Vision of new Irish Girl Guides Chief Commissioner; Queen’s C of I Theological lectures; C of I group weighs in behind gay marriage; Amnesty looks to courts on gay marriage in N. Ireland
‘We can change our world’, says new Irish Girl Guides Chief Commissioner
New Guiding chief will strive to give girls confidence
“We can change our world,” the new Irish Girl Guides (IGG) Chief Commissioner said today [Saturday 13th April]. “We can give our girls confidence to create change, however small or big those changes are.”
Speaking, following her official appointment at the annual IGG Council Meeting in Dublin, Helen Concannon said “our world” could mean the local community or a wider forum.
Telling Council members she had “dreamed of changing the world” in her teens, now in her mid-thirties she still held onto that idealism, believing IGG should continue to become “a stronger, responsive and innovative organisation” that moved with the trends and was responsive to the world we lived in.
“The time is ripe for Guiding to extend to every girl the fundamental principles that we hold so dear: that all human beings are created equal, that we share this planet and that we must become responsible citizens,” she said. “Volunteering plays a role in creating this and that’s why you and I – we – all play a role in helping the girls to identify and make these changes.”
Concannon joined IGG when she enrolled as a Brownie in her local unit in Furbo, Co Galway, at age eight. She has been involved in the organisation ever since, taking her first international Guiding steps in her late teens and early twenties when she went to the Republic of Georgia five times to help develop Guiding there and to work with displaced refugees. This work earned her several accolades, including a Civic Merit Award from President McAleese in 2006 and a Galway Person of the Year Award in 2008.
Following this, she participated in various overseas Guiding service projects, including a year working as Assistant Programme Manager at Sangam World Centre in India. To date, she has represented IGG at events in over 10 countries.
Since settling in Dublin 12 years ago, she became involved with the local Guide unit in Swords and began volunteering with Friends of Londiani, a charity that works in Ireland and Africa. Her day job is teaching Sciences at Killinarden Community School in Tallaght.
During her acceptance speech, Concannon described herself as “a believer in IGG” and she paid tribute to the “extraordinary” Guiding leaders who had helped shape her life. “It is from them that I gained the confidence and sense of possibility that sustained me,” she said. “They allowed me to believe we could – and therefore must – create a world in which every girl and woman has access to the resources needed to shape their own lives and become responsible citizens.”
IGG was at “an exciting time” today. “We are a growing organisation, we have a new programme being developed, we have a new strategic plan and we have recently enjoyed positive celebrations of IGG’s centenary,” she said, concluding, “We can look forward confidently: I have always believed that IGG is not just an organisation – it is a movement. As your Chief Commissioner, I will try my best to ensure that IGG continues to move with the times and be responsive to the world we live in. This is not just an honour: it is a wonderful opportunity to work with inspiring women – women who dedicate their time to help develop the girls and young women in communities all over Ireland.”
Outgoing Chief Commissioner Emer O’Sullivan – a native of Ballina, Co Mayo – said it had been “an honour and a privilege” to lead “this wonderful organisation” during her two terms of office. “During my six years as Chief Commissioner, IGG has, amongst other things, developed as a more inclusive organisation, modernised its logo and uniforms and increased its membership. We celebrated IGG’s centenary and launched the next century of Guiding with a large international camp. All these things are due to the huge effort from a large number of volunteers all over the country.”
Queen’s C of I Theological lectures – President of Tearfund, Dr Elaine Storkey
The Rev Barry Forde, Chaplain at the C of I Centre at Queen’s University says, “Join us for what promises to be two evenings of thought provoking and engaging insights as author, theologian, broadcaster, and President of Tearfund, Dr Elaine Storkey asks us to think about what it means to be ‘living in a material world’. What does it mean for life, economics, and ethics to be founded on secular and material assumptions? What does the Christian faith have to say, and indeed offer, that is any more coherent for the 21st century world…”
Hosted by the Church of Ireland at Queen’s University the annual Theological Lectures are a highlight of both the Church and Campus calendar alike. “We shall be joined on Monday evening by the Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, Sir Peter Gregson, along with the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy” added Mr Forde.
April 22 & 23, 2013. Time: 06:00pm. Place: Geography Building, Queen’s University Belfast, opposite The Hub on Elmwood Avenue
http://www.thehubbelfast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Elaine-Storkey-Lecture-and-Lunch-Flyer.jpg
C of I group weighs in behind gay marriage
Irish Independent – A Church of Ireland pressure group says marriage should be extended to same-sex couples.
Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI) has also said that children being raised by same-sex couples “need the protection of marriage”.
CAI, formed in 2007, has told the Irish Independent that it is “quite indignant” that it was not afforded the opportunity to make oral submissions at today’s Constitutional Convention, which is debating whether same-sex marriage should be voted on in a referendum.
A gay marriage referendum is expected to be given the green light, with leading Fine Gael figures, including Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald and party chairman Charlie Flanagan weighing in behind the proposal.
“The tide is definitely turning all over the Western world and it is turning in Ireland, too,” said Canon Charles Kenny, secretary of the CAI.
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has described marriage equality as the biggest civil rights issue and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has also supported gay marriage. Fianna Fail’s four delegates will be supporting the proposal to extend marriage to same-sex couples.
CNI – Changing Attitude Ireland has made a written submission to the Convention. Here is the Executive Summary:
• CAI strongly supports the extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples.
• The existing inequalities between civil partnership and civil marriage have a realworld detrimental impact on the lives of same-sex couples, and even more on children being raised by them.
• Allowing churches and other faith groups to ‘opt in’ to registering same-sex marriages, while protecting them from any attempt at compulsion, is the best way to respect the religious freedoms of both those who support and those who oppose same-sex marriage. This is particularly important in the Irish context, where there is a history of civil marriage law being used to discriminate against religious minorities.
• Like many other Christian bodies, CAI supports marriage equality not despite its faith background, but because of it, believing marriage and stable relationships to be one of the bedrocks of society.
• Although there is significant faith opposition to marriage equality, this must be understood in the light of the long Christian history of opposition to equality under the law and outright homophobia.
For full submission see:
https://www.constitution.ie/AttachmentDownload.ashx?aid=71bc71a7-5991-e211-a5a0-005056a32ee4
Amnesty looks to courts on gay marriage in N. Ireland
Amnesty International and a Northern Irish campaign group, Rainbow Project, have announced plans to collaborate in an effort to create legalised gay “marriage” in the province through the courts.
The two groups have vowed to bring a human rights legal action against the Northern Ireland government “on the basis of inferior treatment of same sex couples in Northern Ireland with regards to the right to marry and found a family.”
As with the 1967 Abortion Act, Northern Ireland would be exempt from Westminster’s same-sex “marriage” bill that was passed in the House of Commons in February but is still in committee in the House of Lords.
Patrick Corrigan, program director for Amnesty in Northern Ireland, told the Guardian newspaper that a lawsuit is “inevitable” because international law is “clear” that individual territories must provide marriage if the rest of the country does.
So far, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Alliance and Green parties support the redefinition of marriage, but the Ulster Unionists and Democratic Unionists remain opposed. In October last year, a motion brought forward by Sinn Féin and the Green Party to redefine marriage was defeated in a close vote in the Assembly, 50 votes to 45.