The rural community in Ireland is experiencing one of the worst crises it has known for many years. Falling prices for agricultural products and the high wages to be found in industry are like the stick and the carrot to encourage young people to leave the land and seek employment elsewhere. Farmers, particularly those with small acreages, are feeling increasingly insecure. The decline in farm incomes, particularly in Northern Ireland, has been catastrophic.
This moved the Methodist Conference in Cork last June to form a small working party to examine the situation and report with urgency. Obviously it is not a problem which the church can hope to resolve, but every mind directed to the issue is of some help towards finding an answer.
When, in the 1940s, there was a great drain from the land as young people emigrated, the contribution which the church made was the foundation of Gurteen Agricultural College. It was the belief of the founders that those who learned better farming methods would be more likely to remain on the land, and subsequent history has proved the truth of this.
Now Gurteen College is concentrating on the present problem. At the end of the month it is holding an afternoon seminar to examine the needs of the farming industry and the means by which the rural community may be helped to preserve its way of life. The college is conscious of the fact that it was founded to save the smaller farmer, whose survival is the most threatened.
During the summer the principal of Edgebill Theological College, the Rev Dr Dennis Cooke, and his wife, Joan, visited Grenada in the West Indies. The island was briefly in the forefront of our newscasts in the 1980s when there was a military coup. It was ended by military intervention from the United States and other Caribbean nations. Dr and Mrs Cooke were particularly impressed by the fervour of young people in the churches they visited on the island. Members of the former military council, who are still in prison, have since professed conversion to Christianity.
The family of the late Rev Dr William McAllister, who was vice-principal and chaplain of Methodist College, Belfast, last year arranged a concert in aid of motor neurone research. They are doing the same this year. It will take the form of two evenings of "music, mince pies and merriment", and will take place in the Elmwood Hall, Belfast, on Friday and Saturday, December 4th-5th.
The President of the church, the Rev Dr Kenneth Wilson, will be visiting Methodist churches in Lurgan, Co Armagh, tomorrow. On Monday he will attend the "2000 for 2000" event in the Waterfront Hall, Belfast. Hosted by the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Right Rev Harold Miller, this event brings together 2,000 people to celebrate the coming of the new millennium in Christian music and song. On Sunday, December 5th, Dr Wilson will be preaching in churches at Finaghy and Seymour Hill, south Belfast.
Also tomorrow, morning service will be broadcast by RTE Radio 1 (medium wave) from the Methodist church at Ardfallen in Cork city. The worship will be led by the minister of the circuit and president-designate of the church, the Rev Kenneth Todd.