Are Church of Ireland bishops about to fail their vast middle ground?

From Ireland-

On Wednesday the House of Bishops will decided whether to affirm the appointment of Archdeacon David McClay as Bishop of Down and Dromore, the largest diocese in the Church of Ireland.

Although respect is due to his work as a rector, his election as bishop is deeply troubling, and many people from all over the island have written to the bishops to express their grave concern.

Archdeacon McClay is a member of the council of Gafcon (Global Anglican Future Conference) Ireland, an organisation which opposes amongst other things same-sex marriage and the ordination of homosexuals.

So why object to Archdeacon McClay’s appointment? Because the policy and doctrine of the Church of Ireland are decided by the General Synod.

That the Church of Ireland is Irish seems a truism. Currently we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of disestablishment or break from the Church of England. An Ireland-wide synodical structure was hewn out to give representation to every church member from Belfast to Ballybunion.

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/are-church-of-ireland-bishops-about-to-fail-their-vast-middle-ground-1.4087089

Church of Ireland clergy object to conservative bishop’s appointment

From Ireland-

Thirty-six senior Church of Ireland clergy have put their names to an open letter objecting to the appointment of the newly elected Bishop of Down and Dromore due to his involvement with a conservative Anglican group.

In a letter to the church’s House of Bishops, the signatories say they are concerned Archdeacon David McClay may not be an appropriate choice due to his membership of the Gafcon (Global Anglican Future Conference) Ireland movement.

They believe the group’s policies are “antithetical” to the principles a Church of Ireland bishop must commit to in the rite of consecration. These include “fostering unity, care for the oppressed, and building up the people of God in all their spiritual and sexual diversity”.

Gafcon was founded in 2008, originally to oppose same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ+ people. It has proclaimed itself as a unique upholder of biblical orthodoxy and as “a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion”.

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/church-of-ireland-clergy-object-to-conservative-bishop-s-appointment-1.4085840

Clergy visit highlights Pittsburgh-Ireland ties

From Pittsburgh-

Pittsburgh’s connections with Ireland may not seem apparent at first, but they are deep and ongoing — well beyond the late Pittsburgh Steelers President Dan Rooney’s stint as U.S. ambassador.

An Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh event at the Duquesne Club in Downtown Pittsburgh on Nov. 6 provided an introduction to that relationship with a visit from an Irish delegation.

The visitors were the Rev. Gregory Dunstan, dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh, and Francis “Frank” Costello, an American historian and author who has lived in Belfast for 21 years.
“Pittsburgh’s been a really important place on what is the long traditional, cultural and economic link [with Ireland],” Costello said.

The Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh has been organizing student and professional exchanges between Pittsburgh and Ireland since 1989. “We’re forever bringing people in, helping people from Pittsburgh go there, on different kinds of projects,” said James Lamb, institute president.

More here-

https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny/clergy-visit-highlights-pittsburgh-ireland-ties/

Catholic priesthood is based around a 'fundamental lie', says former president Mary McAleese

From Ireland-

Former president of Ireland and the new Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin, Professor Mary McAleese has said she believes the Catholic priesthood is based around “a fundamental lie”. 

She told a conference in TCD on Saturday attended by up to 400 people, including the Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, that a clericalised priesthood was not attracting vocations today and that many of those who are attracted to priesthood have a “deeply problematic” sexuality because the Church demands that those priests and seminarians who are not heterosexual pretend to be.

Recalling the six years she spent studying for a doctorate in canon law in Rome, living in the environs of a seminary and monastery, she said she had encountered many young seminarians and priests.

“I became very much aware of the dysfunction at the heart of seminary life and the dysfunction at the heart of much of the priesthood.”

More here-

https://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/irish-news/catholic-priesthood-is-based-around-a-fundamental-lie-says-former-president-mary-mcaleese-38656841.html

Anglican archbishop asks Christians to re-examine faith

From Ireland-

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said all religions and their leaders must own up to extremist activities within their faith and examine which of their traditional teachings enable extremists to commit evil.

Archbishop Justin Welby, the figurehead of the worldwide Anglican Church, told interfaith leaders in Sri Lanka that accepting responsibility is key rather than disavowing an evildoer as not a good enough follower of a religion.

Arriving in Sri Lanka last Thursday and meeting with Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim leaders, he said discussion among faiths has become more difficult in the last 30 or 40 years and in every faith, including in Christianity, extremist attitudes have grown.

“And it is the duty of every religious tradition, for its leaders to resist extremism and to teach peaceful dialogue. So, the first challenge to all of us is take responsibility,” he said.

