Launch of Daily Worship App at General Synod

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http://bit.ly/2KOaD5tThe Book of Common Prayer (BCP) was brought into the smartphone era with the launch of the Daily Worship app at this year’s General Synod. The app is an initiative from the Church’s Central Communications Board in close co-operation with the Church’s Liturgical Advisory Committee.  Daily Worship presents Bible readings, prayers, canticles and Services from the BCP in one place and in a simplified format.  These are available for each day of the year, covering five Services: Morning and Evening Daily Prayer, A Late Evening Office, Compline, and Holy Communion. This app aims to help us in our personal and communal prayer lives – bringing us closer together as a church family and to the God whom we worship.

You can download Daily Worship from App Store (https://apple.co/2rv5aYM) and Google Play (http://bit.ly/2KOaD5t) for use on Apple iOS and Android devices – it costs just €1.09/99p.

Job Advert: Youth and Children’s Officer

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The Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh

Youth and Children’s Officer

A Diocese seeking to be Christ-Centred, Character Building, Community Transforming

The Bishop of Kilmore wishes to appoint a Diocesan Youth and Children’s Coordinators based in Longford town in the Eastern area of the diocese.

Key Tasks

  • To nurture and foster Christian faith development in children and young people.
  • To train, support and encourage youth and children’s leaders and volunteers.
  • To build relationships with clergy and youth and children’s leaders in order to discern individual Parish group needs.
  • To work with the Diocesan Youth Council and Children’s Ministry Network Co-Ordinator to pioneer Diocesan events.
  • To develop schools work in National Schools throughout the diocese.

For further information please contact

Mrs Sarah Taylor (Diocesan Administrator)

Email: [email protected]

By email to request an application pack.

Applications close at 4pm on Friday 8th June 2018

Statement on the Upcoming Referendum by Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh.

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The forthcoming Referendum to change the Eight Amendment of the Irish Constitution has brought the issue of abortion into sharp focus. The debate over abortion is complex and polarized. Those who campaign for a more liberal policy on abortion emphasize the right of the mother- her right to choose. Those opposed to changing the current position in relation to abortion emphasize the rights of the unborn child, especially the right to live. Abortion is an incredibly sensitive and emotive issue. It touches upon our identity, relationships and beliefs; things people care about. It goes to the heart of the ideas we hold about what it means to be human, free and equal.

How are we to think straight about the vexed issue of abortion in order to participate in the debate and vote on the matter? John Stott, one of the world’s leading Christian thinkers and formerly rector of All Souls Church in London, reminds us that God has given us four gifts:

His first gift is a mind with which to think. His second gift is the Bible, and its witness to Christ, which helps to direct and control our thinking. God’s third gift is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to open up the Bible to us and illume our minds to understand and apply its truths. Fourthly, God has given us the Christian community, the Church as the context in which to do our thinking.

With these four gifts, especially in relation to each other – a mind, a textbook, a teacher and a school – it should be possible for us to develop an increasingly Christian mind to learn and think straight on the issues facing us today, including abortion.

As your bishop, can I ask you to:

  • Think straight about this controversial issue of abortion.
  • Develop a Christian mind on the issue, informed by the Bible, infused by the Holy Spirit and rooted in the Christian community, the Church.
  • Exercise you right to vote in the Referendum.

Having given the matter much thought and prayer, I will be voting not to change the current Constitutional position. I do so because of the Biblical understanding of the value of each human life and Christ’s attitude towards people, particularly the vulnerable and voiceless. Looking around the world, I can see the impact of virtually unrestricted access to abortion on human life and society. I do not wish that on the land I call home, Ireland.

Ferran

Solid Joys, Lasting treasure. A Tribute to Canon Liz McElhinney in Roscommon -18th May

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18th May, 8pm: Solid Joys, Lasting treasure. A Tribute to Canon Liz McElhinney in Roscommon.

A very special celebratory evening is being organised in recognition of the life and ministry of Canon Liz McElhinney. Very many of our lives were touched by Liz during her life and so the evening is for the whole Diocese and friends.

The evening has been planned for Friday May 18that 8 pm. It will be held in the Kilbride Community Centre, Fourmile House, Roscommon (3 miles from Roscommon on the Boyle Road).

