| Friday 8th January, 2010 You are here: Home - 8th January 2010 Index Page |
WCC disappointed by Copenhagen climate summit outcome
 |
| Bishop Desmond Tutu is pictured speaking at a Copenhagen press conference (Photo: Peter Williams/WCC) |
As the excitement of the pre-Christmas Copenhagen climate change talks (CO P15) subsided, the World Council of Churches (WCC) issued a statement saying that "the time for matching reality with expectations has begun". The statement indicated that, from the WCC ’s perspective, the outcome of the negotiations had not matched expectations. "With a lack of transparency, the agreement reached ... by some countries was negotiated without consensus but rather in secret among the powerful nations of the world," WCC Programme Executive on climate change, Guillermo Kerber, commented.
Editorial
New Year And New Beginnings For Protestant Schools In The Republic
The past year has been a fraught time of difficulty and challenge for the fee-charging Protestant second-level schools in the Republic. Harsh words about government policy and gloomy views about the future of the schools have been expressed by Church leaders, principals and parents, while it appeared a ‘not-for-turning’ stance had been adopted by the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe. Indeed, the campaign and exchanges took away from very real concerns about the condition of the comprehensive schools or the pastoral care of significant numbers of parish children attending other school types. Full Text
Home News
Honorary church music award for former Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe
The Rt Revd Edward Darling, who was Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe from 1985 to 2000, is among a number of eminent senior cathedral musicians and musicologists who, later this year, will receive Church music awards from the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM).
Belfast’s ‘Black Santa’ honoured for his charity work
The Dean of Belfast, the Very Revd Houston McKelvey, who has raised millions of pounds for charity as a result of his annual ‘Black Santa’ pre-Christmas sitouts at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. Dr McKelvey, who has been Dean of Belfast since June 2001, said that his most vivid memory was seeing people lining the streets in pouring rain to donate money for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Divine Healing Ministries team to be commissioned for Colombia trip
At a special healing service in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, on Monday 11th January, at 8.00 pm, the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy, will commission a team going from Divine Healing Ministries to Colombia in South America from 13th- 27th January. Although Colombia has witnessed a violent civil war for more than 40 years - resulting in thousands of deaths - it is also the scene of a vibrant spiritual movement.
Mothers’ Union centenary
A group picture taken at a recent thanksgiving service to celebrate the centenary of the Mothers’ Union in Lisburn Cathedral, Diocese of Connor. To mark the occasion, the branch presented to the Cathedral an offertory table which was dedicated by the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy.
 |
Canon Dr William (Billy) George Neely
The following is an abridged version of the address of Canon Michael Kennedy at the funeral service of Canon Billy Neely in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, on Friday 18th December 2009.
It is always difficult to encapsulate a person in words and this is particularly the case when the person one is speaking of is a larger-than-life character such as William George (Billy) Neely. I first met him at a meeting of that rather select group, the Clerical Reading Society, when he was still in Mount Merrion, Belfast, and was immediately impressed by his powerful mind and argumentative capacity.
Parish Profile
Shankill parish, Diocese of Dromore, has come a long way
By Harry Allen
 |
| The Shankill Parish mission team |
The Shankill parish mission team who went during summer 2009 to work with children in a Romanian orphanage. Shankill parish has come a long way since its humble beginnings beside Lough Neagh in 1411. The present building - situated in the centre of Lurgan, Co. Armagh - has been used for worship since 1725 and serves as a focal point for the parish’s 1,400 families. Under its new rector, the Revd Geoff Wilson, the parish has embarked on a journey which, over the next year, will help it collectively to define God’s priorities for the coming years.
World News Feature
President Obama’s peace prize speech prompts debate on ethics of war
By Chris Herlinger in New York
Observers in the United States had varying reactions to the address by US President Barack Obama, when, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, he condemned religious-inspired violence but also offered a defence of the just-war tradition. In his 10th December speech, Mr Obama said that "given the dizzying pace of globalization, and the cultural levelling of modernity, it should come as no surprise that people fear the loss of what they cherish about their particular identities - their race, their tribe and, perhaps most powerfully, their religion."
