A Challenge to Keep Going
For the third in the series of evenings for this year's Bishop's Bible Week, Bishop Derek Eaton took as his theme ‘a challenge to endure'. From this, he considered four apostolic encouragements from 2 Timothy 1:1-7;
Paul's Love - "grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ"
Paul's Prayers - with thankfulness, prayer changes things
Paul's confidence in Timothy
God's gift - equipping; power, love, self discipline
The over-arching theme of which is to "keep the faith... keep going"
Worship was led by the Praise Group from St Mary's, Ballybeen and included two solos by Susannah Manning. Susannah won the under 18's Regional Final of a competition to find a voice for the Persecuted Church. Part of the winner's prize included a visit to the Persecuted Church in Cairo Egypt, from where Susannah has recently returned and from where Bishop Derek comes. Stephen Trew provided a presentation on behalf of SAMS about keeping the faith in hard times in the Diocese of Northern Argentina. He told of a group from Down and Dromore who spent time in the area during the summer and plans to restore the Diocese with some help from people from the Church of Ireland. Plans include the rebuilding of a retreat centre (project La Caldera 2010), training theological students and holding a theological conference with clergy from Down and Dromore.
Noreen Erskine read the lesson from 2 Timothy 1:1-7. A former Religious Affairs correspondent for BBC Northern Ireland, where she worked in a range of posts for 20 years, Noreen now work as a freelance journalist, based in Belfast and also helps to train young television and radio journalists in Serbia and Kosovo.
Bishop's Bible week concludes tonight, Friday 29th August at 8pm in Willowfield Parish Church.
Photographs courtesy of John Kelly ©