THE Anglican rector who discovered US President Barack Obama's Irish ancestral records has received a thank you letter from the White House.
In an urgent response to the persistent drought in East Africa, the Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal has announced that it is releasing €20,000 to fund the work of Christian Aid and their local partners who are responding to the crisis on the ground in Kenya and Ethiopia. It also appeals for contributions from parishes and individuals throughout Ireland to help with the disaster relief efforts.
The Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal – the Church’s world aid and development programme – is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Education Officer, Ms Lydia Monds, who will take up her new role in July.
The House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland meeting today in Dublin appointed the Revd John McDowell, Rector of St Mark’s Dundela in the Diocese of Down and Dromore as the new Bishop of Clogher, to succeed the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, who was recently enthroned as the new Archbishop of Dublin. The appointment of the new bishop had passed to the House of Bishops as the Episcopal Electoral College which met on 4 May failed to make an appointment.
From the Diocese of Derry, Church of Ireland
A new book entitled The Extra Mile has being launched at the General Synod in Armagh this week. It is designed to help churches find new and imaginative ways to serve practical needs in their local community.
Speaking at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Irish Council of Churches in the Island Civic Centre, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, told representatives from 14 different churches that, "secularism is not an anti-religion idea".
Japan Earthquake & Tsunami Service, St Patrick’s National Cathedral, Dublin, 11 April 2011, 7 p.m.
The Japanese Community in Dublin in association with Dublin City Council and St. Patrick’s Cathedral will hold an event to commemorate the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake & Tsunami and to provide an opportunity for people to show Ireland’s solidarity with Japan.
Murder of PSNI Officer in Omagh
Statement by The Most Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh, and the Rt Revd Ken Good, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe
Special Meeting of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland
Bill relating to the See of Tuam, Killala & Achonry
At today’s special meeting of the General Synod held at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the bill proposing that the calling of an electoral college for the See of Tuam, Killala and Achonry be delayed for the time being to allow for consideration of episcopal ministry in the Diocese was defeated. An electoral college for the Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achnory will, therefore, now be called.
Issued on behalf of the Board for Social Theology by the Church of Ireland Press Office
Following on from the Minister for Social Development’s recent plans to allow more shopping on Sundays, the Church of Ireland Board for Social Theology is dismayed to hear of his proposals to allow high street gambling on Sundays.
New resource developed to ease the difficulties in talking to teenagers about relationships and sex.
It is one of the most difficult, yet important conversations that needs to take place in family life –and potentially one of the most embarrassing. It’s the sex and relationships discussion between parents and teenagers. But now a novel approach to ease the awkwardness of these conversations has just been developed by a joint Church and Health Trust group looking at young people and sexual health.
The Faith sub-group of the Belfast Area Sexual Health Project Board has recently produced a relationships resource, entitled ‘Unique’, for both young people and their parents that is user-friendly and easy to work through. However it is how this resource is used that will give a new approach to conversations on difficult issues.
Sharon Hamil, a Church of Ireland member of the group, explains; "For many parents it is very difficult to sit down with their teenager and talk about relationships and sex. So we are advocating a different approach and encouraging parents to give this resource to their teenager and to ask them to review its usefulness for young people. Then we would like parents to go back later and get their feedback so that they can pass it on to our group.
This approach will give parents the opportunity to approach the issue on our behalf and it should take the initial pressure out of the conversation. As their child reviews the subject of relationships and sex for young people generally, they will also reflect their own opinions back to their parents allowing open and honest dialogue to develop between parents and teenagers on sensitive issues."
For more information on how to do this a support website has just been launched at www.unique-ni.org from where copies of the ‘Unique’ resource are also available. It is aimed at 11-14 years olds and has been developed by the Faith sub-group, which contains members of the 4 larger denominations as well as Love for Life, ACET and Opportunity Youth.
For further information please contact Andrew Brannigan: (m) 07950 846621
Ends
Issued on behalf of the Church of Ireland Youth Department
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by Jenna LylePostedwww.christiantoday.com
The Church of Ireland Board for Social Theology says it is “disconcerted and dismayed” by Northern Ireland’s Minister for Social Development’s decision to press ahead with a consultation on Sunday opening hours.
During the last fortnight of November the bishop of Clogher, Michael Jackson, spent time in the Diocese of Kaduna. He has a long-standing friendship with Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon and Mrs Idowu-Fearon and was their guest.
The week of 21-27 November is to be designated as ‘Prisons Week 2010’ – a week of prayer for all those affected by prison life across the UK. For the first time, Prison Chaplains in Northern Ireland, from across Christian denominations and Christian organisations, are to participate in the week, which takes as its theme ‘Be with me’. The initiative is aimed at praying for and raising awareness of the needs of prisoners and their families, victims and offenders, prison staff and all those who care about this work.
By Karen Bushby, Connor Diocesan Communications Officer, Church of Ireland
The Rev Canon Ken McReynolds, rector of Lambeg Parish, Connor Diocese, preached a record-breaking five hour 50 minute sermon on Saturday October 30.
On Tuesday, 5 October, 2010, The Most Reverend Dr John RW Neill announced his intention to retire at the end of January 2011 as Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalough to the House of Bishops.
The Bible Society in Northern Ireland has placed a new range of worship resources on its website at www.bsni.co.uk to encourage churches to celebrate access to the Scriptures.
The archbishops and bishops of the Church of Ireland are anxious that members of the Church throughout the country should be given an opportunity to respond to the present humanitarian crises of which we are so painfully aware. Accordingly, they are requesting that retiring or other appropriate collections take place in every church on some Sunday before the end of September.
From the Most Revd Alan Harper, OBE, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland:
I very much look forward to full confirmation of the complete decommissioning of all armaments held by loyalist paramilitaries. It will represent a further and extremely welcome step towards confidence building and the normalisation of society in Northern Ireland. I recognise that on the part of the leadership of the paramilitary groups full decommissioning has been a challenging outcome to deliver; therefore, I commend those within loyalism who have argued consistently for decommissioning over a considerable period. Now full energy and commitment can be devoted to community development and the enhancement of the lives of people in loyalist areas free from the dark shadow of the gun.
