01.07.2022
Chapel on former CICE site deconsecrated
The Chapel of the former Church of Ireland College of Education in Rathmines was deconsecrated yesterday (Thursday June 30). The Act of Deconsecration was read by Archbishop Michael Jackson, in the presence of the Diocesan and Provincial Registrar the Revd Robert Marshall and a congregation.
The Chapel, which was consecrated by Archbishop George Otto Simms in March 1969, is part of the former CICE campus which was vacated by the college following its incorporation into DCU’s Institute of Education in 2016. The Church of Ireland Centre supports the Irish Protestant community and its network of schools. Based at DCU’s All Hallows Campus, it provides the B.Ed pathway for those particularly preparing to teach in Protestant primary schools, within the wider DCU teacher training programme.
Recently, the college building in Rathmines has been used by the boarding department of Alexandra College and the Chapel was used regularly for worship throughout the school year. The school’s new boarding residence, the Hermione Building, will open this August and the former CICE building has been taken over by a language school. It plans to use the Chapel as a quiet space for all associated with the language school in their diversity of world faiths.
The Act of Deconsecration took place in the context of Morning Prayer for the Feast of St Peter (transferred). In a short sermon, Archbishop said that the readings for the Feast of St Peter [Isaiah 49: 1–6 and Acts 11: 1–18] opened up a spirit of adventure both for the people of Israel and for the infant Christian Church. He further suggested that in deconsecrating the Chapel building, there was adventure in allowing the spirit to exist in the world and that we, as gentiles of today, were empowered by the spirit in the service of God.
The Archbishop prayed for the future use of the building for God’s purpose as a quiet space to meet human need. He also prayed for those who had worshiped in the Chapel for over 50 years, remembering particularly those who had died and those who had led worship there.