Diocesan News
Lough Derg hosts this year’s Ecumenical Prayer Service for Pentecost
The annual Ecumenical Prayer Service for Pentecost organised by the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church in Clogher Diocese took place this year at Lough Derg, Pettigo, Co. Donegal.
This site has been a place of Christian pilgrimage since the 5th century.
Once everyone attending had been transported across to the island by the boat, St Columba, on a sunny afternoon, on Pentecost Sunday, a walking historical tour was led by Monsignor La Flynn, Prior of Lough Derg, before everyone gathered in St. Patrick’s Basilica for the service.
The greeting and opening responses were by Bishop Larry Duffy with the Collect for Pentecost and first reading by Archdeacon Paul Thompson. The Gospel reading and the Litany of the Holy Spirit were by Father Frank McManus and the address was given by the Right Revd Dr Ian Ellis, Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher.
The blessing was said jointly by Bishop Larry Duffy and Bishop Ian Ellis.
The hymns were ‘Spirit of God, unseen as the wind’, ‘Spirit of the Living God’, and ‘Christ be beside me’.
Everyone met in fellowship afterwards over afternoon tea.
Lough Derg emerged as a pilgrimage location in the period of the Celtic monastery on Saints Island (from the 6th to 12th centuries). St Davog, a disciple of St Patrick, is remembered as the founding abbot.
In the 12th century, along with Clones and Devenish, the monastery on Saints Island became a priory of the Canons Regular of St Augustine, introduced to Ireland as part of the reform movement that characterised the Irish Church in that period.
Since 1780 Lough Derg has been in the care of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clogher, attracting pilgrims over the summer months.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Clogher
07708 869823
Mr Brian Donaldson
clogherdco@btinternet.com