DAILY NEWS

C of I news briefs

Celebrating the Hymn Society – Belfast, MU Reflection Days – Limerick, RSCM Voice for Life awards – Dublin, Change in ordination preparation, Ring for bishop elect – Clogher enthronements, South African input

Celebrating the Hymn Society
A Belfast event will mark the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland’s 75th Anniversary . There will be A Hymn Festival entitled “Hymnody: A Living Tradition” in Belfast Cathedral on Saturday 17th September. See Music on this site.

MU Reflection Days
The Mothers’ Union in Limerick and Killaloe are providing two opportunities for quiet reflection and contemplation. See MU on this site.

RSCM Voice for Life awards
The Royal School of Church Music will hold its Voice for Life award ceremony at 4.00 pm on 1 October 2011 at St Mary’s Pro–Cathedral, Dublin, where the cathedral will be filled with the sound of choristers, drawn from churches and cathedrals around the country for the presentation of their certificates. Further information at Music on this site.

Change in ordination preparation
The ordinations on Sunday last marked a major change in the way the Church of Ireland now trains its candidates for ordination.

In 2009 The Church of Ireland changed the way in which it trains candidates for ordination. The programme combines a strong academic emphasis with a practice–based model of learning and the new deacons will complete internships in their parishes. Not until they are ordained priest, hopefully in a year’s time, will they become curate-assistants, very possibly in a different parish.

Ring for bishop elect – Clogher enthronements
At the service of ordination for Down and Dromore on Sunday last , the bishop-elect of Clogher, the Revd John McDowell, was presented with his episcopal ring by Bishop Harold Miller. Mr McDowell served for 9 years as rector of St Mark’s Dundela, a church famous for its connections with C.S. Lewis. He will be consecrated as Bishop on Friday 23 September at St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen. Following his consecration , The Rt. Rev. John McDowell will be enthroned in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Clogher, the ancient seat of the Bishop of Clogher, at a service of Evensong on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday 2nd October 2011 at 4.00pm. He will return to St Macartan’s Cathedral in Enniskillen to be enthroned on the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday 16th October 2011 at 4.00pm.

South African input
The Revd Duncan McLea, Minister in Charge of Christ Church Kenilworth, Cape Town, where he has served for the past 22 years, conducted the pre–ordination retreat for the deacons and priest of Down and Dromore and preached at the ordination service.