09.06.2014
Together in One Place – Ecumenical Bible Week Gets Underway
Ecumenical Bible Week is now in full swing and continues until Trinity Sunday. The week opened yesterday (Pentecost, Sunday June 8) with a short service in Trinity College Chapel led by the Revd Dr Kieran J O’Mahony, OSA, and the Revd Ken Rue who are chairman and assistant chairman of the coordinating committee for the week (pictured).
This new initiative, involving all the main churches, aims to celebrate and honour the centrality of Scripture within all traditions. Throughout this week there will be a range of different events in locations in Dublin, Arklow and Leixlip with sessions rotating among the venues.
Sessions examine subjects such as the Bible and Film which uses clips of biblical films to explore questions such as: if the Bible appears to be making a comeback on our television and movie screens in recent years, is this something to be welcomed or lamented? Do cinematic depictions of the Bible erode people’s understanding of Scripture?
The Bible and Music presentation will bring participants on a journey of the scriptures through song from the Creation story and the Psalms to the Gospels and the Letters as they experience how music often exceeds the spoken word in expressing moods and feelings of the soul, lifts one’s spirit and gives courage, and is used to teach the gospel.
In the Exploring and Praying Scripture sessions, different speakers will focus on principles of engaging with the Bible. There will also be a sample group meeting so that people can experience what participating in a group is like.
The Bible and Contemporary Issues session takes place in the light of the Seoul Declaration on Environmental Ethics which said, “the scale and magnitude of environmental problems are such that they must be recognized as having a religious as well as a scientific dimension; efforts to safeguard the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred,” we will dialogue with the Bible to see what it might have to say to us today about environmental issues. Other sessions under this heading focus on Mental Health and the Bible and the vision of the Corrymeela Christian Community.
On Thursday evening (June 12) a special session entitled ‘Thinking Allowed” will take place in All Hallows College, Drumcondra, starting at 7.30 pm. This will be a chaired panel discussion with audience participation. The topic will be “What the Bible means to me”. Unlike the other events, this is to take place only once. The panel will be made up from the leadership of the different churches and traditions including Archbishop Michael Jackson (Church of Ireland), Archbishop Dearmuid Martin (Roman Catholic), the Revd Lorraine Kennedy–Ritchie (Presbyterian), Mrs Gillian Kingston (Methodist), Sean Mullan (3rd Space) and Fr Mikhail Nazonov (Russian Orthodox). They will be interviewed by Philip McKinley.
The closing ceremony will take place in All Hallows on Trinity Sunday, June 15, at 3.00 pm.
Full details of all events and their locations can be found at bibleweek.ie