The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity annually draws attention to the very varied pattern of church relations throughout this country. The leaders of the main churches meet in various groups quite regularly, and relations between them have probably never been better. It is at parochial level that the pattern varies. In many parishes the whole church-going population belongs to the one church, and church unity may seem rather a remote idea. In several places throughout Ireland the different churches in a locality are doing far more than meeting for an annual service prayer. They are doing as much together as they can through the whole year. Elsewhere the old barriers seem to be much harder to breach.
Last week a consultation was held in London at which Anglicans and Methodists engaged in joint study and compared experiences. The Scottish Churches Initiative for Union has been working with five participating Protestant churches, and hopes that in three or four years it will be able to formulate a scheme which will unite the five, while celebrating their difference as complementary. A similar number of Welsh churches are proposing the consecration of an ecumenical bishop in the immediate future. This bishop will have authority in each of the participating churches.
That developments of this nature are happening just across the Irish Sea both encourages and challenges the churches here to think more deeply about the question of unity, and the reasons for our present divisions, not all of which are religious.
Meanwhile, the Methodist Church in Ireland continues to report the renovation and extension of some of its premises. In the village of Doagh in Co Antrim the Methodist is the only church building. The present church, the second, was built in 1844. It has recently been enlarged to meet present needs, and fully renovated. The design of the whole complex is now a happy blend of the old and the new, symbolising the determination of the people there to maintain what is good in their tradition, while adapting to the demands of witness in the new millennium.
Methodist in Greenisland is much more recent in origin, the area having been developed residentially only in the 1950s. However, there to a need was felt to renew and extend. Additional ancillary premises have been provided, and again the existing buildings have been fully renovated. The cost of the scheme was £176,000, most of which has already been raised by the people of the church.
Each month the Methodist Newsletter publishes a drawing of a Methodist church somewhere in Ireland. The January issue included Stanley Robinson's fine drawing of the church at Cavehill in Belfast. A limited number of prints of this drawing are available, and those interested in purchasing one, may have full details from Jack Gamble at 08 01232 370 798.
Pastor Bill Hybels, who is senior pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church in the USA, is to visit Northern Ireland next month. He will speak at the Assembly Hall in Belfast on Saturday, February 6th, and in Shankill Parish Church, Lurgan, on Sunday evening February 7th.
The Methodist Missionary Society (Ireland) has announced details of the Stricklands Missionary Conference. It will take place on February 19th-21st, and will focus on opportunities in Europe. Dr Stephen Plant, of the Methodist World Church Office, will be the speaker. On the same dates the Global Encounter for young people will take place at Carnalea Methodist Centre in Bangor.
Tomorrow, the president of the church, Rev David J. Kerr will preach at Donegal Road Church, Belfast, in the morning and at the Christian Unity Service in Hamilton Road Church in Bangor in the evening. On Sunday, January 31st, he will be in Fermanagh. In the morning he will preach at Irvinestown, and in the evening at Lisbellaw.