THE MODERATOR of the General Assembly, the Right Rev Dr J Stafford Carson, attended the Remembrance Day Service in Westminster Abbey on November 11th. Afterwards, he lunched with other clerics in the adjacent deanery which has access to the historic Jerusalem Chamber.
The occasion afforded him items of widespread general interest. For example, the Archbishop of CanterburyRowan Williams was once a Presbyterian.
When aged 11, his parents moved from Welsh Presbyterianism to All Saints Church of England in Swansea.
The occasion also prompted Dr Carson to recall the significance of the Jerusalem Chamber for Presbyterianism. In 1643, the English Parliament called “learned, godly and judicious divines to meet in Westminster to advise on issues of worship, doctrine, government and discipline of the Church of England”. They met in the Jerusalem Chamber over a period of about five years and produced a confession of faith and a larger and shorter catechism.
The confession of faith, into which went the contribution of Scottish divines, was reformed and in Calvinist theological terms. It remains today the standard of doctrine, subordinate to the Bible, of the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and is still influential in Presbyterian churches worldwide. At ordination in the Irish church all candidates subscribe to this confession with permissible reservation. Subscription led to divisive controversy in the 1820s.
And what is of interest to students of the Bible was also recalled. Committees producing the King James Bible (1611), the Revised Version (1870), the New English Bible (1961) and the Revised English Bible (1989) all met at some time in the historic Jerusalem Chamber.
An annual Walk of Light in inner city Dublin takes place tomorrow, November 22nd. At 6pm the walk will proceed from the starting point at University Church, St Stephen’s Green, and proceed to Christ Church, Leeson Park and eventually conclude at St Bartholemew’s Church of Ireland, Clyde Road.
All are welcome to walk, if even only a section of the way.
The walk is sponsored by the Dublin Council of Churches, comprising 11 denominations.
Two years ago, the Catholic Church became full members, along with four Orthodox churches.
The walk is perceived as a “simple inter-church journey to give expression to a search for light in the darkness often of times economic, social and political”.
Board and senior management of the charity Christian Aid desire member churches, who elect the board, and the wider community, to have account of its work in the world. Christian Aid values its special relationship with the churches as its relief and development agency. The annual meeting provides this opportunity. It will be held on November 30th (St Andrew’s Day) in Bewley’s Hotel, Baskin Lane, Swords, Co Dublin.
The meeting will include worship by Lady Christine Eames; reports by Rev Dr Roger Purce and Margaret Boden, chief executive or Christian Aid Ireland and A Year in Pictures by Adrian Horsman.
The moderator of the General Assembly, J Stafford Carson, will speak on a visit he made to Ethiopia in August hosted by Christian Aid and Tear Fund. Christian Aid disburses substantial aid to projects of African and other churches from its annual world development appeal. The Rev Alan Mitchell, returning from a visit to South Korea, reports useful meetings for investment purposes in Ireland with the Irish Ambassador, Eamon McKee and Kathleen Stephens, the US ambassador.
On a short stay in Dubai, he visited the Dubai Evangelical Christian Centre. The land on which it was built was donated by local sheiks in gratitude for medical services rendered by missionaries in earlier times.
The centre is the base for most churches including the Presbyterians. The congregation numbers about 1,200 with a regular attendance of about 800 on a Friday. Being a Muslim country, this day is the holiday and the holy day.