The Church is pushing many away from the love of God – Bishop of Cork; Revd Canon Brian Mayne – a reliable and constant friend; Cardinal uses Christmas message to call for abortion protest; Church fire deliberate; Committee on X case law will report January
The Church is pushing many away from the love of God – Bishop of Cork
In a Christmas Sermon preached in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, the Right Reverend Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, said that, in his experience, as the Church as an institution is becoming increasingly all–consumed in an inward–looking, self–obsessed way with its own great matters, its proclamation of the love of Christ is being damaged and sadly the Church is pushing many away from the love of God.
Speaking about divisions and brokenness within the Church as it wrestles with issues which concern it, Bishop Colton said: ‘I have a great concern about one of the principal dangers of this brokenness. As we within the institution are increasingly all–consumed in an inward–looking, self–obsessed way with our own great matters, our proclamation of the love of Christ is being damaged. Many “out there” inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, are getting on with being as “Christ–like” as they can, but without the Church.
‘By its failure to love and include and embrace and to welcome and to love as Christ loved, the Church – or more pointedly, by our failure to love and include and embrace and to welcome and to love as Christ loved, we – we are driving many away from the baby in the manger, away from Jesus, into the arms of secularism and unbelief at worst, and into the fold of non–institutional, residual, post–Christian spirituality at best. It is my experience, fear and shame, that the Church is pushing many away from the love of God. ‘Yet, at the same time, the ministry of a broken Church should not alarm or dismay us – paradoxically, it should encourage us that the Church in its life and ministry has always manifested brokenness. Foolish as we are, with all are human weaknesses and vulnerabilities, all our own brokenness, God chooses all of us who are baptised and calls us to journey with him and to serve his people. ‘More important, has it not always been the vulnerability and suffering of the grown up Jesus at the time of his torture, suffering and execution that has given many inspiration and strength?’
Full text of Sermon available at www.churchofirelandcork.com
Revd Canon Brian Mayne – a reliable and constant friend
Bishop Harold Miller gave the address at the funeral service of The Revd Canon Brian Mayne in Down Cathedral on Sunday 23 December 2012.
Bishop Miller recalled, “One of the things I can hear Brian say at this point, in a rather firm way to a preacher at a funeral service is ‘Remember, the sermon at a funeral service is not a eulogy…it is a proclamation of the resurrection’.
“Well, Brian, as the one bit you didn’t plan, I want to totally agree, but I also want to say a little bit about Brian Mayne, because the life of Christ in the world is incarnational, and it is seen in people who are human like yourself.
“Brian was, for all who knew him well, a great, reliable and constant friend, above everything else. Brian, you were greatly loved, and you have friends who grieve today all over the world, especially in the world of liturgy. I have had messages this morning from people involved in the Church of England Liturgical Commission and the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation. It is not just that they will miss your expertise, they will miss you simply as ‘you’. Your former curates loved you, those whom you taught on the lay readership course speak warmly of you, those involved in the General Synod of the Church of Ireland and especially the Liturgical Advisory Committee will miss you profoundly, and speak warmly of you, even in those grumpy moments when you sighed and spoke your mind!”
The sermon is available at:
http://www.downanddromore.org/news/2012/12/Bishop-Harolds-Funeral-Address-for-Revd-Canon-Brian-Mayne?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+downanddromorenews+%28Down+and+Dromore+Diocese+%28News%29%29
Cardinal uses Christmas message to call for abortion protest
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1225/breaking1.html
PSNI say church fire suspicious
BBC – Police say a fire at a Catholic church in Whitehead, County Antrim, is being treated as suspicious.
It was discovered in a boiler house at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Victoria Avenue at about 03:40 GMT on Sunday.
Police said that the boiler house had been damaged as a result of the fire. It is expected repairs could cost thousands of pounds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20832148
Committee hopes to report to government on X Case law by end of January
The Oireachtas Health Committee will hold three days of public hearings in January with its chairman Jerry Buttimer urging that there be a “respectful and tolerant” debate.
http://www.thejournal.ie/health-committee-abortion-hearings-726991-Dec2012/