† The United Diocese of Cashel Ossory & Ferns †
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† The United Diocese of Cashel Ossory & Ferns † |
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Diocesan Magazine December 2002 |
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Please find extracts from our Diocesan Magazine. Full copies of the printed edition which includes the parish notes are available from the Diocesan Office Contents on this page: 1: Peter Barrett to be new Bishop of Cashel & Ossory 2: A report of the Annual Diocesan Synods 3: Finding peace between the Children of Abraham on a Greek island By Patrick Comerford 4: New Look Diocesan Web Site launched 5: From the Diocesan Youth Officer
PETER BARRETT TO BE NEW BISHOP OF CASHEL AND OSSORY The Very Revd Peter Barrett, Dean of Waterford, was elected today as the new Bishop of Cashel and Ossory following a meeting of the Electoral College in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Peter Barrett, 46, was educated at Avoca-Kingstown School and Trinity College Dublin. He graduated in History and Political Science and with a First Class Diploma in Theology at ordination. He was conferred by Trinity College with the degrees of Master of Arts, and Master of Philosophy. Peter was ordained for the diocese of Derry and Raphoe to serve as curate in Limavady in 1981. He moved to Dublin to serve a second curacy under Canon Billy Wynne in the parish of St Ann and St Mark with St Stephen, and was also Minor Canon in St Patrickâs Cathedral. He returned to Derry and Raphoe to serve as Rector of Letterkenny and Gartan, and the Bishop also appointed him as Rural Dean. Subsequently, he was appointed as Rector of the city centre parish of Belfast, St Georgeâs by the Bishop of Connor. In 1994 the archbishop of Dublin appointed him as Dean of Residence and Chaplain in Trinity College, Dublin and he was also appointed as Succentor of St Patrickâs Cathedral by Dean Maurice Stewart. Since 1998, he has been Dean of Waterford and Rector of the Waterford Group of Parishes. Peter has been an Assessor and a Tutor in the Auxiliary Ministry Course for many years. He has also been Lecturer in Anglican Spirituality at the Milltown Institute in Dublin. He was Irish Consultant to the recently published major study by the Oxford University Press on Anglican devotional and spiritual writing entitled ÎLoveâs Redeeming Workâ; his first book is due to be published this month by the APCK and the Columba Press entitled: ÎThe measure and the pledge of Love ö a devotional study of the Crossâ. Peter has served on several Church committees including Standing Committee, and is currently a member of the Church of Ireland-Methodist Joint Theological Working Party which drew up the recent Covenant document. He is chairman of the recently established Church and Society sub-committee on Social Justice and Theology with particular reference to the Republic of Ireland. He represented the Church of Ireland recently in Prague at the International Anglican-Old Catholic Congress. Peter has wide experience of the pastoral and committee life of the Church of Ireland, north and south, and of hospital chaplaincy. He has been involved for several years in the teaching and training of clergy and laity. He recently developed a new form of Team Ministry in his Group of parishes. The restoration of Waterford Cathedral in association with the Office of Public Works continues under his leadership. Peter is married to Anne, who works as a Social Work Team Leader with the Mental Health Services in the South Easter Health Board. They have three children: Clare, a second year student at UCD; Alec, a 6th year boarder at Kilkenny College; Patrick, in his last year at Christ Church Primary School in Waterford. Peter has wide interests particularly in sport, and especially hockey, and he has captained his School, his University, his Club, his province Leinster, and his country Ireland at various levels. He is a Vice-President of his hockey club, Monkstown and a qualified hockey umpire. Trinity College awarded him with a ÎPinkâ for his international caps, and he was recently made an Hon. Knight of the Campanile for his involvement with and services to student sport in the University. The Annual Synods for the two Dioceses in this Bishopric took place on Wednesday and Thursday 16th and 17th October in Enniscorthy and Kilkenny. In the absence of a Bishop both Synods were chaired by the Commissaries ö in Enniscorthy the Venerable Paul Mooney was in the Chair, and in Kilkenny the Venerable John Murray. ENNISCORTHY In the absence of a Presidential Address the Diocesan members of the 2020 Committee, the Revd. D. Dunne and Mr. Roger Boyd, who are also members of the country wide Commission of Ministry which