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Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Anglican Centre in Rome Appeal

Next week, the Bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory, the Rt Revd Michael Burrows, will be in Rome chairing a meeting of the Governors of the Anglican Centre there. This is the first time the Governors will have met in–person for two years. The Centre is something of an embassy in Rome for the whole Anglican Communion – a place of hospitality, study, witness and networking. Its Director, Archbishop Ian Ernest, former Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, is also the personal representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See.

The ACR was founded in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II with the support of a notable Roman family, the Doria Pamphilj, who wished to bring an Anglican voice into the conversations and the emerging ecumenical vision associated with the Eternal City. It is located on a floor of their Palace in the Piazza del Collegio Romano, still made available on the most generous terms. Its rooms contain the largest library of Anglican theology on mainland Europe; the Palace itself contains probably the finest art gallery in Rome in private hands.

The vision and value of the ACR remain unchanged, but Covid has created problems with the always very tight budget of the Centre. Few have been able to travel to Rome to use the accommodation or to join in courses, and with financial pressures in many local churches some income streams have dried up. The Governors are overseeing an Urgent Appeal for €200,000 to restore stability and to permit strategic planning. As always, the Church of Ireland is proving generous in its response. Perhaps Ireland, more than any other nation, knows from its own history the importance of the ecumenical vision symbolised by the ACR in terms of the will to Unity and its fruit in common action.

RTÉ Television will broadcast a service on Remembrance Sunday featuring clergy, singers and readers from Enniskillen from 11.10am while RTÉ Radio 1 Extra will be begin broadcasting at 11am. The service will be led by the Dean of Clogher, the Very Revd Kenneth Hall, and the preacher will be Monsignor Peter O’Reilly of St Michael’s Roman Catholic Church. 

In Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, tomorrow (Sunday) at 3.30pm the Cathedral Choir will sing Dururflé’s Requiem during a service of prayer and reflection on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic which will honour those who have died since Covid restrictions began.

The third concert recorded during the summer in Calary parish church, Co. Wicklow, is Titus et Bérénice by Rita Strohl performed by Annette Cleary (cello), Réamonn Keary (piano) and Barry McGovern (narrator). This concert will be released on YouTube next Thursday with a link from Derek Neilson at derek.neilson@eircom.net  

This year ‘Beckett in Foxrock’ has gone online and presents a specially commissioned filmed double bill. The Beckett Country, filmed in Dublin, interpreted and narrated by Dr Feargal Whelan, takes us to the places in Dublin which so influenced Beckett – from his birthplace in Foxrock  to Tullow church which he attended with his mother and where he won a prize of a Bible for ‘diligence’ while in Sunday School. Featured also are Trinity College and Carrickmines Golf Club where he mentally replayed the first four holes when, in later life, he couldn’t sleep. The second part of the double bill is Beckett’s darkly funny tale The End performed by Marcus Lamb. Tickets for this online only production are €10.00 and are now on sale until 30 November on TakeYourSeats.ie – search for Beckett in Foxrock.

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