Celebrity Baby Shower Gift

For Saturday 30 January 2010

Primate to Lecture on Celtic Heritage
The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, will deliver a lecture on ‘The Celtic Heritage of Armagh’ in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, next Monday evening at 7.30 pm.

Archbishop Harper was previously an archaeologist and worked on the last excavation of Navan Fort. He is a former Chairman of the Historic Monuments Council for Northern Ireland and received an OBE for services to conservation in Northern Ireland. Along with Environment Minister, Edwin Poots, he recently launched An Archaeological Survey of County Armagh published by the N.I. Environment Agency.

The Revd Grace Clunie, Director of Celtic Spirituality at the Centre for Celtic Spirituality in Armagh says, ‘The theme for this year’s programme at The Centre for Celtic Spirituality, Armagh – ‘Ancient paths, new journeys’ – reflects the connections between the traditions of history and contemporary faith and culture. Archbishop Harper is one who knows about this connection intimately through his own life experience – firstly as an archaeologist, uncovering the mysteries of the ancient past, and then as a priest of the church practising his faith in worship and pastoral ministry.  This event is open to anyone who has an interest in understanding more about our connections with our ancient past, and the richness of our heritage for contemporary life in Ireland.’

Admission is by ticket and these may be purchased from the Church of Ireland Cathedral Gift Shop or the Revd Grace Clunie at 048-38 870 667 or by e-mail. Proceeds for the lecture will go to support the Centre for Celtic Spirituality in Armagh.

Meanwhile in Belfast the 2010 Church of Ireland Annual Theological Lectures at Queen’s University next Monday and Tuesday will be given by the Archbishop of York, the Most Revd John Sentamu. Both lectures will be held in the David Kerr Building, Malone Road, and will be preceded by tea and biscuits in the Church of Ireland Centre, 22 Elmwood Avenue, from 3.45pm. Seats are limited and may be reserved at 90667754 or by e-mail . CDs of both lectures will be available at £6 and may be ordered on the evening.

Tomorrow is the Feast of Candlemas. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 5pm the Cathedral Choir will sing at the Candlemas Procession. The music is an intriguing mix of the old and new with pieces by Weelkes, Finnissy, Berkeley, Eccard and O’Reagen. In the Chapel of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute the preacher at the Candlemas Eucharist will be Dr Pete Willcox, Canon Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral.

In the Mansion House, Dublin, tomorrow evening the Archbishop of Dublin will attend the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration. Among the other participants will be Dr Susan Hood who will recite a prayer for Christian victims.

A unique set of sculptures by Jean Parker known as ‘Good Grief/Bald Statements’ will leave the U.K. for the first time next week for a three week exhibition in St. John’s Church, John Street,  Kilkenny. The exhibition will be open to the public from 10am until 4pm each day from next Monday until Thursday 18th February. Admission is free although groups should book in advance by telephoning 087-2363100

The public lecture programme at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute continues next Wednesday at 8pm with a lecture by novelist and church historian, Dr Katherine Fox, who will speak on ‘The Novelist as Theologian’. Dr Fox is a regular columnist in the Church of England Newspaper and is the author of a number of best selling books including Angels and Man and The Benefits of Passion.

On Thursday evening at 7pm in Room C214 of the Newman Building in UCD Dr Richard O’Leary, QUB, will speak on ‘Civil Partnership: the Response of the Irish Churches’.

The final curtain has fallen in Durham on Phil and Mark Brewers bruising foray into UK bookselling. The good news that Durham Cathedral is sticking to its promise to re-open the shop under Cathedral management. Earlier this week the shop was suddenly closed (probably by email - that seems to be the Brewers preferred way of laying people off), following some rapid reshuffling of stock the week before as snow and frost damage started affecting the Great Kitchen, main site of the bookshop.

Reports:
Bookseller
Church Times (subscriber only till Friday 5th Feb)
SPCK/SSG News Notes and Info (comments too)

According to the Northern Echo, the Cathedral has said that it will re-employ the 6 current staff, though it has longer term plans to do a feasibility study on the best site for a bookshop. I just hope that what was once a flagship theological bookshop doesn't get lost: it must be tempting for Cathedrals to follow the dollar and stock teatowels, fudge and union jack merchandise to pay for the biblically proportioned heating and maintenance bills. Durham used to be an excellent theological bookshop, and with a university and two training colleges on the doorstep, there must still be a market there if it can recover its reputation. The comments of the chapter clerk in the Echo report suggest that the bookshop and gift shop might be separate entities.

The Echo also notes: Neither the Brewers nor the Saint Stephen the Great Trust could be contacted for comment. Now there's a surprise.

Someone who I think is one of the bookshop staff has commented on the Durham Cathedral Facebook page: "We are devasted but I'm sure that the new shop will be a fantastic one. Thanks to our customers and friends for their support."

There is still some unfinished business:
- Unpaid staff, and issues over pension payments
- Brewer creditors, and whether they'll see their money again. However, unless creditors are prepared to pursue the Brewers through the courts (oh for a workable extradition treaty with the USA!), it's unlikely that the bills will be paid.
- The nature of the settlement with former staff who settled out of court with the Charity Commissioners in 2009.

Last I heard Phil Brewer owned a private plane (sorry, originally called this a 'jet', which isn't accurate - see comments. Got a bit carried away...) and Mark Brewer ran a law firm with 7 attorneys plus support staff, and regularly dealt with million dollar cases. They are named as the trustees of the Society of St. Stephen the Great (which originally took on the bookshops from SPCK), and the Directors of ENC Management (which took over from SSG, leaving all SSG bills unpaid and zeroing the Brewer debts at a stroke). I still can't work out how they get to walk away from all this. I also can't work out how Mark Brewer gets full marks for ethics.

As the title suggest, this is probably my last post on the SPCK/SSG campaign. Well done to Phil Groom, Dave Walker and Matt Wardman for being the backbone of it, lets hope and pray the Christian book trade can learn some lessons - they've certainly come at a price.