More here-

https://www.irishcatholic.com/anglican-archbishop-asks-christians-to-re-examine-faith/

Crusader skull stolen from Dublin church recovered

From Ireland-

The skull of an 800-year-old skeleton known as the Crusader, which was stolen from the crypt of an Irish church, has been found.

Vandals decapitated the skeleton, which was interred beneath St Michan's Church in Dublin, during a break-in last week.

On Tuesday, gardaí (Irish police) said they had recovered the skull along with another stolen from the crypt.

The crypt is a popular tourist attraction but tours were cancelled after the break-in.

A Garda Síochána (Irish police force) spokesman told BBC News NI that the stolen skulls were recovered in Dublin but he would not give more details about the circumstances of the find.

More here-

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47461511

Anglican, Catholic Dublin bishops appeal for return of 800-year-old mummy

From Ireland-

Archbishops Diarmuid Martin (right) and Michael Jackson – the Roman Catholic and Anglican Archbishops of Dublin – outside the crypt of St Michan’s Church in Dublin. (Photo Credit: United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough/anglicannews.org)

Church leaders have, in an ecumenical gesture, come together in Dublin to appeal for the return of the head of an 800-year-old mummy that was stolen from a popular tourist site over the weekend, one of two thefts of historical antiquities in recent days.

Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Anglican Archbishop Michael Jackson of Dublin issued their public appeal on Feb. 27, anglicannews.org reports.

They asked the public to report any clues relating to the identity of the attackers or the whereabouts of the looted head of the mummy, known as "The Crusader," taken during a raid on the crypt of St. Michan's Church.

More here-

https://international.la-croix.com/news/anglican-catholic-dublin-bishops-appeal-for-return-of-800-year-old-mummy/9579

The Book of Common Prayer is becoming more common to all

From Ireland-

Though its influence over English life and writing since the reign of the Tudors has been immense, almost as great as the King James Bible itself, the Book of Common Prayer, the essential text for the communal life of the Anglican Communion, has long been misunderstood.

Indeed it is a book which Catholics, especially perhaps those who live in Ireland, are unaware of. This is a pity, if only from the point of view of providing a sense of history and present-day ecumenism. But this may be about to change, even here.

The Personal Ordinate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales, the ‘home in Rome’ for former Anglicans, is now allowed to use the Book of Common Prayer, making it in effect a document of the Catholic as well as Anglican Church.

So perhaps it behoves Catholics to learn more about it. This new Oxford University Press paperback edition comes with an introduction and notes which will fill in the background and the long and controversial history of the manual.

More here-

https://www.irishcatholic.com/the-book-of-common-prayer-is-becoming-more-common-to-all/

A Church in Ruins

From Philadelphia-

“The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them; and delivers them from all their troubles.”  (Ps. 34:17)
Pope Francis is almost assuredly not going to visit, while he is in Ireland, the ruins of Kilcorban Abbey in east Galway.  The abbey was established by Third Order Dominicans some time in the mid-fifteenth century.  It lies along the road that goes from Portumna to Tynagh, and is adjoined by more recent graves to the south of the ruins, and a pasture to the north where cows graze.

I have passed by the ruins many times on my way to the barn at Flowerhill, where I have been going for the past five years to ride horses in the lush green Irish countryside.  Often I have stopped at the ruins of the abbey (which is also sometimes called a friary, or a priory) on the way to barn.   The roof-less grey stone walls describe a rectangular church, running east to west.  On the north side of the church an archway leads into what is thought to have been a Lady Chapel, where an altar still stands.  Many times I have prayed in that half-ruined chapel: sometimes silently and alone, sometimes aloud with others, once explicitly to remember the dead, and more than once on a Sunday when it was my only place of worship.  I’ve stood at the altar and looked out and up at the emptiness around me, and the graves beyond.  I’ve looked, but never stepped down into the little stone well, outside by the road, which may have been a font, and which includes a little shrine to Mary.  I’ve never said Mass at that altar, although there’s nothing to stop me.  All I’d need is bread, wine, the Gospel, and one other person.

More here-

http://www.saintmarksphiladelphia.org/sermons/2018/8/26/a-church-in-ruins

Bishops’ presence at Gafcon an ‘absolute disgrace’

From Ireland-

Attendance by two Church of Ireland bishops at the conservative Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) meeting in Jerusalem last week has provoked deep anger among the church’s clergy.

They have described it as “an absolute disgrace”, “schismatic”, and as illustrating “how utterly out of touch some senior clergy” were with church membership.

Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore and Bishop Ferran Glenfield of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh attended the meeting with other senior clergy from the Church of Ireland and members of Gafcon Ireland set up last April.

