Christian conference planned for Westport

A national conference on "Christianity and our Culture" will take place in Westport, Co Mayo, from April 12th to 16th.

"Fis" (Vision) is organised by the Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam and the Church of Ireland Dioceses of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.

Its opening celebrations will be attended by the President, Mrs McAleese, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Neary, and the Bishop of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, the Right Rev Richard Henderson.

Participants over the following days will include the film producer Lord Putnam; the former president of Queen's College Cambridge, the Rev Dr John Polkinghorne; the BBC special correspondent, Fergal Keane; the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray; the media commentator Muiris Mac Conghail; the former head of the Irish Film Board, Ms Lelia Doolin; the author Father John O'Donoghue; and Dr Michael O Suilleabhain, professor of music at Limerick University.

Conference themes will include "Visions of God in Creation", "Visions of God in Ireland", "God and the Media", "Diversity and Religion", and "The Face of God in the Arts".

"It will not be a three-day retreat," Canon Gary Hastings of Westport, chairman of the organising committee, told a press conference in Dublin yesterday. He said they would not be "waking a corpse".