Six presbyters ordained for curacies in the diocese
This year’s Service of Ordination of Presbyters/Priests, took place in Down Cathedral on Sunday 28 August. Bishop Harold ordained six presbyters for curacies in the diocese and the cathedral was filled with their families, supporters and sponsors.
The preacher was Bishop Michael Nazir–Ali, the current President of OXTRAD* and former Bishop of Rochester.
Bishop Michael said he felt privileged to speak at a service of ordination in Down Cathedral, which has such close associations with the beginnings of Christian faith in Ireland.
He continued: “I’m very conscious of the contribution that the church in Ireland has made down the centuries in the cause of mission and ministry throughout the world, and we thank God for that and for the continuation of that story as it is represented in the ordination of these people this afternoon.”
Bishop Michael preached from Isaiah 61 and from the gospel reading in John 19 when the risen Christ appears to the fearful disciples in the upper room. As Jesus comes he brings a new, transformative order into the midst of the old.
The Bishop said that those being ordained would be representatives of this new order of peace – peace with God and peace with one another, and called to: “Reconcile people to God and one another; to restoration of the poor into that image which God has for them; to the recovery of sight to those who have lost that very sense of their own destiny; to the release of those who are bound by chains they cannot see; to the renewal of the church to its first love and to the rebuilding of what has been destroyed.”
He reminded the ordinands that: “None of this can be done in our own strength but in utter dependence on God’s grace, on daily living with Christ; on the work of the Spirit in our lives and in the lives of those who meet us and see us and hear us.
“It has to do with a life of prayer, reliance on the means of grace that God has provided for us in the sacraments; on the fellowship of Christians where we are placed; on the teaching of the church. All of that we need to have and to use if our ministry is to be effective. No one can undertake this task lightly and without due prompt.”
Click on the links below to find out more about each of the presbyters:
- Revd Bill Donoghue for the curacy of Willowfield
- Revd Raymond Kettyle for the curacy of Cregagh
- Revd Scott McDonald to serve as Diocesan Curate with the Lecale Area Mission Partnership (LAMP) Ministry Team
- Revd Peter Munce for the curacy of Moira
- Revd Robert Smyth to serve as Diocesan Curate with special responsibility for the Parish of Annalong
- Revd Colin Taylor to serve as Diocesan Curate with special responsibility for the Parish of Dromara and Garvaghy
*Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue