THE Annual Women's World Day of Prayer Service will be held on Friday, March 5th. This is a global, interdenominational movement of informed and prayerful action.
Each year the order for service is prepared by women's committees in various parts of the world. The women of Venezuela have prepared a service for this year whose theme is "God's Tender Touch". The drawing together of drama; perennially loved and inspiring old hymns (Dreamer's God Is Love, His The Care) and the modern (Graham Kendrick's Shine, Jesus, Shine) for example; apposite readings from the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament and an address cannot but inspire and challenge those taking part.
Venezuela gained independence from Spain in 1821 and is today a federal republic. The population numbers about 20 million. The official religion is Roman Catholic with Protestants being about 10 per cent of the total.
Spanish is the official language and its main products are crude oil, petroleum products and iron ore. There is much unemployment and emigration. The incidence of the AIDS virus is high.
Beneficiaries from the offerings at services in the republic in the past (1998 for example) have been Irish School of Ecumenics; National Bible Society; Feed the Minds; Scripture Union and Corrymeela Centre for Reconciliation, all receiving £1,000 and more. A number of smaller amounts have been disbursed to other projects.
The president of the Republic of Ireland Committee is Ms Jean Binnie; the secretary, Ms P. Kennedy, and treasurer, Mrs F. Dyson.
The Synod of Dublin will meet in Christ Church, Sandymount, on March 8th and 9th. The Synod begins at 7 p.m. on March 8th. In the course of the evening the newly-elected moderator, the Rev Jean Mackarel (Cavan), will be installed in succession to the Rev James Carson (Greystones and Arklow); business will be conducted and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper celebrated. A wide range of reports with many relevant to the life of the State will be discussed: for example, church and state; education primary, secondary and third-level; and inter-church relations.
The lecturer will be Prof Charles Villa-Vincencio (Truth and Reconciliation Commission). His subject is "Justice, Nation Building and Amnesty - Fragile South African Experience in Transition". All are welcome.
The subject of the lecture, Oliver Tambo, was a teacher and organiser who fiercely opposed apartheid in South Africa and with Nelson Mandela in the 1940s wrought changes in policy and methods of the African National Congress. Mr Tambo, it has been said, kept the ANC alive through long and difficult years in exile. Mr Mandela on his release, with permission to take part in politics, in early 1990 met the rest of the ANC leadership in Zambia, and was elected deputy leader to Mr Tambo, then a sick man.
A must for the Sunday School Library, the Sunday School teacher and each home is the Twenty-First Century Children's Bible, Marshall Pickering, 188pp, £14.99. It includes 365 Bible stories of the Old and New Testaments illustrated in full colour. There are reference panels giving the meaning of the stories; special feature pages on such subjects as the Old and New Testament worlds; families, food, housing work and the Ten Commandments. It is rightly commented that this is the children's adjunct to the Bible for the new era.