met recently in Dublin, and Mrs. Avril Forrest, also a member of the Commission on Ministry, gave a presentation on that meeting connecting it with latest report from the Diocesan 2020 Committee (printed elsewhere in this publication). Much credit was given to the latest 2020 report and it was agreed that it should not be left aside on the shelf (like many reports that have gone before this). After the initial opening remarks by the Revd. Dunne, who outlined the whole area and the need to look ahead, Mrs. Forrest took up the challenge. Among the many ideas put forward by Mrs. Forrest was that there should be some method for clerics who want to move on to other careers. Many people change careers but there is no flexibility for clergy to do so and some find themselves in the unhappy position of not enjoying their work! She spoke about the old criteria for church membership ö behave, believe and belong, which nowadays could be reversed to become belong, believe and then the proper behaviour would automatically follow! Mr. Roger Boyd differed a little from the other speakers, but was quick to point out that his reactions were more personal. He felt that better ideas and suggestions were discussed during the late night conversations, when people were more relaxed! He questioned a little the balance of speakers during the Commission ö nearly all were clerics. All three speakers felt that the report of the 2020 Committee would help the Commission on Ministry to decide on what would be their recommendations. KILKENNY After a short address by the President, the Venerable John Murray, the report of the Council to Synod was proposed by the Dean of Cashel and seconded by Ms. Marie Kerr. The Dean of Cashel stole the latest media headline Î Power to Changeâ expressing the wish for change, and intimating that the power is in the hands of the people ö Where there is a will there is a way, and where there is Godâs will there is a wayâ. He expressed the wish for openness in todayâs church; he spoke about a changing society, the lack of commitment and kept returning to the phrase The Power to Change. Ms. Marie Kerr, who is a member of the 2020 Committee, again spoke about the various points in their latest report. She hoped that the challenge would be taken up, she talked about the huge burden nowadays on rectors, particularly in relation to administration. Much time was diverted to the management of buildings, and she asked was there enough time for ministry? She suggested the possibility of the appointment of lay administrators, to help clergy in this area. The report contains much food for thought and we were all asked to obtain a copy and read its contents. Much credit must be given to the two Presidents who steered both Synods in an effective and efficient manner. Members of Synod are grateful to them for this task and indeed during the coming months as they work through the vacancy. Finding peace between the Children of Abraham on a Greek island By Patrick Comerford HALKI is a tiny Greek island ö at only about 20 sq km, it is a waterless, limestone speck off the west coast of Rhodes. At one time it had a prosperous sponge-industry that provided a living for 4,000 people. But a devastating viral sponge blight hit the surrounding seas in the early part of the last century, many of the islanders were forced to leave, and today the island has a population of 300 or 400. Tourism is now the main source of income for the people of Halki, and at the height of summer foreigners strongly outnumber the islanders. And yet the island retains a relative calm, perhaps because it is too remote for tourists on neighbouring Rhodes compared with Symi and other more popular destinations for day trips such as Symi. But this is picture-postcard Greece. The main town, Emborio, is little more than a village at the harbour, and is the only inhabited area on the island today. Emborio is delightful collection of tiered, Italian-style houses, cascading down to the water's edge. The town's parish church, Saint Nicholas, boasts a museum, a fine pebble-mosaic (hokhalki) courtyard, an arch made of ancient marbles taken from the temple of Apollo and a campanile by the architect Lefteris Sellas of Rhodes. In front of the unique Town Hall, the clock tower, donated by islanders living in exile, is the tallest in the Dodecanese. 