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Lisburn City Centre Ministers who organised and
took part in a service for Christian Unity in First
Lisburn Presbyterian Church last Sunday afternoon. L
to R: (front row) Rev John Brackenridge - First
Lisburn, Rev Brian Gibson - Railway Street, Father
Dermot McCaughan - St Patrick?s and the Rev Paul
Dundas - Christ Church. (back row) Rev Brian
Anderson - Seymour Street Methodist, Pastor George
Hilary - Lisburn Christian Fellowship and the Rev
Canon Sam Wright - Lisburn Cathedral.
A special service was held in First Lisburn Presbyterian Church
last Sunday afternoon (21st January) as part of a ?Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity? being held from Thursday18th to
Thursday 25th January. The Service was organised by the Lisburn
City Centre Ministers? Fellowship, which comprises of ministers
from our seven Lisburn city centre churches, they are: Rev Brian
Anderson - Seymour Street Methodist, Rev John Brackenridge -
First Lisburn, Rev Paul Dundas - Christ Church, Rev Brian Gibson
- Railway Street, Pastor George Hilary - Lisburn Christian
Fellowship, Father Dermot McCaughan - St Patrick?s and the Rev
Canon Sam Wright - Lisburn Cathedral.
The Rev John Brackenridge, minister of First Lisburn
Presbyterian Church, gave the call to worship and during the
singing of the opening hymn, the whole congregation greeted one
another. Tom Whyte - Director of Music and the church choir led
the praise, the hymns were ?Holy, Holy, Holy?, ?The Church?s one
foundation? and ?Let all the world?. The Rev John Brackenridge
read the Scripture Reading; Pastor George Hilary - Lisburn
Christian Fellowship, led the a prayer of adoration; the Rev
Paul Dundas, Rector of Christ Church Parish, led a prayer of
confession; the Rev Canon Sam Wright, Rector of Lisburn
Cathedral, led a prayer for the people of Lisburn and the Rev
Brian Anderson - Seymour Street Methodist, led a prayer for each
other.
In his address entitled - My Ecumenical Journey, the Rev. Brian
Gibson, minister of Railway Street Presbyterian Church, spoke of
his early education in Downpatrick and memories of children
waiting at the same bus stop for the same bus and how some went
to the Catholic School while himself and others went to the
Protestant one. He spoke of his conversation prior to attending
Queen?s University and went on to explain his ecumenical
experiences both at University and on the Mission field in Kenya
and how he had learnt to identify people who love Christ.
Speaking of his involvement with Fr Sean Rogan when he came to
live in Lisburn, he recalled the natural way in which Fr Rogan
spoke of his love of Christ and his desire to be included in the
Lisburn City Centre Ministers? Fellowship. Mr Gibson emphasised
that we are Christians because Christ died for us and explained
that the Church is people who have welcomed the Spirit of Christ
into their lives and concluded by praying that God would renew
all of us by His Spirit.
During the service a plain wooden cross was placed at the front
of the church and a Dramatised Song was sung for the people of
South Africa and for the community of Lisburn. During each
spoken verse the music was quietly played and Eithne Burrell,
Ernie Cromie, June Gibson and Heather Middleton came forward to
the foot of the cross and kneeled (these four people represented
the ?voices? of the people of Lisburn).
Following the closing hymn, Father Dermot McCaughan, the new
Parish Priest of St Patrick?s Church, spoke of the importance of
being open to God?s voice in the Word and in the City of Lisburn
and letting God touch us and give us words to speak so that we
will be open to each other and seek ways to speak out with one
voice in Christian Unity.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an international
Christian ecumenical observance kept annually between 18 January
and 25 January. It is actually an octave, that is, an observance
lasting eight days. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began
in 1908 as the Octave of Christian Unity, and focused on prayer
for church unity. The dates of the week were proposed by Paul
Wattson: beginning on the Feast of the Confession, or the Chair,
of Saint Peter on 18 January, and concluding with the Feast of
the Conversion of St Paul on 25 January. In the southern
hemisphere, where January is a vacation time, churches often
find other days to celebrate the week of prayer, for example
around Pentecost (which was suggested by the Faith and Order
movement in 1926), which is also a symbolic date for the unity
of the church.
22/01/2007
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