Irish Times Notes05 May 18

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

General Synod to meet in Armagh

The General Synod begins in Armagh City Hotel next Thursday morning and continues until Saturday. The preacher at the Synod Service in St Patrick’s cathedral on Thursday morning will be the Bishop of Clogher and the Synod’s chaplain will be Canon Shane Forster.

In addition to the reports of the Standing Committee and the RCB, the Synod will consider proposed legislation for an order for Morning and Evening Prayer for use on Sundays, for adult safeguarding, and for ecumenical and lay canons for St Fin Barre’s cathedral. There will also be bills to provide for the future unification of the Diocese of Limerick & Killaloe and Tuam, Killala & Achonry, and to amend the diocesan representation at Synod.

On Thursday, in the context of the report of the Standing Committee, there will be a launch of a new prayer app. This is an initiative of the Bishop of Meath and Kildare and has been developed through the Central Communications Board.

A book of reflections, by the Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory, on the subject of the empowerment of women through literacy will be launched on Thursday. Over seven days in September 2017, Bishop Burrows visited 66 churches and schools giving a short sermon at each venue related to one of the 66 books of the Bible. The sermons provide a 2017 social, spiritual snapshot as well as an insight into the Church of Ireland mind set of the present day.

The Council for Mission will have a Mission Breakfast on Friday morning at which the guest speaker will be the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland. John Bell, a member of the Iona Community, Presbyterian minister, broadcaster, hymn–writer and international lecturer, will be the Changing Attitude Ireland speaker at their lunch–time session on Friday. He will speak on ‘God, Delight and Diversity’, and plans briefly to explore problematic approaches to scripture, the created order as diverse by design, and the need for the laity to have their intelligence, experience and aspirations inform the Church’s deliberations on sexuality.

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 11.10am, Morning Worship on RTE1 television will be led by Christian Aid. Bishop Trevor Williams will give a short address. Chantal Kanyange from Christian Aid’s Burundi office will talk about her work with internally displaced people and there will be stories from Haiti and the experiences of the President of the Methodist Church, the Revd Laurence Graham. BBC Radio Ulster’s Morning Service at 10.15am will be a Celebration of Holy Communion from St Macartin’s cathedral, Enniskillen, where the celebrant will be the Very Revd Kenneth Hall, Dean of Clogher, and the preacher will be the Revd Chris MacBruithin, curate at St Macartin’s cathedral. The Church of St John the Evangelist, Sandymount, will celebrate its Patronal Festival of St John the Evangelist before the Latin Gate, at a Solemn Eucharist at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Dublin.

Sarah Crossland from the National Churches Trust (UK) will lead a workshop on church tourism and public engagement in Christ Church cathedral, Waterford, on Tuesday at 6.30pm. This workshop will examine the benefits of developing church tourism and topics such as creating the perfect welcome, interpreting heritage for visitors, large scale events, heritage trails, tours, volunteer training and publicity/tourism promotion. Ms Crossland will also present case studies of successful and innovative projects being implemented across the UK.

On Wednesday morning the Archbishop of Dublin will attend the Annual Celebration of 1916 Arbour Hill Commemoration Ceremony at the Church of the Sacred Heart.