'Island of Peace' In 1983, Unsesco designated Halki 'The Island of Peace and Friendship of International Youth'. Since 1990, the Greek foreign policy think-tank, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (Eliamep), has sponsored the Halki International Seminars, promoting the exchange of ideas, experience and understanding, and helping to build links between decision-makers, researchers, academics, the media and other professionals involved in international affairs. Over the years, the Halki International Seminars (HIS) have become an institution, and have engaged more than 1,000 alumni from at least 60 countries. This year's seminar, under the title 'Mediterranean Crossroads: Culture, Religion and Security', brought together a dynamic and exciting group of people to look at current developments in European-Mediterranean links, and the role of religion in conflicts and in building partnerships in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Palestinians and Israelis sat down together to debate future political and economic relations between their communities and societies as the Israeli government was pushing ahead with its plans to build a wall separating the West Bank from Israel proper while refusing to debate the future of illegal settlements on the West Bank. They discussed the problems facing refugees in the Arab world and the dilemmas facing Arab citizens of the Israeli state. Europeans and Arabs looked at the risks facing their political and economic relations under the shadow of a looming, early US war with Iraq. Greeks and Turks discussed the thaw in relations between their neighbours as the Turks prepared for their general election. And Europeans and Israelis were frank with each other about their different approaches and values in the field of human rights. Religion in conflict We were all conscious that a major factor in all these issues was the role played by the three major monotheistic faiths ö Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Dr Theodoros Koutroubas, a Greek theologian working at the Catholic University of Louvain, reminded us that our three cultures could be factors for either division or unity. I was asked to chair one of the sessions of Working Group III, where we examined 'Muslim Christian relations in the 21st century Europe'. It was impossible not to be reminded that since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, Islam has replaced Marxism for many in our society as their perceived, major 'external threat'. However, Islam is not an 'outsider' in European history, politics and culture. We have to ask whether the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo would have been possible if we had been more open in accepting the place of Muslims in European culture and history. As the European Union prepares to welcome new member states from the Balkan region, we were reminded that these states contain large, culturally rich, Muslim minorities who are confident in their European identity. Professor Ahmet Davutoglu of Beykent University in Istanbul challenged the notion popularised by Samuel Huntingdon that we face an imminent clash between Western, post-Christian societies and the Islamic world in some inevitable and irresistible 'clash of civilisations', and he spoke eloquently of the potential his native Turkey had to offer to Europe today. Dr Yahya Michot, a Belgian who has become a Muslim and who now works as a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, spoke from a European Muslim perspective, and reminded us that there are six million Muslims already living within the EU today, with large Muslim communities among the Indo-Pakistanis in Britain, the Algerians in France and the Turks in Germany. Dr Ekaterina Nikova of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, Dr Dia Anagnostou of the Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki, and Dr Xavier Bougarel from France spoke of the impact of European integration on the Muslim communities in Bulgaria, Bosnia, Kosovo and other Balkan states. Practical fieldwork But we were all conscious too that we were meeting on the first anniversary of the awful events of September 11th. In a practical exercise in fieldwork that provided an immediate experience of Muslim-Christian relations and the impact of Muslim-Christian conflict, I took a small party consisting of Dr Davutoglu, Dr Michot and Dr Nikova on the ferry to visit Rhodes on that date. On the road from Kamiros Skala into the city of Rhodes, we passed by Philerimos, with its 18-metre high cross on the mountain top, illuminated and clearly visible at night from the coast of neighbouring Turkey, and passed through the now dilapidated suburb of Kritika, once the home of Muslim refugees from Crete who boosted the island's Muslim population between 1898 and 1913. The old city of Rhodes has an exotic skyline of minarets and domes, palm trees and battlements, illustrating the chequered history of the island, shaped by the conflicts and cultural exchanges between Ottomans and Crusaders, Muslims and Christians, in the past. We visited the Archaeological Museum, walking around the balconies and peeping into the cells of the former hospital, where knights and