The event will feature readings from a selection of Liz’s inspirational poems by the internationally acclaimed actor Ian McElhinney. In addition there will be musical contributions from the All-Ireland award winning Mercy Convent School Choir, Roscommon, the local cross-community CórComáin, soloist Nicola Brown and traditional music group led by Revd. Sean Hanily, a Roscommon man now serving in Dublin. Our former Bishop, Ken Clarke, and a close friend of the McElhinneys, will compere the evening. Accompanist for event will be Carl McCambley, Musical Director of Shankill Parish, Lurgan.

Liz was widely known and greatly loved across the Diocese having grown up in it and ministered in three different parishes in the Diocese. Many of the older members of our Diocese remember Liz’s father, Canon Maguire who also was Rector of Roscommon and of Edgeworthstown. Liz’s first parish was Calry Parish in Sligo and while Rector there she was also Chaplain and RE teacher in Sligo Grammar School. Following retirement Liz spent three years ministering fortnightly in the Kildrumferton Group in Cavan before returning to Roscommon as Priest -in-charge.

It was while Liz was in Roscommon that she was diagnosed in May 2015 with MND (Motor Neurone Disease). Following her return to Lurgan she chose to focus her creative abilities on writing reflective and inspirational poems over a period of 15 months. These poems are a testimony to Liz’s ever deepening faith and attest to her love of God, of people and of nature. They form a core part of the concert. Twenty of them have been gathered together as a printed collection entitled Solid Joys Lasting Treasure complemented by beautiful illustrations by Liz’s artist son, David.   The booklet will be included in the admission charge of €10 for those attending the evening.

The proceeds from the evening will support the work of the Irish Motor Neurone Association in the Republic. At a similar, memorable, evening held in Lurgan in the late autumn £17,000 was raised for the MND Association of Northern Ireland. Extra copies of the booklet anda CD of the collection of the poems, read by Ian McElhinney, will also be on sale on the evening at a reduced rate.

In his preface to the collection, another of Liz’s sons, Revd Stephen McElhinney said: “My mother’s special ability was to notice; she had a unique ability to connect with people but also to notice the world in which she lived, which left her invigorated physically, mentally and spiritually”. The collection title is taken from the well-known 18th century hymn John Newton, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken”.

This special legacy evening of a truly remarkable woman is being organised largely by members of the Roscommon Group, incorporating Lanesborough and Ballinloughand under the guidance of Liz’s husband Cyril McElhinney.

This celebratory evening is definitely one not to be missed!

Community Tractor Service – Sunday 22nd April 2018

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COMMUNITY TRACTOR SERVICE

Sunday 22nd April 2018

CARRIGALLEN MART 3pm

Special Music

Children invited to bring a toy tractor for the Children’s Corner ‘Farmers of the Future’ (adult must supervise)

BRING A TRACTOR, AS WE GIVE THANKS FOR OUR FARMERS AND PRAY FOR GOD’S BLESSING ON THEIR WORK IN THE YEAR AHEAD

After the service there will be a Tractor Run

EVERYONE WELCOME

Tea/coffee and light refreshments served

Voluntary collection for East Africa Famine Appeal.

2018 Easter message from Bishop Ferran Glenfield

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The Irish rugby team have been bathing in the glory of victory winning only their third Grand Slam in the long history of the game. The win warmed the country in the cold days of the Beast from the East and the Baby Beast from the East.

At Easter Christians celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ, victory over the harsh realities of sin and death. Sin which imprisons people, communities and countries in a deadly grip. Sin gives way to death, we will all die, it is inescapable.

Nonetheless the death and resurrection of Jesus is the means by which sin can be dealt with and death faced not as the end but the beginning of new life. Each one of us can be victorious through faith in the One who overcame all the odds and defeated death, once and for all.

+ Ferran

Plough Sunday Service Ballymachugh

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At the end of each farming year we join together at the church in great celebration and give thanks to God for the year that has been, the crops we have yielded, the livestock we have raised and the food we have made. This year, as well as looking back and thanking God for the harvest that has been, we made the conscious decision that we would look ahead and thank God for the work that He does on our lands each and every day to create the harvest that will be. We wanted to capture the imagination of the people and bring a reminder to keep God in the centre of their work through the year ahead – this is how Plough Sunday came into being.

