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Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Eco Church

The Representative Church Body has recently taken delivery of three hives of honey–bees at its offices in Rathmines, and the Church of Ireland Theological Institute has received four hives for its grounds. Ms Fern Jolley, Property Officer, worked with the Dublin County Beekeepers’ Association to choose suitable spots for the hives to be placed, so that the bee keeper can care for them during the year as they settle in to their new homes.

The RCB has also signed up as a business member of the All–Ireland Pollinator Plan. This plan is open to all businesses: no need to have bees at the office to sign up, but simply agree to undertake some actions to welcome and encourage pollinators and pollinator–friendly habitats, and you’ll be sent a certificate to display and added to the list of supporters on the website at www.pollinators.ie

Actions can be logged and mapped online to track new pollinator–friendly habitats being created by community groups, businesses, councils, schools, and individuals. For its initial actions, the RCB will be planting pollinator–friendly shrubs and herbs and has signed up to a pesticide plan, under which pesticides will be used only sparingly and never on flower–rich areas or pollinator nesting sites.

The RCB’s actions are part of a growing movement across the Church of Ireland to protect the environment and its creatures. For example, Myross churchyard, at Union Hall in West Cork, is home to a rich biodiversity of plant and animal life. At the initiative of members of the congregation, headed up by churchwarden Ann Beare, the parish aims to safeguard and promote the species count of plants and animals found within the churchyard. The Revd Brian O’Reilly, Rector of Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, with Oran O’Sullivan of www.irishgardenbirds.ie, has turned St Saviour’s churchyard into a quiet oasis for wildlife to thrive. They hope to roll out Actions for Biodiversity in Churchyards across the Diocese of Glendalough and have already trialled the plan in three churches in the parish: St John’s, Laragh, Glenealy, and St Saviour’s, Rathdrum.

These projects and initiatives are part of the Church of Ireland’s Environmental Charter, passed by the General Synod in 2015, which calls all members of the Church to the duty of environmental stewardship of God’s creation, locally, nationally and internationally.

Tomorrow (Sunday), at 3pm, St Molua’s church, Magheracloone, will celebrate its patronal festival. The church is part of Carrickmacross union of parishes in the Diocese of Clogher. Drumsnatt (Clogher) and Stormont (Down) are also dedicated to St Molua, a 6th century Irish saint who was a disciple of St Comgall of Bangor.

Tomorrow the 11am Eucharist in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, will be sung by the choir of St Brigid’s, Stillorgan, and All Saints’, Blackrock, directed by Clive Armstrong.

Next Thursday the West Cork History Festival, of which the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Dr Paul Colton, is a Patron, will begin in Skibbereen. The programme will include a Dunmanway double bill with the rector, the Revd Cliff Jeffers, screening a documentary on the town’s community bells, and a talk by Kieran Connolly on one of Dunmanway’s most famous sons, Sam Maguire. Dr Andy Bielenberg will speak on ‘Disappearances in Co Cork 1920–22 and the case of Mrs Lindsay’ and Cal Hyland on ‘Considering the Situation of Protestants in West Cork, 1920–22’.

‘Summer Music at Sandford’ continues in Sandford parish church, Ranelagh, on Friday at 1.10pm when there will be a recital by Anna–Louise Costeilo (mezzo–soprano) and Aileen Cahill (piano).

 

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