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 The
Revd Canon Joel Edwards, General Secretary of Evangelical
Alliance in the UK is the guest preacher at this year's Saint
Patrick's Day festival service in Down Cathedral. Joel has held
the position of General Secretary of EAUK since 1997 and also
serves on a number of faith, government and public agency
advisory groups. He is an ordained minister in one of the UK's
major Caribbean denominations and an honorary Canon of St Paul's
Cathedral. He is passionate about unity within the church, but
unity with a purpose - to see real change for real lives and
real communities.
The main St Patrick's Day service takes place in Down Cathedral
at 11.45am, with an earlier service of Holy Communion in Saul
church at 9.30am. The preacher at the service in Saul will be
the recently installed Dean of Down, the Very Revd Henry Hull,
who succeeded the Very Revd John Dinnen (Rector of Hillsborough
Parish) in October 2006.
This year the theme for the day is 'Captive' which links the
story of Patrick with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of
the slave trade. There will be various elements featured in the
services and pilgrimage to reflect this. One example will be in
the annual pilgrimage to Down Cathedral, which follows the
service in Saul, where pilgrims will carry chains as a symbol of
slavery. On the journey pilgrims will also blow whistles in
solidarity with the Micah Challenge 'blow the whistle' campaign
as a sign that we are coming up to 'half time' in the Millennium
Development goals, which seek to halve poverty by 2015. During
the Cathedral service links in the chains will be broken to
signify the abolition of slavery 200 years ago.
A wreath laying ceremony at Saint Patrick's Grave will follow
the service in Down Cathedral. The invited guests this year
include members of the Mothers' Union, StreetReach, Tearfund and
Evangelical Alliance.
Joel Edwards in Lisburn
Those who do not wish to travel to Downpatrick on St Patrick's
Day can hear Canon Joel Edwards a bit nearer home when he will
be the guest preacher at a service in Christ Church Parish,
Lisburn next Sunday evening (18th March) at 7.00pm. Joel will
speak on the topic 'Truly Gracious - is the church good news for
our community'' Organised by the Lisburn City Centre Ministers'
Fellowship, the evening will be hosted by Steve Cave who is the
Northern Ireland Director of the Evangelical Alliance.
12/03/2007
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