The idea began as a Sunday service of thanksgiving for the land and the work of God plus a blessing of the farming machinery after the service. From there the vision was caught, the excitement built, and the idea grew and flourished. The people of Saint Paul’s, Ballymachugh, joined forces with St Mary’s, Carrick Church and the wider farming and working community to create a spectacular day.

The morning of the 18th February, 2018 marked our Plough Sunday service. It may have been wet but the spirits were high and the scene was beautifully set. The car park was filling with tractors belonging to the adults, the walkway was filling with tractors belonging to the children, and a single vintage horse Plough with an old oil lantern stood in front of Saint Paul’s, Ballymachugh, lighting the way for the farming year ahead. The very plough worked the neighbouring fields to the church 40 years ago.

Post service tractors big and small gathered together for their tractor runs. It was hard to tell which faces (adults or children’s) showed the most joy over getting to take a ride on their tractors. The children went first with great speed, enthusiasm and screams of joy, making history as they rode for Ballymachugh’s first official junior tractor run. The big tractors went with just as much enthusiasm and a remarkable rumble of engines as they took off on their tour around Lough Sheelin.

The day as a whole had a great buzz about it. Smiling faces, heartfelt conversations, delicious food, beautiful machines, generous giving and a wonderful sense of community are only some of the things that this event gave. We are grateful to all who gave their time to the planning and decorating; to those who donated food or prizes; and to those who participated in the day. Mostly we are grateful to God who makes all things possible, and whom works in our lives every day so that we may reap the harvest.

We look forward to celebrating God’s blessings on our land at Plough Sunday next year. We hope that each year we can gather together with our wider community and share a day of fun and fellowship. We invite all who are interested to mark the date in their diaries and join us at Plough Sunday on the 17th February, 2019, at Saint Paul’s Ballymachugh.

Call to prayer and fasting for South Sudan and DRC

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Following updates from its global partners, CMS Ireland is echoing a call to pray and fast for South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Friday 23rd February.

 

The mass movement of people within and outside these two countries is not stopping. Over many years, sustained violence and insecurity in both places resulted in huge numbers of people leaving their homes in search of safety and refuge. Following a recent, tentative peace agreement in South Sudan, some people have begun to return home, but this brings with it its own problems.

 

In South Sudan, Bishop Tandema of Olo Diocese has asked for support to help his people, who have come back home from exile to destroyed villages. Bishop Hilary warns that soon the situation might be similar for Yei Diocese as, even in the uncertain peace since Christmas, people have started to return home.

 

In Bukavu Diocese, DR Congo, Bishop Bahati has received support from Church of Ireland parishes to provide food aid for internally displaced people coming from the Kasai region. In North Kivu Diocese, more children have been arriving at the diocesan children’s home, displaced and separated from their families.

Anglican Church leaders have joined with Pope Francis in calling for prayer and fasting for both South Sudan and DRC on Friday 23rd February. The Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Dr Josiah Idowu-Fearon, writes:

 

“Conflicts continue to blight the lives of millions of people. In support of our brothers and sisters in areas of conflict, and particularly in solidarity with those in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, I join with Pope Francis in calling the Churches of the Anglican Communion and all people of good will to prayer and fasting for peace on Friday 23 February.”

 

In encouraging prayer for DRC, Archbishop Masimango Katanda says:

“With Christ, let us learn that active nonviolence is a force that can transform society when it denounces time and time again the situations of injustice and exclusion that violence feeds. May our families be places where we learn to resolve conflicts in a nonviolent way. Every Friday of Lent, I invite you to fast so that God will expel from our hearts and men’s hearts any desire for violence and make them welcoming to his forgiveness.”

Archbishop Masimango has suggested the use of the following prayer:

 

God who watches over our world, look at the country where you gave us to live. Grant to all its inhabitants to seek the common good, to those who govern us to do it wisely, so that there is among us more justice, and in the whole world more happiness and peace.

 


Photograph attached: Archbishop Masimango Katana with Revd Andrew Rawding (Brackaville, Ballyclog and Donaghendry)