northern Ireland. The most heated arguments have been between religiously motivated anti-abortion supporters – both Catholic and Protestant – and pro-choice campaigners, who largely speak from a secular, rights-based perspective. The bigger picture appears to show a chasm between traditional social conservatism and a new, progressive liberalism in the North, with unexpected alliances being formed beyond the old sectarian divisions.
The truth may be more complicated than that. Graham Walker, professor of political history at Queen’s University Belfast, says abortion has always brought together fundamentalist Protestants and right-wing Catholics in Northern Ireland. “When I first came to Belfast in the early 1980s, Ian Paisley was joining nuns in the picket outside the Brook [sexual-health] clinic in the city centre. It was a very tense time during the Troubles, but here you had Roman Catholics lining up with Paisley in an alliance of convenience. So it’s nothing new.”
Northern Ireland is becoming a more secular society, with surveys of church attendance showing decades of decline. A 2010 report by Bernadette Hayes and Lizanne Dowds, for the Economic and Social Research Council, found while two-thirds of the adult …
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/1020/1224325495479.html
Gladys Ganiel finds happiness amid academics, athletics
Bangor (Maine) Daily News – Ganiel is assistant professor and coordinator of the Irish School of Ecumenism’s Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation program. In that role she works in the disciplines of anthropology, sociology and politics while conducting research in such areas as the Northern Ireland conflict, evangelicalism, Christianity in Ireland and charismatic Christianity in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Ganiel also has written numerous journal articles and opinion pieces, and pens a regular blog for “Building a Church Without Walls,” a website for people interested in how Christianity is developing in the 21st century. She also has completed two books and has two more in the works.
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/10/19/sports/down-east-native-gladys-ganiel-finds-happiness-amid-academics-athletics-in-northern-ireland/
Three-quarters of voters to back children’s poll
Irish Independent – Almost three-quarters of voters are going to back the children’s referendum — with just three weeks to go to polling day.
A Red C opinion poll found that 74pc of people are going to vote Yes, with just 4pc planning to vote No.
It is the first clear assessment of public opinion ahead of polling day on Saturday, November 10 — and will be a boost for the Yes campaign.
But 22pc of people are still undecided about how they will vote, and there is still a lack of awareness about what the children’s referendum is about.
Around 61pc of people said they were either “not at all knowledgeable” or “not very knowledgeable” about it.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/threequarters-of-voters-to-back-childrens-poll-3265643.html
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