Mr Michael Coote, founder-president of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, overcame the problem of how to introduce two archbishops of different denominations.
Wisely, after articulating the problem, he ignored it. Instead, he welcomed everyone to a "very informal", "very friendly" gathering at the new multi-denominational day-care centre in Drimnagh, Dublin, yesterday.
The two archbishops, Dr Desmond Connell, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and the Most Rev Walton Empey, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, were visiting to highlight next Wednesday's World Day of the Sick. A special ecumenical service of prayers and hymns for Alzheimer sufferers and their carers will be held that evening at Clonliffe College at 8 p.m.
Yesterday volunteers and patients mingled freely, some dancing in a ring, as they waited for the tea and biscuits which would mark the consummation of the archbishops' visit. Both men visited the various rooms together, talking to everyone. At a table in one room a woman looked through old photographs. She could not say what her name was.
World Day of the Sick is an annual day of prayer instigated by Pope John Paul II. Every year the Dublin (Catholic) Archdiocese focuses on a particular illness. This year it was decided to invite the Church of Ireland to join it in focusing on Alzheimer patients and their carers.
Dr Connell told The Irish Times that yesterday's ecumenical event was something he would like to develop, while Archbishop Empey said he would like to see "more of this". Both were of the view that ecumenical relations in caring for the sick in Dublin were very good. Dr Connell commented that such relations at the new Tallaght hospital were excellent.
Archbishop Empey said this pattern now extended itself to chaplaincies at third-level colleges where there was a very definite ecumenical approach, which he welcomed.
Ms Winnifred Bligh, a founder of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and inspiration behind the Drimnagh centre, said it catered for up to 100 sufferers a week. An ambulance, donated by the Freemasons, collected patients each day and left them home later, relieving carers for hours. There are 33,000 Alzheimer sufferers in Ireland, she said, and the society has 16 centres nationwide. It is currently looking for a site in Raheny.
She thought it would be nice to have bishops "in at the beginning [of centres] when we are struggling, as well as when we are up and running".
And Ms Barbara Scully, PRO for the society, explained that among the last things sufferers forget are the prayers they learned by heart as children. "They get great comfort from that," she said.
