We are Church Ireland is organising an Advent Assembly on Sunday , December 2nd 2012 at the Davenport Hotel , Lower Merrion Street at 3pm .
It will be an all-inclusive joyous occasion in the Spirit praying for reform within our Church and everyone is welcome.
Presenting: a brief profile of the three new members of the ACP Leadership Team, and an update on the original team members.
This is a reflection written on the morning after the Cloyne Report, based on my experience of working for many years in the parishes around that diocese.
Aoife Kelly in the Irish Independent reports that a “new Irish documentary reveals how Irish missionaries risked their lives to save millions from starvation during the Nigerian Civil War.”
Biafra: Misean Dearmadta (Forgotten Mission) airs on TG4 on Wednesday at 9.30pm.
Seamus Ahearne has been reflecting on his life’s vocation and work, and “has been thinking” and thankfully writing for us.
As always his thoughts are a wonderful antidote to the often banal, myopic, clichéd and uninspiring writing that is done about church and religion in Ireland.
His words challenge all of us to find new ways of ministering to each other.
“there is an absence of gratitude. There is a crudity in our public discourse. How can there be Eucharist if we don’t come in humility to say thanks to God? If we don’t stop to be aware of the ‘gracefulness’ of life; if we don’t stop in utter amazement at the very mystery of life in nature, in people, in moments. If we don’t look at a baby and become more human; if we don’t look at a leaf and become more human; if we don’t look at the exuberance of a child for First Communion and become more human; if we don’t look at the act of faith of two lovers in marrying and become more human; if we don’t see the selflessness of parents and become more human; if we don’t see the prayerfulness of our faithful and become more human.”
Pádraig McCarthy presents a survey on the experience of the new translation of the Missal (one for priests, and another for laity) and invites ACP members to complete it
Seamus Ahearne gives his thoughts on “mission” informed by his own life experiences.
“I’m a believer:
My Mission here may distract me, out to the byways and highways where the Church is forgotten and where the gibberish of sacred language is irrelevant. But I cannot go out there, unless I am enjoying the living God, where I am. I need to be taking off my shoes, seeing the burning bush, hearing the gentle breeze and finding the teasing- God of the caster-oil plant (Jonah.) I need to be telling people and showing people that God and Church, isn’t like the scarcely remembered version, which is a caricature of the Christ-picture from the Gospels. But I shouldn’t tell anyone, anything, if I am not alive myself. Possibly, the only Mission I have now, is to create some kind of oasis, where the refreshment of God, makes a little sense in the desert of our modern world. I have to do this with total humility and must exude some personal serenity, believing that nothing can ever happen, that is beyond the goodness and love of God. Mission now might just mean: Believing and living as if I/we believe.”
