An ecumenical Thanksgiving Service for the Gift of Sport will be held in St Patrick's tomorrow evening at 7.30 p.m. The first such service was held 52 years ago; the origin of the idea is not without interest.
Aware of the "sparse worship attendance on Sunday mornings following Saturday night post match celebrations, the late Bob Graves and the Rev George Crummy, his fellow Lions rugby tourist in South Africa, returned to Ireland with the idea of a Sunday Evening Service for All Persuasions in mind."
The Association of School Unions willingly supported the proposal, and with the noteworthy enthusiasm of the sportsmen and women and an encouraging response by members of the public to an open invitation, the first service was held in 1949 in St Peter's Church of Ireland.
Since 1949 the service has been held at various intervals in the Abbey Church, Parnell Square (Presbyterian); the Methodist Church (Stephen's Green); St Ann's, Dawson Street (Church of Ireland); and St Andrew's (Westland Row). The service is now held annually in St Patrick's Cathedral.
In 1987 the service was held in the Adelaide Road Synagogue, when the address was given by Judge Hubert Wine, a former Irish table tennis international, and the Jewish representative for the Sports Service Arrangements Committee.
Outstanding Irish sportsmen and women have given the annual address - Maeve Kyle, Ronnie Delany and Willie John McBride, to name a few. This year the guest speaker will be Sir Ronnie Flanagan, a former interprovincial rugby player and head of the RUC.
Praise will be provided by the Cathedral Choir, the Welsh Male Voice Choir and the Garda Siochana Band.
Organisers of the service regard it as "a focus of sport for Irish men and women". They ask for a full attendance, believing "it is only with the support and enthusiasm of the public" that there can be a continued development of this service for the gift of sport.
The Presbyterian Church and Government Committee, in a recent strongly worded statement on the North, asserts: "It was a mistake to allow the unresolved issues of demilitarisation, policing and decommissioning to be bound up together as is frequently the case. Each of them is important in its own right and needs to be dealt with separately rather than being traded against each other as if there is some kind of equivalence."
The committee insists the Policing Bill has been passed: it is now law. Until the law is changed, it ought to be worked and obeyed. The Bill ought to be in place and working; recruitment of officers must soon be well under way; and decisions about new symbols must be taken as soon as possible.
In the absence of a "consistent consolidation of the Northern Executive," there is a vacuum being filled by paramilitary groups controlling specific areas, which is dangerous and unacceptable.
A number of Bible study groups have concentrated on the Old Testament, seeking the relevance of the books for the 21st century. Better study material than that in Alive and Active - The Old Testament Beyond 2000 (Columba Press, pbk, 192pp) can scarcely be found.
The book's author, Father Aidan Graffy, was eight years at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. His doctorate is on Old Testament prophecy, and for years he has been teaching Old and New Testament in an English seminary.
The book is helpfully organised in 14 succinct chapters in a mainly chronological order. After Creation stories follow stories of the Flood, the Exodus from Egypt and a covenant.
There are then chapters on Judges, Kings, captivities, Psalm and Wisdom Books, Daniel and apocalyptic writings and a concluding chapter on the relevance of the Old Testament. There are useful maps of the Ancient Near East and Palestine, and an index.
The book is rightly described as a basic text and resource for students, ministers and priests in pastoral ministry. It does, as is claimed, show how the Old Testament can speak to the problems of people today in an encouraging, challenging and inspiring way.