Irish Times: Clare Island echoes to a new tune as lay services fill gap left by shortage of priests

Interesting article in The Irish Times by Áine Ryan last Sat, 25 Feb 2023.

Since our offshore islands are usually seen as the last bastions of traditional life, you don’t expect to see a woman saying Mass. At least, canonically speaking, leading a church service, in the absence of a priest, which has all the elements of the Mass – other than the ritual transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Neither do visitors expect to attend a Sunday service with a distinctive jazzy timbre to the music, courtesy of a retired Lutheran minister, Dr Jörg Zengel, who has lived on the island for many years. He leads a group of island musicians and singers called Saints and Sinners.

Welcome to Clare Island, Co Mayo, where the community regularly leads church services when a priest is not available to make the voyage from the mainland. This has been the case since the last resident priest left more than two decades ago.

Link to full article:

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/02/25/achill-echoes-to-a-new-tune-as-islanders-jazz-it-up/

Similar Posts

Fifty years on and still a disputed question

Blog
16 Comments

Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times, Friday 20 July 2018, suggests that “So after fifty years, where do we now stand? Acceptance of Humanae Vitae is a matter that has worried the consciences of older Catholics since it was first promulgated; for our children and grandchildren it is a matter of little consequence. Their decision has been reached in the light of practice and is unlikely to change.”

What is Doctrine?

Blog
3 Comments

Christopher Lamb writing in The Tablet blog reports that Cardinal Mark gave a basic theology lesson to some at the synod.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx said “doctrine and theology are not the same” adding that “many people talk about doctrine but they have no idea what it is.”
“Doctrine, he explained, is the tradition of the Church which is “not a closed shop, it is a living tradition” while doctrine needs to be lived rather than read in a book.”

Discernment, dithering or disaster? Has the church the luxury of time to wait on decisions? 

Blog
8 Comments

Brendan Hoban, in his Western People column, reacts to the letter, Beloved Amazon, issued by Pope Francis last week.
“It is important for us to name the disappointment, the frustration, the sadness, the upset, the anger that are part of the fall-out from last week’s letter.”
“The answer is that for some people, and progressively more, the waiting is over. Parents with children – teenage and adult – understand why time is important. Our leaders seem to be in denial about the impact such catastrophic delays are having on the confidence and the membership of our Church.”

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.