Recently a large number of the congregation and friends met in the Arts Centre of the Bank of Ireland in Dublin for the publication of a history of 100 years of worship and witness in Howth and Malahide. The history was written by the Rev Dr William O'Neill, whose ministry spanned nearly 38 years of the period.
The booklet is of interest generally, and especially for the whole community of Howth and Malahide. It features the importance in the mid-19th century of the visiting Scottish herring fleet to Howth: the perseverance of dedicated families and individuals, and socio-demographic changes as impetus in the building of churches and the formation of congregations.
The book was introduced by a leading Dublin consultant, Mr John Kirker, an elder in the congregation. The cost of printing and publication was partially funded by Fingal County Council and the Millennium Committee.
The entire profits from the sale go to the St Francis Hospice, Raheny, as a Centenary Thanksgiving of the congregation. Copies, priced £5, may be had from Ms Ann Coulter, Beechfield House, Strand Road, Sutton, tel: 01-8323324.
The Rev Dr Ray Davey has found time to write during his long, busy and extremely varied ministry. Don't Fence Me In was the title of a book on his experience during the second World War and especially gives an account of life as a prisoner of war for a time. Proceeds from the sale went to fund a project adjoining Queen's University Belfast for accommodation for students. He has recently written Six Autobiographical Pieces of much "candour and insight" for his six grandchildren. These are informative and of wide general interest and are on sale in Family Books, Church House, Belfast, at £6stg, but may also be obtained from the Corrymeela Office, Belfast.
Recently Mrs Olive Marshall, wife of the Rev "Fergie" Marshall, and a worker at the Vine Centre when founded, cut the first sod of a new centre, aided by the Moderator, Dr Morrow. .
The Vine Centre was conceived by the Synod of Belfast 30 years ago and works today out of four premises. One of these at Crumlin Road, Belfast, is near the Ardoyne and the Shankill Road where many of the most deprived and disadvantaged of the two traditions in the city are found.
It is reckoned that the various needs of up to about 500 persons weekly are met here. A lunch club, play clubs for children, a help-with-homework group and drug and sex information groups are but a few of those through which the community is being helped in a Christian context.
The Presbyterian Women's Association as a birthday thank offering will give £100,000 to equip the new centre. Gifts for the centre may be made to the director, Ms Lynda Gibson, at Church House, Fisherwick Place, Belfast.
Belfast City Mission, founded 174 years ago, has met various needs in many areas of the developing city since then. In 19 Mission Halls today, dedicated missioners and helpers organise pensioner clubs, activities for the young and access to counselling, as well as conducting services of worship.
The Mission's most recent centre has opened at Glencairn, Belfast, at one time idyllic, now a warren of comparatively new houses, tenanted largely by many from the Shankill Road, undergoing redevelopment and allegedly a bastion of Protestant paramilitarism.
The recently built centre cost £350,000, which was raised almost entirely by Belfast City Mission. However, a donation was made by the European Union Peace and Reconciliation Fund. Led by missioner George Lunn, problems of high unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse and the lure of the paramilitaries are being met daily.
In the new centre a Girls' Brigade company of 70 meets each week; a Boys' Brigade company, Anchor Boys and a Junior and company section of the Boys' Brigade will be started soon.