The Autumn Synod of the Dublin District of the Methodist Church met in the Rathgar church on Tuesday and gave most of its time to matters relating to the Third World.
First-hand reports on the situations in the Caribbean, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone and Haiti were given by members of some of the Dublin churches who were there during the summer. The continuing problems of countries oppressed by debts owed to European and north American countries was the recurrent theme.
The annual Ministers' Refresher Course, recently held at Edgehill College, Belfast, was addressed by Dr Raymond Gillespie. Dr Gillespie is the senior lecturer in modern history at NUI, Maynooth, and also a Methodist local preacher. In a series of three addresses he traced the development of the Irish Methodist tradition but with an aim of relating it to the church's future.
Tradition is not the static thing we are accustomed to thinking it is, and Dr Gillespie offered a basis of discrimination between the worthwhile and the second-rate.
On the day the course opened, the college started an appeal for £500,000 to help fund a development scheme, for which £1,400,000 has already been raised. The scheme will provide a residential block for students. Many are married and family accommodation in this block will provide for those couples who do not have houses near at hand.
The present lecture hall, library and student rooms behind the main building will be demolished to make way for a lecture hall, conference centre, library and reading rooms.
The collection of historic books, papers and other memorabilia gathered by the Wesley Historical Society, and housed in rather crowded premises at Fountainville Avenue, will be moved to a more spacious and convenient location in part of the new wing at the college.
Six of the volunteers who last year visited Uganda will return to that country for two weeks. Their purpose is to follow up the five building projects which were initiated on the first visit, and to renew fellowship with the Ugandan Methodist Church. The leader of this party is Mr Jim Bloomer of Portadown.
The president of the church, the Rev Kenneth Todd, will visit the Adare and Ballingrane Church in Co Limerick tomorrow morning, and in the evening will visit Christ Church, Limerick, where the congregation is both Methodist and Presbyterian, and Shannon, where the congregation is drawn from both of those denominations and from the Church of Ireland.
At the Limerick service Mr Jonathan Holland will be commissioned for work overseas with the Church Missionary Society. He will be accompanied by his wife, Mrs Frances Todd.
On Tuesday, September 19th, Mr Todd will attend a meeting of the Irish Council of Churches at Dundalk. Both he and Mrs Todd will attend the conference of the Irish Medical Association at the Slieve Russell Hotel, Co Cavan, on Friday, September 22nd, when the discussion will be on medical ethics.
On Sunday, September 24th, the president will preach at the morning service in the Methodist Church in Whitehead. This is part of their centenary year celebrations. He will preach at Ballyclare in the evening.
On Saturday, September 23rd, the Lay Witness Movement is holding a morning and afternoon seminar at Cairnshill Methodist Church in Belfast. The theme is "Ministry in the Power of the Holy Spirit".
The morning service to be broadcast on Sunday, September 24th, by RTE Radio 1 (medium wave) will come from Dundrum Methodist Church, Dublin.