CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 19th May 2001
From: The RCB Library
Email: RCB Library
Conference of European Churches Meeting
The island of Crete was the location for the meeting of the Church and
Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches which held its
annual assembly there last week, at the invitation of the Ecumenical
Patriarch.
The assembly comprises representatives of Europe's Orthodox, Anglican and
Protestant churches and the Irish Council of Churches was represented by Dr
Kenneth Milne. It was an opportunity to become more familiar with the ethos
of the churches of the east and of particular interest was a recently
published document on the social policies of the Russian Orthodox Church,
not generally understood in the west.
This fitted well with the general theme of the assembly, "The
Churches and Civil Society in the Midst of Change", an urgent issue
with which Irish Christians have yet to fully grapple, despite the fact that
Irish society is changing more rapidly than any other in Europe. A special
advisor to the president of the European Commission was present to enable
the conference to attempt to define the ways in which the churches might
more effectively bring their own perspectives to bear on EU thinking both in
Brussels and nationally. The implications of the enlargement of the EU, the
consequent need for the reform of its institutions, and the more immediate
issue of immigration, legal and illegal, also found places on an extremely
crowded agenda.
Today (Saturday) the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd John Neill,
will preside at the Annual GFS Diocesan Festival in Kilkenny. Evensong in
Christ Church Cathedral will be sung by the choir of Mercy College, Coolock,
as the Cathedral Choir is on a short tour in the north. This evening they
will give a concert in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, and tomorrow (Sunday)
will sing at the Eucharist in St George's Church, Belfast, and perform
Rachmaninov's Vespers in Clonard Monastery.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning RTE will broadcast a Service of the Word from
Blessington where the rector is the Revd Nigel Dunne. At 8.00 am BBC Radio 4
will carry an act of worship from St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, in which
Canon Noel Battye will speak on "The Ministry of Cathedrals", and
in the evening there will be an Aids Candlelight Memorial Service in the
cathedral. The Dean of St Patrick's, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will be in Kinsale
where he will preach at the Annual Sea Service in St Multose's Church while
the Chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin, Dr Alan McCormack, will be the
preacher in All Saints' Church, Margaret Street, London. In St Patrick's
Cathedral, Trim, Canon David Pierpoint will preach at a Choral Evensong in
thanksgiving for the ministry of the late Canon Aidan Olden, for many years
Rector of Kells, while in the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin and St John
the Baptist, Sligo, the Revd John Merrick, Headmaster of Sligo Grammar
School, will be installed as Prebendary of Oran.
In Kill o' the Grange parish, Co. Dublin, on Monday the Revd Rico Tice,
Associate Minister for Evangelism at All Souls' Church, Langham Place,
London, will launch a Christian basics course entitled "Christianity
Explored", and on Tuesday the Church Pastoral Aid Society will
introduce "Under Construction" a new range of learning resources
for church based children's groups. Details may be had from the Parish
Office, (01-2896442).
St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, will host a Friends Day on 26 May. The St
Augustine Choir from Dublin will sing Evensong with Malcolm Proud at the
organ and the preacher will be the Archbishop of Dublin.
The Raheny parish fete which was scheduled for 26 May has been postponed.
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at
http://www.ireland.com/ |
