Press Releases
New edition of Search
Search: A Church of Ireland Journal will be out early in the first week in October.
This edition includes no less than ten articles on different styles of spirituality or ‘approaches to God’ as we might call them. The editor remarks that while the pilgrim paths might appear initially to be many, readers will find that they have more in common than expected. The goal, after all, is the same. On the evidence of these articles, one seeker will easily recognise another on the way.
The first article, ‘Walking the Labyrinth’, by Lauren Artress of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, encourages readers to join her in discovering the deep rewards of this ancient practice, whether in Chartres or the many locations to which it has spread. Returning home, we join Bishop Richard Henderson, always in demand to lead retreats of quiet days, to share in his preparations for such an event.
Two contributors offer views on the arts and religion: Anne Thurston explores three Seamus Heaney poems in relation to a Gospel story, noting the poet’s admirable sensitivity to God at work in human goodness. And Br. Cyprian Love, organist at Glenstal Abbey, offers further food for reflection in ‘Music as watching for Christ’.
The aim in this issue has been to offer a wide a variety of approach. It takes readers as far as the Eastern Mediterranean to learn from Patrick Comerford of his experience of the Orthodox tradition, and then returns to Northern Ireland for articles related to both New Wine and Affirming Catholicism from David McClay and George Irwin respectively.
Voices in Dublin, those of Eimhin Walshe and Greg Fromholz, chip in from our National Cathedral and New Expressions, both writers being deeply concerned to draw seekers alienated by institutional church life into a transformative experience of worship. The concluding article on ‘Centering Prayer’ by Carol Casey relates helpfully to the earlier contributions.
Sad to say, the book reviews in this issue will be the last from reviews editor, Stephen Farrell, who over the past three years has filled the role with distinction. Readers will rightly look forward to those commissioned by Ray Refaussé, formerly director of the RCB Library, who succeeds him.