October 2021 Gazette

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St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin is featured on our October cover, as the Cathedral celebrates the completion of the roof restoration works which have been ongoing for the last two years and have seen over 14,000 roof slates replaced and essential fire protections upgraded.

Inside, we meet some of the members of General Synod, and hear how they hope to bring their experiences in diversity, refugee aid, and the media, to bring a positive impact on the representation of the Church of Ireland. Meanwhile as almost ten years have passed since the contentious General Synod of 2012, the time has come, argues Rev’d Stephen Farrell, to revisit the decision made then on same sex unions.

We begin a series of articles, in conjunction with the project “Protestantism, A Journey in Self-Belief” at Maynooth University, looking at different aspects of the Protestant/ Unionist/ Loyalist (PUL) community in Northern Ireland. The purpose is to increase understanding, engagement, critical self-reflection and sharing of experience, and in the first in the series, we meet Sister Valerie Thom who ministers to the marching band community with the Zaccheus Outreach project in Co Tyrone.

As the Church of Ireland Theological Institute reopens for a new academic year, we meet two students to learn about their journey to ordination, how their professional experiences have helped form their approaches and how they have adapted their everyday lives to study at Braemor Park.

This month, the devotional is from Rev’d Paul Arbuthnot and there are all the usual features including Mothers’ Union, Liturgical Notes, Clergy News and Diocesan Focus.

All this and much more in your October Gazette.