The synods of the eight districts into which the Methodist Church in Ireland is administratively divided met within the last couple of weeks to begin the preparation of matters which will be discussed at the conference. This will meet in June at Cork.
One of the most interesting facts is that the synods have recommended 14 ministerial probationers for ordination. The church is quite small, with fewer than 120 ministers in active work in Ireland. The last occasion in recent years when the number of ordinands reached double figures was 1962, when it was 12. One of the 12 is one of the two ministers who will retire this year.
The Methodist Young Women's Association has between 30 and 40 groups meeting at various places throughout the country. Each year these groups are asked to raise money for a special project which need not necessarily be in Ireland.
However, in 1998-1999 it was, and £11,000 was raised for a Methodist centre in west Cork. Next year the association has adopted a project in Sri Lanka. The Rev Stephen and Mrs Marlene Skuce are working at Maradana, where a hostel is being built for young women. Work has already begun on this, and the money raised by the YWA will help to bring it to completion.
The president of the church, the Rev David J. Kerr, will spend Easter in his own circuit, the Belfast Central Mission. On Saturday, April 17th, he will speak at a conference of the Ballynahinch Circuit.
The Sunday after Easter is Local Preachers' Sunday, when most of the services throughout the church will be led by local preachers, i.e. lay people accredited to lead worship. By a curious coincidence, Irish Methodist churches will be responsible for broadcasts from RTE radio and television on the same day.
The service on Radio 1 will be broadcast from Bandon Methodist Church, Co Cork, and will be led by local preachers from the West Cork Circuit. The service from the television studio, broadcast on RTE 1, will be led by members of the North Tipperary Circuit and the preacher will be their minister, the Rev Richard D. Rowe.
The EXTERN Organisation in Belfast is organising a conference on "Restorative Justice" in Dublin on Friday, April 23rd, from 10 a.m., with the concluding remarks at 3.30 p.m. It will take place in the Dublin International Arbitration Centre at Church Street and will be addressed by Judge David Smyth, a crown and county court judge in Northern Ireland; Mr Oliver Wilkinson, of Victim Support; Dr Ivo Aertson, of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; and the Rev Jim Consedine, who has been a prison chaplain in New Zealand.
The conference will be opened by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform., Mr O'Donoghue. Information is available from (01) 872-0344 or (01232) 240900.
The Irish inter-church meeting has just published a small but very useful and practical booklet on the subject of inter-church marriages. Called Ministering to Interchurch Couples: Help for Clergy, it deals briefly with such matters as the wedding, the baptism of children, and general pastoral care. It runs to 31 pages, and can be had from the Inter-Church Centre, 48 Elmwood Avenue, Belfast.
The spring issue of Lion & Lamb, quarterly publication of ECONI, contains the text of the address given by the Rev Dr Norman Taggart, former president of the church, in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, last November. His subject was "Christian Perspectives on Reconciliation".