| Friday 16th May, 2008 You are here: Home - 16th May 2008 Index Page |
Church must ‘earn the right to be heard’ - Bishop-elect of Limerick and Killaloe
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| Bishop-elect Trevor Williams |
Following his election last week as Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe at an Electoral College meeting in Dublin, Canon Trevor Williams spoke to the Gazette on a wide range of issues, from his immediate priorities for his episcopal ministry to the current state of the Church. The bishop-elect succeeds Bishop Michael Mayes, who retired at the end of March, and has been rector of Holy Trinity and St Silas with Immanuel in North Belfast, Diocese of Connor, since 2003
Editorial
RELIGIOUS TOPICS - THE NICENE CREED
The use of the word "We" at the beginning of each of the three paragraphs of the Nicene Creed is of considerable importance, in that it is a reminder that this is the confession of faith not only of each individual Christian (as in the "I believe" of the Apostles’ Creed), but also of the whole Christian Church. It is what is known as a ‘conciliar’ Creed, deriving ultimately from the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, but in its present form, it derives largely from the Council of Constantinople in 381. Those who use this version of the Creed are not only going back to its earliest form (the word "We" being used at both Nicaea and Constantinople), but are also identifying themselves with the faith of the universal Church. Full Text
Home News
Co. Antrim parish goes ‘mission mad’
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Pictured at the ‘Making a Difference’ mission evening in Ballymena are Canon Stuart Lloyd (standing), Bishop Alan Abernethy (left) and Paul Clark (2nd left), with Sarah Chestnutt, Jonathan Davison and Matthew Todd who were interviewed about their overseas outreach work. |
A mission evening under the title ‘MaD - Making a Difference’ was held recently in St Patrick’s church hall, Ballymena, Diocese of Connor. The event, sponsored by the parish’s ministry team and hosted by Paul Clark, UTV, brought together a large number of parishioners and many from across the local community
New youth officer for Cashel and Ossory
Scott Evans has been appointed Youth Officer for the United Diocese of Cashel and Ossory. He succeeds the Revd Philip Heak, who is now rector of Naas, Diocese of Kildare, and will take up his post on 1st November.
Church’s Ministry of Healing hosts fundraising musical evening
A recent fundraising musical evening hosted by the Church’s Ministry of Healing (CMH) in Cultra Manor House, Co. Down, raised over £5,000 for the ministry’s work. The evening, which was compèred by Keith Burnside, the BBC news presenter, included music by piping champion, Stuart Irvine; the mezzo-soprano, Clover Watts, who excelled in her negro spirituals; Fiddlers Galore, a group of young musicians groomed to play in the Royal Albert Hall; and Ruth Montgomery, trumpet.
Mission is about ‘transformation of lives’ -CMSI President
By Rachel Brittain
"The more I learn about mission, the more I realise that it’s not what we do to people that’s important; it’s what God does to us," said Prof. Rab Mollan, President of the Church Mission Society Ireland (CMSI), at the society’s annual general meeting held recently in Overseas House, Rathmines, Dublin.
Colombian pastor to speak in Belfast
A Colombian pastor, who has been working for over 20 years in the city of Cali, Colombia, South America, one of the biggest drug centres in the world, is to speak at healing services in Belfast organised by Divine Healing Ministries. In February, Brother David Jardine led a five-man team from Divine Healing Ministries to Cali to undertake a 13-day healing and prayer mission
Evangelical Fellowship to meet in Lisburn
The Church of Ireland Evangelical Fellowship will hold an evening meeting on Tuesday 20th May in Lambeg parish hall, Lisburn, entitled ‘The Church at the Crossroads’. The speaker will be the Revd Eddie Coulter who has been Director of the Irish Church Missions since 2003 and is based in Dublin.
100th Birthday
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Margaret McCord, of Moydown parish, Diocese of Ardagh, Co. Longford, recently celebrated her 100th birthday. She is seen here being presented with the President’s Centenarian Payment cheque by Canon Bertie Kingston, rector of the Ardagh group of parishes.
Tribute
The Revd David Denzil Caldwell
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The following is the address given by the Ven. Jack Patterson at the funeral service of the Revd Denzil Caldwell in St Patrick’s church, Ballymena, Diocese of Connor, on Tuesday 8th April 2008.
In this journey of life, we meet many, many different people. The vast majority mean little or nothing to us. We simply meet and pass by. Some, however, we come to know rather better, perhaps because of work or common interests. A very few of the people we encounter will become our friends. How many of those will remain friends for 40 years or more?
World News
Church leaders’ ‘friendly’ meeting
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has described his private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican as "friendly and informal". They spent almost half an hour in the Pope’s study discussing matters of common interest.