Soap
Down at St. David’s
By Ted Woods
Jonathan put down the phone. His face was white and a tic pulsed in his temple. Andrea took one look at him and blurted out: "Is he dead? Did someone find him? Oh, the poor thing." "No, he’s not dead. I wouldn’t say someone has ‘found’ him - more someone ‘has’ him - and they’re looking for big money." The saga had begun with a new year’s walk in the local park, when Jonathan and Andrea had returned from visiting their families after Christmas. Feeling stodgy and bloated from too much food, they decided that both they and Archie, their golden retriever, were in need of a long walk.
By the Book
Titus 2: 11-15 - the authentic Gospel
Edward Vaughan
From time to time, I have the opportunity to teach the Bible to a group of men who are part of a drug rehab. ministry that is located near our church. I hope I am able to minister to them in some way, but I do know for sure that they minister to me. They are men who were previously on the streets of Dublin, living rough and addicted to drugs and alcohol. Each one has been saved from the demon of addiction and set free to love and serve Jesus. When I was there recently, one of them prayed a most moving prayer. He thanked Jesus for taking him and the others off the streets - "from the jaws of death", as he put it - and saving him. As I heard him pray, I realized that he was speaking quite literally about being rescued from dying.
Musings
Baldness
Alison Rooke
Why are so many clergy bald? This I asked myself at a church function, when lots of clergy were buzzing around, carrying their little grey cases and, out for the night, were enjoying the opportunity to catch up on the latest chat. Casting an eye over this assembled gathering, it did not take great mathematical skill to work out that a large percentage showed evidence of ‘follicle challenge,’ as I think is the latest way of describing all such gleaming pates. Bishops, priests, deacons - no respecter of rank, nor, indeed, age - baldness affects a good number of them.
Book Reviews
THE PROCTORS’ ACCOUNTS OF THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST WERBURGH, DUBLIN 1481-1627
Edited by: Adrian Empey
Published by: Four Courts Press
DIVINE ARTISTRY - INSPIRATIONAL POETRY FOR ALL SEASONS
Author: Yvonne Lyons
Publisher: Author House UK
News Extra
Death of Cardinal Daly
 |
The following statement was issued by the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, on the death on 31st December of Cardinal Daly, Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland from 1990-1996:
It is with deep regret that I received the news of the passing of Cahal Cardinal Daly. The Cardinal was a most distinguished scholar as well as an outstanding leader of the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. During the most challenging of times, the Cardinal gave wise and courageous leadership both as Bishop of Down and Connor and subsequently as Archbishop of Armagh. He was a fearless and forthright champion of peace and justice, always speaking out unambiguously on community issues during the darkest days of the Troubles. In retirement, the Cardinal sustained his academic interests and his devotional life with a generosity towards fellow- scholars and those who sought to nourish the interior life that was the hallmark of the whole of his life. I count it a privilege to have known him and send my sincere condolences to his family and share the sadness of all those whom he influenced for good in his life. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. +Alan Armagh
Unity Week material
The General Secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI), Canon Bob Fyffe, has called upon Christians to mark the forthcoming Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with "renewed passion". The Week is observed annually from 18th to 25th January, in the octave between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul. This year, CTBI Week of Prayer for Christian Unity materials, prepared in Scotland, include two services - one liturgical, the other informal - and daily study material.
No comment from Bishop Jackson
Asked by the Gazette to comment, as chairman of the Church of Ireland Working Group on Northern Ireland’s Consultative Group on the Past (CGP), regarding his Working Group’s recent submission to the Northern Ireland Office, the Bishop of Clogher, Dr Michael Jackson, has declined to give an interview. The Jackson Working Group’s submission, published on the Church of Ireland website (www.ireland.anglican.org/officialsubmissions), contains responses to the 31 recommendations in the report of the CGP.