Gafcon came into being after the election in the US Episcopal Church (Anglican) of the openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

It describes itself as “a global family of authentic Anglicans standing together to retain and restore the Bible to the heart of the Anglican Communion”.

Gafcon includes Anglican Primates from many Africa countries as well as bishops and clergy from Australia, Canada and the US who boycotted the last gathering of the worldwide Anglican Communion at the 2008 Lambeth Conference.

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/bishops-presence-at-gafcon-an-absolute-disgrace-1.3542265

Anglican Leaders Issue Statements Affirming Traditional Marriage

From CBN-

Anglican Australian and Irish bishops issued official statements clarifying their positions on same-sex marriage last week.

The House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland said the marriage service "remains unchanged and marriage may be solemnised only between a man and woman."

"No liturgy or authorised service is provided therefore for any other situation," the bishops continued in their statement. "It is widely recognised that there is no simple solution for these and other issues of human sexuality; but with compassion, humility and concern, we offer our continued commitment to attentive listening and to respectful discussion."

More here-

http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2018/may/anglican-leaders-issue-statements-affirming-traditional-marriage

Where do atheists get their values?

From The Irish Times-

John Gray is a self-described atheist who thinks that prominent advocates of atheism have made non-belief seem intolerant, uninspiring and dull. At the end of the first chapter of his new book, Seven Types of Atheism, he concludes that “the organised atheism of the present century is mostly a media phenomenon and best appreciated as a type of entertainment”.

He laughs when I remind him of this sick burn. “I wrote the book partly as a riposte to that kind of atheism,” he says. “There’s not much new in [new atheism] and what is in it is a tired recycled version of forms of atheism that were presented more interestingly in the 19th century. In the so-called new atheism people are [presented with] a binary option between atheism, as if there was only one kind, and religion, as if there was only one kind of religion. [It’s] historically illiterate.

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/where-do-atheists-get-their-values-1.3467299?__vfz=c_pages%3D11000002670848

Irish missionary priest calls for foreign travel ban on paedophiles

From Ireland-

 
A four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee has called on developed countries to ban paedophiles and suspected sex offenders from foreign travel in the same way as suspected terrorists.

Father Shay Cullen, an Irish missionary who has been rescuing street children in the Philippines since 1974, said hundreds of thousands of sex tourists travel to the country from Europe, including the UK and Ireland, the US and Australia.

The Columban priest missed out on the Nobel prize last week, but praised the decision to award it to a campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

“The whole moral fabric of society and protection of human rights and the dignity of women and children is breaking down,” Fr Cullen said.

“One thing right now I would say to any government is to pass a law that would ban all convicted sex offenders from travelling abroad. That would be a very good thing they could do.”
“Why not? The international and Irish sex tourists, why are they coming here raping our children?”

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-missionary-priest-calls-for-foreign-travel-ban-on-paedophiles-1.3248416

No, I’m not the secretary! The trials of Ireland’s only woman bishop

From Ireland-

Ireland’s only woman bishop has spoken of the disbelief she has encountered as a result of being female in such high office in the church.

Most Rev Pat Storey revealed she was once mistaken for a secretary by a male bishop and recently, when she presented a cheque in a bank, it was handed back to her and she was told “the bishop will have to sign that himself”.

Bishop Storey (57), who holds the third most senior position in the Church of Ireland House of Bishops, became the first woman bishop in Britain and Ireland in 2013.

Speaking on Thursday at DCU’s All Hallows campus on “Breaking through the stained-glass ceiling”, she recalled that, when appointed, “I was much more conscious of the challenge of the top level of church leadership than of the whole ‘first woman’ thing.”

Over time, however, she would be reminded of her gender. “Recently I went to the bank to lodge a cheque. I handed it over to the cashier who took one look at it, passed it back over the desk to me and said: ‘The bishop will have to sign that himself.’ I smiled at her, passed it back over the desk, and said ‘I am he’. She was, of course, mortified. People always are.”

More here-

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/no-i-m-not-the-secretary-the-trials-of-ireland-s-only-woman-bishop-1.3213460

Church of Ireland refuses to apologise to gay couples for hurt caused

From Christian Today-

The Church of Ireland has refused to apologise to gay couples hurt by the lack of blessing for their relationships.

A motion calling for the Anglican body to acknowledge the hurt felt and asking bishops to look into prayers and thanksgiving services for LGBT couples was rejected by the Church's synod last Friday.

After splitting into their three separate factions – bishops, clergy and laity – to vote, the motion was defeated by 72 to 56 in the clergy and by 104 to 90 in the laity. The bishops opted not to vote.

