CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 16 January 1999
From: The
RCB Library
Email: RCB Library
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
There is from time to time an apparent weariness with
the annual Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. Some believe that the
churches have, or ought to have, moved beyond such formal and limited
exchanges of Christian fellowship, while for others the lack of real
progress towards unity in recent years has been such a profoundly
depressing experience that they are inclined to abandon old models of
behaviour and seek something fresh and dynamic.
In the particular context of Irish church and society
the events of the recent past suggest that any contacts between the
Churches, no matter how limited, ought to be maintained and built upon.
The continued tragedy of political division in Northern Ireland has bred
division not only between the Churches but also within the Church of
Ireland itself, while the discomfort and disappointment which has been
fostered by the publication of One Bread, One Body is all too evident.
Yet the Churches must go on, and this week the annual
round of shared worship in differnt shapes and forms and in various
places will again take place. On Wednesday the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr
Robin Eames, will attend an Octave of Unity service in St Patrick's
Cathedral, Armagh, while on Monday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton
Empey, will be in Centenary Methodist Church, Leeson Park, for the
inaugural service in the Dublin Council of Churches programme. Many such
events will be repeated throughout the country.
A somewhat different dimension will be apparent on
Thursday evening when the Sudan Suport Group will host an Inter Church
Service in Kill o' the Grange parish church where Peter Verney, editor
of Sudan Update, will speak on "Human Rights Abuses in Sudan".
Mr Verney worked as a teacher in the Sudan for twelve years but was
obliged to leave after the military coup in 1989 which brough to power a
fundamentalist Islamic regime. He has since addressed conferences in
Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, France and Germany on the plight of
the Sudan. On Wednesday evening he will speak in the Chapel of the
Theological College.
Another vehicle for unity, the Irish language, will
be employed in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on Friday evening when
Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (Irish Guild of the Church) and Pobal an
Aifrinn will host an interdenominational service of prayer and music in
Irish entitled "He will dwell with them as their God; they will be
his peoples". The preacher at this service will be the Rector of
Bray, the Revd Baden Stanley.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast Morning Service
from Rostrevor, Co. Down, conducted by the Revd Jim Sims. In St
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin the Archbishop of Dublin, as Prebendary of
Cualaun on the cathedral chapter, will be the preacher at the Sung
Eucharist. At Evensong, in St Patrick's Cathedral, the Dean, Dr Maurice
Stewart, will dedicate new lights for the choir. These have been
presented by his predecessor, Dr Victor Griffin, in memory of his wife
Daphne. Tomorrow (Sunday) will be the first anniversary of Mrs Griffin's
death and so an entirely appropriate occasion for the dedication of this
handsome memorial gift. The preacher will be Canon David Pierpoint, a
former chorister of St Patrick's, who has had a long association with
the life of the Cathedral.
On Wednesday the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at
a memorial service in Christ Church, Bray, for the Earl of Meath who was
a long time supporter of the work of the Dioceses of Dublin and
Glendalough.
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at
http://www.ireland.com/ |
