The Church of Ireland
News Briefing

CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 16th November 2002

From: The RCB Library
Email: RCB Library

Bishop's Appeal Newsletter Issued

The recently circulated Bishops' Appeal Newsletter makes grim reading for those who are concerned by social and economic issues in the developing world. The Church of Ireland is reminded that one half of the world's population lives on less than 2 euro a day, one quarter do not have clean water to drink while one sixth are hungry every day. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic twenty million people have been killed by the disease, twelve million African children have lost parents, and life expectancy in Kenya has dropped from 66 years to 48 years.

In the face of such appalling tragedy any contribution which the Church of Ireland might make seems tiny, almost to the point of irrelevance, but as the Bishops' Appeal constantly reiterates, "Your Giving Can Make a Difference". In 2001 £707,436 was distributed to development projects and emergencies. Sustainable agriculture and rural development, education, and health, including AIDS prevention, were the main categories under which assistance was given to development programmes in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. Support was also made available in the face of emergencies, notably, in Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and India.

In May 2001 the Revd George Pitt was appointed as Education Advisor. His experience with the Church Missionary Society Ireland in Zaire has provide a pertinent context for his work in helping the Church of Ireland to think and act in response to issues of global poverty and justice.

The Bishops' Appeal may be contacted at Bishops' Appeal

Today (Saturday) the Monkstown Missionary Union will hold its Annual Sale in aid of world need. The sale begins in the Knox Hall at 10.30 am. In Belfast the AGM of Affirming Catholicism Ireland will be held in St George's Church, High Street. It will be followed at 2.30 pm by a public lecture by the Revd Earl Storey, Rector of Glenavy, entitled "The Church and the Orders". Mr Storey is the author of Traditional Roots. Towards an Appropriate Relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order which was published earlier this year by Columba Press.

Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon the Annual Huguenot Service will be held in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, where the preacher will be the Revd Dudley Levistone Cooney, President of the Old Dublin Society and an historian of Irish Methodism. The French ambassador will read one of the lessons and many Fellows of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland are expected to attend. In St Mary's Church, Leixlip, at 8.00 pm, there will be a concert by the Dun Laoghaire Choral Society.

From Monday until Thursday the Bishop of Cork will be in Strasbourg as the guest of the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox MEP, to witness the debate on European enlargement.

On Tuesday the lunchtime history lecture in City Hall, organised by Dublin City Council in association with Christ Church Cathedral, will be given by Mrs Marie O'Neill, from the Old Dublin Society, who will speak on "Dublin Corporation in the Troubled Times, 1916-1922".

The Standing Committee of the General Synod and the Executive Committee of the Representative Church Body will meet in Dublin on Tuesday and the bishops will meet on Wednesday. On Thursday the Archbishop of Dublin will speak at the AGM and lunch of the Protestant Orphan Society.

On Thursday at 8 00 pm in All Hallows College, Dublin, the National Bible Society will host the Annual Bedell Boyle Lecture. This year the speaker will be the Leader of the Green Party, Mr Trevor Sargent T.D., and his subject will be "The Bible and Politics".