Irish Times Notes12 Jul 24

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Queen’s Theological Lectures

This year’s Annual Theological Lecture at Queen’s University Belfast – on the theme of ‘Artificial Intelligence: Religious Friend or Foe?’ – is now available to play back on the Church of Ireland and Methodist Chaplaincy’s YouTube channel.  A two–minute preview can be found at www.thehubbelfast.org/annuallecture and the direct link to the video is https://youtu.be/5GGZuoZSAs0

The lecture, sponsored by the Church of Ireland Board of Education (Northern Ireland), was delivered in the Great Hall at Queen’s on Monday, 27 May, by Professor Stephen Williams.  Professor Williams is a theologian, author and lecturer who, after retiring from a teaching career, was appointed Honorary Professor of Theology at Queen’s in 2017.

The title is provocative: artificial intelligence means more than one thing; there are different religious traditions; and ‘friend or foe’ may be false alternatives. Admitting the complexity of the issues, the lecture sets out the challenge of AI to our understanding of what it is to be human, highlighting its critical nature. It ranges from discussion of the nature of the brain in the context of Western culture and the significance of the Church in an attempt to answer the question posed in the title.

Since 1957, the Church of Ireland has organised annual lectures at Queen’s to stimulate and contribute to the discussion of public theology on campus.  Guest lecturers, typically eminent thinkers in their field, have ranged from theologians to scientists, authors to archbishops.  The Board of Education remains grateful to Queen’s University for its contribution in hosting the lectures each year.

In Dublin on Sunday Choral Eucharist at 11am in Christ Church cathedral will be sung by the choir of St Paul’s church, Glenageary, while in St Patrick’s cathedral Choral Eucharist at 11.15am and Choral Evensong at 3.15pm will be sung by Academicus Musica.

Each year Sea Sunday is celebrated, worldwide, on the second Sunday of July. Churches worldwide are asked to remember seafarers and their families and those who give of their time in seafarers centres around the world. The Revd Willie Black is the Honorary Dublin Port Chaplin based at the Seafarers. Centre in Dublin Port and in Belfast the Revd Mark Reid is the Senior Chaplain. In the Church of St Brendan the Navigator in Crookhaven, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross will preside at an Epilogue Service.

The Dean of Limerick, the Very Revd Niall Sloane, has announced the presentation of cheques to two local charities. It follows the successful ‘Cars at the Cathedral’, a display of special and rare cars and motorcycles, held in the grounds of the historic Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on Saturday 4 May, as part of the city’s summer festival, Riverfest Limerick. The Dean and his colleagues from St Mary’s cathedral presented two cheques of €1,760 to Ana Liffey Drugs Project and the Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) Foundation. Both charities have centres in Limerick.