crusaders once had their wounds and wearies soothed. We walked up Ippoton, the Gothic 'Street of the Knights', stopping to visit one of the few surviving Ottoman houses, with its courtyard, bubbling fountain and wooden balconies. We looked in at the Inns of the Knights, and prayed together inside a tiny Crusader chapel, before touring the Palace of the Grand Masters, a vulgar restoration during Mussolini's occupation of the island but a stunning reminder, nonetheless, of how war and conflict dominated relations between Christians and Muslims for centuries. Bazaars, libraries and coffee Rhodes had been conquered by the Knights in 1306, and remained their headquarters until they were moved to Malta after the island was captured by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1522. We strolled through the streets of the old Turkish bazaar, but were unable to visit the most conspicuous Turkish monument in Rhodes, the Suleymaniye Mosque, built after the Turkish conquest almost 400 years ago but now covered in scaffolding and under repair. Opposite it, however, we visited the Ottoman Library, which is endowed with a rich collection of early medieval manuscripts and Korans, and in a side-street we visited a Muslim family who run a restaurant in the old quarter and who still speak Turkish. Later, in the shaded corner of a peaceful square, as Katerina and I sipped coffee ö Turkish coffee and Greek coffee are the same in every detail except for name ö in a peaceful square, Yahya and Ahmet were able to pray at the Ibrahim Pasha Mosque, built in 1531 and still used by the sizeable minority of Muslims on the island. We also visited the Jewish Quarter of Rhodes, where I brought my friends to the Square of the Hebrew Martyrs, and showed them the monuments to the Jews of Rhodes who suffered an appalling fate during World War II. I recalled how 1,673 Jews from Rhodes and 120 from Kos were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis in June 1944. Of these, barely 80 survived, and there are less than 40 Jews in Rhodes today. A shared culture As a day-trip, it was a potent reminder of the role the three monotheistic faiths have played in wars and conflicts over the centuries, and a reminder too of how all three faiths have contributed richly to our shared culture and civilisation. And that was what the conference was all about, I suppose. The next day, when the seminar was over and as we sailed once again from Halki for Rhodes, I looked back at Emborio, with its tiered, pastel-coloured villas, its clock tower and campanile, and a windmill crowning the hills above the harbour. To the west, we could pick out the ruins dating back to the Hellenistic period, and above it the castle built by the crusading Knights of Saint John of Rhodes in the 15th century. I was glad I had visited Halki and Rhodes in more peaceful times. As I caught my flight to Athens, I hoped I could return again soon. Rev Patrick Comerford is Regional Co-ordinator of the Church Missionary Society Ireland (CMS Ireland). Contact: theology@ireland.com Diocesan
Web site In an exciting development, the Diocesan
web site has been completely updated and revised to better reflect the
Diocese and the needs of its visitors. Navigation through the site has
been vastly improved so that visitors can navigate from one main window
into the many pages of information. New for the site will be extracts
from the Diocesan magazine, a collection of youth specific resources,
a section on safeguarding trust, the Mother's Union, COMAC, the Youth
Councils, BB, GFS, Vision 2020 and a guest book where you can interact
with the site and other visitors. To Date there have been at least 4000 hits on the home page alone and so the continued development of the Diocesan web site is of clear importance. Visitors have been from over 30 different countries with a large proportion from the US. You can visit the site at www.cashel.anglican.org . Comments are always welcome which may be emailed to Rev'd Philip Heak, webmaster@cashel.anglican.org. From
the Diocesan Youth Officer This month many congratulations are in store: Congratulation to Ferns Youth council on an extremely successful Fancy Dress Halloween Table Quiz; to Laois Youth Council on a brilliant harvest ball and to our Bishop Elect, Very Rev'd Peter F Barrett. Confirmation Retreat Safeguarding Trust May I take this opportunity to wish all a very happy Christmas and a New Year that will be filled with God's Blessing.
Our next Christmas event will be an under
18 Disco in Gorey Church Hall on Saturday 21st December. It will be a
brilliant night and details are available from Rachel on 055 27304 or
Rev'd Philip (056 71854)
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Last Modified: January 28, 2003 © Cashel & Ossory 2002