The Poor – always with us?; TCD Chapel Choir Tour to Cavan; Bishop teams with journalist to explore ‘Soul of the Arctic’; Radio Ulster’s Sunday Service features the Dock Walk; Media review
The Poor – always with us?
This is the title of the next lunchtime lecture to be given at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Stranmillis Road, Belfast. This lecture takes the form of a conversation between Dr. Esmond Birnie, chief economist with Price Waterhouse Cooper in Northern Ireland, and Revd.300-207
Dr. Scott Peddie, minister at Templepatrick Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.
The two participants will explore a Christian response to the dilemma that faces both the Stormont Assembly and the Westminster government, namely the need to protect the poor at a time of economic cuts, and the seemingly conflicting challenge of fiscal rectitude and reducing the UK’s enormous current borrowing requirement.
Dr Birnie was senior lecturer in economics at Queen’s University before being elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 where he served until 2007. He was subsequently a special advisor to Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey. He is a past chair of the Assembly’s Employment and Learning Committee and is the author of a number of publications on aspects of the Northern Ireland, Irish and European economies.
Dr. Peddie is active with Christians Against Poverty in Northern Ireland. He has also worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers and as an animal health economist at the Scottish Agricultural College (with a particular focus on fish health economics). Since 2004, he has been Director of Patterson Peddie Consulting Ltd, a publishing, consulting and training company delivering a broad range of services to the international aquaculture industry.
Everyone is welcome at this event, which commences at 1.10 p.m. on Tuesday January 22. It will include a time for questions. Light refreshments will also be available.
TCD Chapel Choir Tour to Cavan
The Trinity College Dublin Chapel Choir will travel to Cavan this weekend (12 – 13 January) for their first tour of 2013. On Saturday 12 January they will sing at the 7.30pm Vigil Mass in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick and Saint Felim in Cavan town. On Sunday they will sing at the Morning Service in Cavan Parish Church (part of the Urney Group), where Canon Mark Lidwill is Rector. The TCD Dean of Residence, the Revd Darren McCallig, will preach.
Bishop teams with journalist to explore ‘Soul of the Arctic’
A chance meeting between two local people with a passion for the Arctic has led to a talk in the St Patrick Centre, Downpatrick on Wednesday 9 January.
Local sailor Brian Black from Kilclief (right), with eight Arctic expeditions in his wake, is to team up with the Rt Revd Darren McCartney who is about to take up his post as Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of the Arctic on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Their talk, with slides and videos, will look at issues affecting the region, ranging from climate change and melting glaciers to the social and spiritual challenges that lie ahead for Bishop Darren.
Radio Ulster’s Sunday Service features the Dock Walk
There is an opportunity on BBC iPlayer to listen to the Sunday Service of Sunday 6 January on Radio Ulster, in which Revd Chris Bennett, chaplain to Titanic Quarter, walks around the area with some of his friends reflecting on various…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ppphd/Morning_Service_06_01_2013/
Media review
Politicians and church leaders press for resolution
Irish Times – Efforts continued over the weekend to end the violence in Belfast. Politicians and church leaders held talks at the Rev Mervyn Gibson’s Westbourne Presbyterian Church in an attempt to find a compromise. But Robin Newton, of the Democratic Unionist …
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0107/1224328508019.htmlhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0107/1224328508019.html
Church to bring abortion concerns to Coalition
Irish Times – A bilateral meeting between the church and Government Ministers is scheduled for next week as part of an ongoing “structured dialogue” process, while the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference will appear before the Oireachtas health committee on Thursday …
Church’s abortion broadside a challenge to democracy
Irish Times – The Catholic church appears intent on a confrontation with the democratically elected politicians of this State going by recent statements in advance of the Oireachtas committee hearings on the abortion issue which begin on Tuesday.070-417
Dublin Palestrina Choir sings in Papal Mass
RTE News
/news/2013/0106/dublin-palestrina-choir-singing-in-papal-mass.html
Sex has lost its sanctity, says Liam Neeson
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sex-has-lost-its-sanctity-says-neeson-3343455.html