Revd GM Kingston; Police and fire games memorial service; Petition calls for chaplains move at Antrim hospital to be scrapped; Fine Gael minister backs gay marriage referendum; Shrink who said he could ‘cure’ gays wants us to act more like wolves; Meeting with Bishop Casey led to revelations; 49-year-old Nulty becomes country’s youngest Catholic bishop
Revd GM Kingston
The death has taken place of the Reverend Mervyn Kingston, a founding member of Changing Attitude Ireland. The following information has kindly been provided to CNI by Richard his civil partner.
KINGSTON, George Mervyn Revd. on 2nd August 2013 late of Seahill, Holywood, Co. Down.
Former rector of Creggan and Ballymascanlon group of parishes. Dearly missed by his civil partner
Richard O’Leary, sister Jill, cousins and friends.
Funeral service 11am Tuesday 6th Holy Trinity church, Glencraig, Craigavad, BT18 0DA. Followed by burial 3pm Down Cathedral Downpatrick
No flowers, donations instead to Changing Attitude Ireland, Memorial building, 9-13 Waring St. Belfast BT1 2DX.
The LORD watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.
Police and fire games memorial service
BBC news – A special memorial service has been held in Belfast on Sunday evening as part of the World Police and Fire Games.
The service remembered colleagues who have lost their lives on duty in the fire, police and prison services in Northern Ireland and beyond.
It was held at St Anne’s Cathedral
The games, which involve 6,700 international competitors, were officially opened on Thursday.
Competitors from 67 countries are taking part in sports ranging from wrist wrestling to the “toughest competitor alive” contest.
Sunday’s sermon was given by the Very Reverend John Mann, the dean of Belfast.
“Thank you for bringing these games to the green hills and sparkling waters and lush playing fields and sometimes even blue skies of our very special corner of Ireland and for being part of the life of this place for these days, enriching us with your presence and helping us to remember those who have served in their role in a police, fire or prison service somewhere in the world, but have made the ultimate sacrifice for others,” he said.
“Those individuals we recall today, in solemnity and gratitude, as we pray for their families with thanksgiving for their life, because of what they have endured and continue to suffer.
“Those who have not suffered cannot begin to understand what courage it takes to forgive, what tears of grief continue to come from wounds too deep for words.”
Rev Mann said Belfast was a changing city.
“This city, that has seen so much division and still periodically consumes itself in fruitless and destructive violent protest and individual sectarian attacks; is, nonetheless, a place of healing,” he said.
“It is not healed, it is a place of healing.”
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23567430
Petition calls for chaplains move at Antrim hospital to be scrapped
News Letter – Thousands of names have been added to a petition calling for the Northern Trust to abandon their new chaplaincy model – which assigns clerics to different wards of Antrim Area Hospital regardless of the religious affiliation of the patients therein.
The petition was started in the Presbytery of Tyrone by Presbyterian church members who “voiced their concern about the new chaplaincy model”.
Moderator of the Tyrone Presbytery, the Rev David Brownlow, said many Presbyterian patients were now not being seen by the Presbyterian chaplains, unless they specifically requested to see them.
Fine Gael minister backs gay marriage referendum
Irish Examiner – A Fine Gael minister has backed the idea of a referendum next year on extending marriage rights to same sex couples.
Brian Hayes, minister of state at the Department of Finance, says he has “no problem” with a poll on the constitutional change, despite some in the Fine Gael top brass being wary of the issue.
Mr Hayes is the most senior Fine Gael minister to come out, specifically, in support of a referendum in 2014. And he joins Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar in saying he would vote yes in a gay marriage poll.
The constitutional convention[/url] of citizens and politicians set-up to consider a wide-ranging national reform agenda voted by nearly four-to-one to hold a referendum on gay marriage equality, and the Cabinet is due to make a formal response to the proposal in October.
Mr Hayes said the equality move had his support.
“If the Cabinet agrees that we should have a referendum then I have no problem with it being held next year and will definitely be voting yes,” he said.
Read more:
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/fine-gael-minister-backs-gay-marriage-referendum-238823.html
Shrink who said he could ‘cure’ gays wants us to act more like wolves
Belfast Telegraph – Liam Carke writes – The psychiatrist who claimed to be able to cure homosexuals is now offering counselling drawing on the ‘wisdom of wolves’ from a new base in Holywood.
The Wisdom Of Wolves is a book by Twyman Towery, an American management guru and motivational speaker. It advocates creating a pack spirit in business, claiming “the strength of the wolf is in the pack and the strength of the pack is in the wolf”.
Dr Paul Miller, who can only practise under the supervision of another doctor of consultant grade or higher, believes that Towery’s doctrine has applications in psychiatry.
He has a new private clinic called Mirabilis operating from the Co Down town.
Its website praises wolf packs for hunting their prey efficiently.
“Wolves do not aimlessly run around their intended victims, yipping and yapping. They have a strategic plan and execute it through constant communication. When the moment of truth arrives, each understands his role and understands exactly what the pack expects of him,” it says.
Dr Miller is better known for his controversial gay cure philosophy and his role as a former adviser of Iris Robinson, the shamed DUP MP who retired from politics in 2009 after a sex scandal and mental breakdown.
Meeting with Bishop Casey led to revelations
Irish Times – Peter Murphy tells how stepfather confronted Bishop of Galway
A frosty reception from Bishop Eamon Casey and his then comparatively affluent circumstances in Galway prompted the 1992 call to The Irish Times which disclosed that he had a son.
In 1989, when Peter was 16, he, his mother Annie Murphy and her then partner Arthur Pennell moved from the US to Kinsale, Co Cork.
“We originally thought we were going to move to Scotland, ” Peter said in a recent interview with The Irish Times. “He was from Edinburgh. It was the early Nineties.They got the idea then, ‘let’s try Ireland’. Next thing you know we bought a house in Kinsale.”
Read more:
49-year-old Nulty becomes country’s youngest Catholic bishop
The Journal.ie – The cleric asked the congregation to pray for the loved ones of Eoghan and Ruairí Chada from nearby Bagnalstown Parish in his ordination ceremony at Carlow Cathederal.
Read more: