NEWS BRIEFS

Live Lent Care for God’s Creation

God has given us a wonderful world to enjoy, but also to protect. LiveLent: Care for God’s Creation – will help children and their families learn more about the amazing gift of God’s creation. For children’s ministry and available to bulk buy [ http://bit.ly/LiveLentforKids ]

Living Lent 2020

The Catholic Bishops’ Living Lent social media initiative will go live on Ash Wednesday (26 February) and will offer daily suggestions on living Lent through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The invite is – Join us across our social media.

New South City Hub at St Simon’s, Belfast

Commenting on the new facility, Trevor Greer said, “After nearly seven years the end is in sight. I had hair when this began. A lot of people need thanked for this but especially the committee of Southcity and the select vestry of St Simons. We will be hosting an open day very shortly more details will follow. Now we just need the resources to keep it running. Like our logo says “Rebuilding our Community” This is only the start.

“What difference, never thought I’d see this finished after so many delays but fair play to Bob Stoker for never giving up hope. A lot of thanks also must go to TEO and BCC. I attended this hall around 38 years ago with St Simons, Church Lads Brigade, the place has retained the shape but completely updated.”

Councillor Bob Stocker said he had a “Final walkaround checking for last minute snags in the new St Simons, Southcity Resource Centre “Community Hub” with representatives of Belfast City Council and The Executive Office.

Yad Vashem seminar for church leaders

Applications are open to Christian clergy and church leaders for the Council for Christians and Jews annual seminar at Yad Vashem School. It is a unique opportunity to learn about the Holocaust from the world’s leading experts. Contact CCJ for more details and how to apply.

Election of Archbishop of Armagh

The bishops of the Church of Ireland will meet to elect a new Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland on Thursday, 27th February, and Friday, 28th February, 2020. The election follows the retirement of the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke on Sunday, 2nd February.

The bishops seek the prayerful support of the members, parishes and dioceses of the Church of Ireland, as they prepare to meet in community to elect a new Archbishop of Armagh.

Book spot – Christ Unabridged

Christ Unabridged. SCM Press. A deep and scholarly study on the person of Christ as Son of Man from an impressive array of key theological and philosophical thinkers, including N.T. Wright and Lydia Schumacher. With poetic interludes from Malcolm Guite. Pre-order [ https://bit.ly/2SUKBCz ]

Rector for Glenavy

The Rev Linda Cronin (Front centre in photo above) was instituted as incumbent of the Parish of Glenavy, Diocese of Connor, on Sunday February 16. Linda comes to Glenavy from Telford in Shropshire, where she was vicar of Sutton Hill and Woodside Parishes in the Diocese of Hereford for five years.

Glenavy Parish includes the churches of St Aidan in Glenavy, where the Service of Institution took place, along with St John in Crumlin and St Andrew, Tunny.

Linda grew up in Newton Abbot in Devon, and married Steve after moving to London where she remained before ordination in the Diocese of Carlisle in the north of the country. The couple has four children – Tim, Hannah, Dan and Rachel; daughters–in–law Caz and Becky; and two grandchildren.

Before ordination in 2008, Linda had been a youth and children’s worker in a church in Brentford, West London, and was later finance officer in a Roman Catholic sixth form college in Ladbrooke Grove. She was ordained in Barrow–on–Furness, where she was curate and then vicar until 2013, and was a chaplain at an Anglican and Catholic joint High School before her move to Telford.

Linda has said that she is ‘looking forward to the challenge of doing something completely different and seeing what God opens up.’

Linda was instituted by the Ven George Davison, Archbishop’s Commissary and Diocesan Administrator for the vacant Diocese of Connor.

The preacher was the Rev Dr Andrea Russell, Anglican Tutor and Co–Director of the Centre for Continuing Ministerial Development at Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

Archbishop Jackson’s tribute to Fr Godfrey O’Donnell

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Fr Godfrey O’Donnell, Romanian Orthodox priest and ecumenist, who died at his home in Swords on Friday February 14.

In 2004 Fr Godfrey became the first Irish–born person to be ordained as a priest of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Derry man had been a Jesuit priest but left the priesthood in 1985. He felt increasingly drawn to the Orthodox Church and was instrumental in establishing the Romanian Orthodox parish in Dublin in 2000. His work for the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland was honoured in 2013 when he was awarded the accolade of Stavrophore, the highest award given to married priests in that tradition.

Known for his active ecumenism, he represented the Romanian Orthodox Church on both the of Dublin Council of Churches and the Irish Council of Churches. He was chair of Dublin Council of Churches and became the first representative of the Orthodox traditions to hold the role of president of the Irish Council of Churches from 2012 to 2014.

Paying tribute to Fr Godfrey, Archbishop Michael Jackson recalled a priest of tremendous vitality. “All of us who knew Godfrey recognised his faithfulness to God and rejoiced in his tireless and joyful presentation of the Romanian Orthodox tradition within Irish Christianity. He was always ready and willing to participate in the promotion of a better understanding of faiths and advocate for ecumenism through the Dublin Council of Churches. The sympathies and prayers of all of us in the United Dioceses lie with his wife, Ruth, and the Romanian Orthodox community,” he said.

God in creation