Religion needs to be involved in healing, says European Parliament president
In parts of Europe, such as the western Balkans, where internecine "wounds still require healing", spiritual leaders need to be involved in the process, according to the president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering. Herr Pöttering, from Germany, made his remarks recently at a yearly meeting the president of the Parliament holds with religious leaders in the European capital.
Bartholomeos I joins the Dalai Lama on Time magazine’s ‘Top 100’ list
Bartholomeos I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, has joined the Dalai Lama as one of two international religious figures named in the ‘Time 100’ list, the people deemed by Time magazine to be the world’s most influential people.
Prayers offered for Burmese people
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has written to the Anglican Church in Burma following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in the area of the Irrawaddy River Delta.
Letters to the Editor
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Missionary work of Church of Ireland in Province of Fujian Full Text
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Schism in the Anglican Communion Full Text
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Dean and Ordinary Full Text
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Church maintenance Full Text
Insight I
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The embarrassment of history? Restoring proper confidence in our Anglican past
By Brian Crowe
In a recent article (Church Times, 18th April), the historian, J.C.D. Clark, suggested a failure of Anglican confidence in our heritage, coinciding with a Roman Catholic cultural and intellectual renaissance in Britain. In Ireland, a renewed interest in the Scots-Irish heritage has found expression in a Presbyterian narrative of democratic individualism. By contrast, there is the appearance of embarrassment in Anglicanism over our history. We appear to have been on the ‘wrong’ side of history, allied against the causes of progress or - what is worse - the values of the Kingdom of God. Full Text
Insight II
The ripples spread out
A CMS Ireland partnership helps bring transformation to Southern Sudan
By Rachel Brittain
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| Students from the Yei Vocational Training Centre on one of the centre’s building programmes |
David Gough, the Church Mission Society Ireland’s Regional Mission Partner for Sudan and Egypt, has said that "it’s no exaggeration to say that Yei Vocational Training Centre (VTC) is transforming people’s lives." Over the last number of years, many dioceses in Ireland and the Diocese of Yei, Southern Sudan, have been developing together a strong partnership which has seen two-way people-exchanges and education programmes supported by many of the Church’s parishes.
Soap
By Ted Woods
The first meeting of the new Select Vestry. Not that there had been many changes. Two new churchwardens, that was all. But what a job it had been to get them! The outgoing wardens, having failed to find a candidate, had enlisted Steve’s help in finding a People’s Churchwarden, as well as his own Rector’s Churchwarden.
Popular Culture
Let’s take the (bad) swords out of Irish politics
One of the most ambivalent symbols of our already ambivalent times appeared on 6th May, when Ian Paisley and Bertie Ahern, using 17th century swords, cut the ribbon to open the Boyne Visitor Centre. It’s easy to forget that these two representatives of the Irish/ Northern Irish retiring political guard never appeared in public together until recently and now seem like the best of friends; the location of their meeting used to be the most politically-contentious site on the island, and is now the base for a tourist-friendly space in which difference can be, if not celebrated, at least better understood; and as for the swords, well, even my neopacifism could not fail to be moved by their employment as tools that open rather than weapons that kill.
Life Lines
Life in the very slow lane
Let me tell you about where I live. I live in a car park. Now, I need to explain this somewhat. I haven’t been evicted from the rectory. Nor is my opening statement, in fact, entirely accurate. It’s simply that my rectory is situated on the edge of a huge car park.
Yours Faithfully
Making our ears an altar
You know, don’t you, that there are people who won’t come to church because they’re too honest. I met one the other day. She loved the music; said it was sublime; said it made her soul soar. She loved the poetry, the flowers, the sunlight singing through the stained glass, the drama of narrative, the compassion of praying for others, the dialogue, and the swelling rhythms of the Eucharistic Prayer. She was moved by the symbolic touch of flesh on flesh at the sharing of the peace.
News Extra
Church leaders issue statement following Holy Land visit
Last week, the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh, the Methodist President and the Presbyterian Moderator issued a statement following their return from a joint visit to the Holy Land. They described themselves as "shocked and saddened" by what they had experienced of the ongoing conflict in the Holy Land, but said they were "reasonably hopeful" that a resolution could soon be found.
Former dean to promote work of Intercontinental Church Society
Canon John Dinnen, former rector of Hillsborough and Dean of Down, is to become the first honorary travelling secretary of the Intercontinental Church Society (ICS) in Ireland. ICS already has an active committee in Ireland (chaired by Dean John Bond) and several Church of Ireland clergy serve overseas with ICS in a variety of roles.
Death