Tabled by Dr Leo Kilroy and seconded by Rev Brian O'Rourke, both members of the select committee looking issues surrounding same-sex relationships, the private members motion did not look to change church teaching.

Instead it asked the synod to acknowledge 'the injury felt by members of the Church who enter into loving, committed and legally-recognised, same-sex relationships, due to the absence of provision for them to mark that key moment in their lives publicly and prayerfully in Church'.

More here-

https://www.christiantoday.com/article/church.of.ireland.refuses.to.apologise.to.gay.couples.for.hurt.caused/108617.htm

Church of Ireland delegates defeat motion on public service for same-sex couples

From Ireland-

A motion that Church of Ireland bishops investigate developing a public thanksgiving service for legally married same-sex couples was defeated at the church’s General Synod on Friday night.

It followed a debate where speakers divided along North-South lines, with all speakers from the South in favour and almost all Northern speakers opposed.

Proposing the motion Dr Leo Kilroy of Glendalough diocese said: “many lesbian and gay people continue to feel gravely hurt by this church. They have been injured by the lack of compassion shown by some, who cling to a small number of disparate and disputed verses that exist in pockets of the Bible, and claim a divine rejection of gay people.”

More here-

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/church-of-ireland-delegates-defeat-motion-on-public-service-for-same-sex-couples-1.3073456

Church of Ireland General Synod to debate same-sex marriage

From Ireland-

The Church of Ireland is to debate and vote upon a motion on same-sex unions at its general synod in Co Limerick this week. The general synod is the main decision-making body of the Church of Ireland, meeting once a year. 

A private member’s motion is set to be debated on Friday, calling for the church to acknowledge the “injury felt by members of the church who enter into loving, committed and legally recognised, same-sex relationships, due to the absence of provision for them to mark that key moment in their lives publicly and prayerfully in church”. The motion also “respectfully requests the House of Bishops to investigate a means to develop sensitive, local pastoral arrangements for public prayer and thanksgiving with same-sex couples at these key moments in their lives, and to present their ideas to general synod 2018, with a view to making proposals at general synod 2019.”
Read more at:

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/church-of-ireland-general-synod-to-debate-same-sex-marriage-1-7941757

Manuscripts shed light on early days of Christianity

From Ireland-

Some of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts are on display in Dublin.

The texts, which caused a global sensation in 1931 when they were bought by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, contain both Old and New Testament books and date from 200 to 400AD.

And as Easter approaches, the library named in the collector's honour is showing St Paul's Letter To The Corinthians, which recounts how Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again.

Jill Unkel, curator of the Western Collection at the Chester Beatty Library, said: "It's a very, very significant collection.

"It's the earliest collection of Pauline epistles on book. There are surviving fragments dated earlier but it's the earliest known collection.

More here-

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/irish-news/manuscripts-shed-light-on-early-days-of-christianity-35613731.html

Church of Ireland bishops pressed over financial transparency

From Ireland-

A senior clergyman has hit out at the Church of Ireland over its “indefensible” refusal to provide a detailed breakdown of expenditure on the church’s 12 bishops. Canon Jonathan Barry made his scathing comments in relation to an ongoing campaign for greater transparency in how church funds are spent. 

In the latest edition of the Church of Ireland Gazette (which is editorially independent of the church itself), Canon Barry describes a pre-Christmas trip by the bishops to the Portmarnock Hotel and golf complex near Dublin last year as a “jolly” – at a time when “clergy in the main hardly get time to breathe”. Canon Barry, who is rector of Comber, said a number of questions on overall expenditure posed by the Gazette were “perfectly reasonable,” yet were not being answered by the bishops and the Representative Church Body (RCB).

Read more at:

 http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/church-of-ireland-bishops-pressed-over-financial-transparency-1-7905974

Arguing for a reasonable faith

From Irish Catholic-

Fresh from a public debate at Trinity College Dublin, where 600 students overflowed from the college’s largest lecture theatre and filled three overflow rooms while a further 1,100 people watched online, philosopher and theologian William Lane Craig is adamant that Christian faith is a reasonable thing.

“As I went through my graduate education I became increasingly burdened with presenting the Gospel in the context of giving an intellectual defence of the Christian worldview,” he says. “I wanted to help students see that becoming a Christian is an intellectually viable option for thinking people today. I wanted to help them see that you don’t need to put your brains in one pocket and your faith in another pocket, and never let them see the light of day at the same time.”

Originally from Peoria, Illinois, and now a professor in California’s Biola Institute and Houston Baptist University in Texas, Dr Craig had become a convinced Christian in his teenage years, so he aimed to speak to people of a similar age to that at which his own life had been transformed. 

More here-

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/arguing-reasonable-faith