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Monthly Archives: February 2012

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Finding a happy story

For the fainthearted . . .

Each 29th February, the clergy of our diocese meet for a four-yearly review. In his chairman’s remarks the bishops reflected on where people might have been four years ago. Struggling to remember anything of the day, other than going to visit a lady who was celebrating her 22nd birthday at the age of 88, I discovered I had been told a happy story that day and wrote about it here:

“Zimbabwe is amongst the worst countries on Earth.

In a generation Robert Mugabe has reduced his people to destitution. He …

To set the record straight

For the fainthearted . . .

Letter to the Church of Ireland Gazette

Sir,

When my Katharine, my wife, was appointed dean of Saint Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny on 23rd December 2009, it became immediately obvious that I would need to leave my Dublin parish and find one within striking distance of Kilkenny.

Bishop Michael Burrows suggested that the parish of Leighlin, which would fall vacant in spring 2010 might be suitable, offering the position of dean and rector of the small group of parishes, and a role within the diocese developing adult education and training.…

Sermon for Sunday 4th March (Second Sunday in Lent)

For the fainthearted . . .

“”Who do you say I am?” Mark 8:29

Our reactions to stories of scandals in public life show that we expect the actions of those in public life to match the words of those who occupy high office, but if we’re going to apply these standards to public life, then shouldn’t we also apply them  to ourselves? Jesus warns in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke that the measure we apply to others is the measure that will be applied to us. Does the way we speak, the …

Cornish Utopia

For the fainthearted . . .

Cornwall was featured on BBC television’s Countryfile  – a special place; in childhood years it was a magical place. It is a county where beauty transforms ordinary life.

During the 1981 riots over poverty and alienation  in English cities, the unemployment rate in parts of Cornwall was over 20%, yet there were no protests and no violence. It is a far from  privileged place, yet it is a place where life is lived in a different context: in a context contrasting sharply with the brutal ugliness of many urban landscapes, …

Closed down

For the fainthearted . . .

Mountrath and Castletown railway station was on the Great Southern and Western railway. It opened on 1 September 1848, and was on the main line from Dublin to Cork, the ‘Premier Line’ as it was called. A National Library of Ireland photograph from the turn of the Twentieth Century shows a fine country railway station; with sturdy buildings and an elegant wrought iron bridge taking one from the ticket office and waiting room building to the Down platform where Cork-bound trains stopped.

The extent of the buildings point to a …

On being a Protestant

For the fainthearted . . .

Limerick blogger and rugby afficionado and atheist, Bock the Robber asked that I might type a few words on Protestant ‘ethos’ for his blog. Having spent most of my life as a Church of Ireland clergyman, it should have been something that came easily, describing what made us what we are, what shaped our view of the world; except it didn’t.

“Looking for ethos in doctrinal statements or authoritative expressions offers few insights. Church of Ireland doctrine is expressed in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, a sixteenth century statement that …

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