21.09.2021
Revd Prof Anne Lodge appointed Priest Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral
The Revd Prof Anne Lodge has taken up the role of Priest Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral. Prof Lodge is the Director of the Church of Ireland Centre (CIC) in the DCU Institute of Education. In this part time voluntary role, she will contribute to the life of the cathedral through collaborations on educational programming.
The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, has welcomed Prof Lodge to the ministry team of the cathedral.
“Professor Lodge’s new role will be Priest Scholar which encapsulates the varied ministry Anne will engage in throughout her time with us. Anne brings with her a breath of experience and a depth of knowledge gained from her many academic pursuits and qualifications. Anne continues to pursue her career as Director of the Church of Ireland Centre at Dublin City University. This being a more than full time post Professor Lodge will weave her ministry with us through her daily commitments to her profession. The cathedral is ideally placed to accommodate such a varied and yet non defined ministry whereby Professor Lodge will be able to use her extensive educational knowledge in many and varied ways to enhance the cathedral’s educational outreach to the united dioceses and the wider Dublin community. I am excited by this development and I look forward to working closely with Anne as she begins a new chapter in her ministry as the cathedral opens to new and exciting possibilities and expressions of ministry,” he said.
Prof Anne Looney, Executive Dean of Dublin City University’s Institute of Education, has also commended Prof Lodge on her new role.
“I want to congratulate my colleague and the Director of the DCU Church of Ireland Centre, Rev Prof Anne Lodge, on her new role as Priest Scholar in Christ Church Cathedral. In many ways, the relationship between a denominational Centre and the secular University mirrors the relationship of a Cathedral to its city. The spaces are different, but the spaces between can be a source of insight, dialogue, challenge, reflection and research. Anne will bring her experience as the founding director of the DCU Church of Ireland Centre, her widely recognised leadership in scholarship and advocacy in teacher education and school governance to this new ministry. And in turn, this new ministry can further connect the Centre to the communities and schools it serves, and open new spaces – secular, sacred and scholarly – for our students and researchers. We look forward to learning more about the role as it evolves,” she commented.
Prof Lodge said she was blessed to have been given the opportunity to become part of the cathedral’s ministry team.
“I have spent many years doing part–time parish ministry, as a youth leader, a Sunday School teacher, a parish reader, a lay reader, an ordinand, a deacon intern and then a curate. Serving in a parish, in any capacity, is a great privilege. Being part of the life of the diocesan cathedral is also a great privilege. My ministry encompasses both my day–to–day work in the Church of Ireland Centre, and indeed, across the university in DCU and my new ministry in Christ Church Cathedral. My location in both places will enable me to explore and extend the sharing of those distinct ministries between the two spaces. One of the great blessings of the part–time, voluntary role that I now hold in the Cathedral is that I am free, in consultation with the Dean and other members of the cathedral community, to shape this role creatively, innovatively and in ways inspired by our shared Christian faith and vocations,” she explained.
The first two shared activities give some flavour of the creativity and public expressions of, and engagement with faith that this role can facilitate. Last May, the Church of Ireland Centre, the Centre for the Study of Irish Protestantism, the Cathedral and the United Dioceses were involved in a shared initiative to launch the latest Lindchester book by Catherine Fox in a live–streamed event that can now be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVFA_oT_Jto. It is hoped that similar joint public initiatives with a variety of speakers and topics will be held in the future. Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland Centre, the cathedral and the United Dioceses will host an exhibition of children’s work from ten primary schools entitled ‘Living Faith Living History’ in Christ Church later in October. There will be a live exhibition and also a publication based on the children’s work.