DIOCESE OF TUAM , KILLALA AND A CHON RY HARVEST ISSUE 2020 The Bishop writes . With some 85 members, it will be very different sitting in our own homes but we are confident we can get the business completed in an orderly fashion adhering to our Diocesan Regulations. Two important resolutions coming before the Synod, if passed, will see the Tuam and Omey Groups amalgamated under the leadership of the Dean and the Killala and Kilmoremoy Unions re-united with the Archdeacon as Rector. So too, in September we are preparing HARVEST ISSUE 2020 for three ordination services – I wonder The magazine of the Church of Ireland when a Bishop of Tuam was last able to Diocese of Tuam, Killala and Achonry As I write at the beginning of September write that! Again, Covid restrictions will Covid 19 marches on causing disruption, www.tuam.anglican.org mean that no more than 50 people can anxiety and fear across the world. In attend any of these services. Six Ireland, the daily count of new cases is COPY DEADLINE candidates in all will be ordained – on the increase again and there are All submissions for the Summer Issue Caroline Morrow and Clive Moore as concerns that if this cannot be reversed, of Tidings, including advertisements, deacons in St Michael’s Ballina on Sunday must be in by 6th November 2020 we are heading for further restrictions, 13th September, Paidi Delaney as a or worse, another lockdown! On a deacon in St Nicholas’ Galway on VIEWS EXPRESSED positive note, the search for a vaccine Sunday 20th September and Karen Views expressed in Tidings are those continues and recent discoveries have Duignan, Maebh O’Herlihy and Carole of the contributors and are not meant that certain drugs are now being Reynolds as priests also in Galway on necessarily the views of the Editor or administered to lessen the impact on the magazine committee. Sunday 27th September. Please pray for Covid victims. them in their new ministry and for the DIOCESAN MAGAZINE people they will serve. Most of our churches are now back to All advertising enquiries should be weekly services and I wish to thank directed to: Revd Dr Andrew Ison As we begin a new season of activities [email protected] clergy and congregations for their in our respective parishes, I trust the compliance and support for the current limitations won’t deter you from EDITOR measures that have been put in place. supporting and assisting your clergy and Revd Dr Andrew Ison These are for everyone’s benefit and fellow parishioners in whatever way you [email protected] safety. It is hoped that Holy Communion can. The Church is people, not buildings, in both kinds, (receiving the wine as well and the mark of a God-centred, caring, DESIGN & PRINTING as the bread) will be possible and safe Design: Amanda Moore Design thriving church is determined not by before too long and the bishops are architecture but by us, its members. Printing: KPS Colourprint Ltd taking advice from a small committee Knock, Co. Mayo tasked with recommending ways that May God bless us all in these strange this might happen. and uncomfortable times. Covid 19 restrictions are having a big +Patrick Tuam impact on all aspects of parochial and diocesan life. Parish clergy are having to re-think harvest thanksgiving and other annual arrangements. Currently, I am preparing for our Diocesan Synod on Saturday 19th September. It will be over by the time you read this but holding Synod via Zoom will be no small feat. 1 Archive dates for The Tuam, Killala and Achonry Diocesan your diary Archive The RCB Library has recently completed the The project marks the culmination of a long process cataloguing of the records of these dioceses and of to make accessible the collection as a whole and to others with which they were amalgamated in the past, develop an ongoing records management programme that are held for safe-keeping by the Representative to assist the diocesan authorities to know what the Church Body. It is wonderful to see so clearly the main categories of historical records. Ultimately this DUE TO CORONAVIRUS, ‘TKA Archive’ catalogued in this way and it will will allow organisation of what are current or semi- ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE undoubtedly enable historians, researchers and current papers in diocesan custody, to become PROVISIONAL ARRANGEMENTS others seeking information in the future to locate the integrated with the historical archive in the Library relevant documents, maps and plans with ease and into the future. OCTOBER integrity. This project was overseen by the Librarian and Archivist, Dr Susan Hood and she has Going back to Sun 4th Claremorris Service, 12noon Mon 5th contributed the following… mid-1980s, Clergy Conference in Adare has been cancelled papers and Wed 7th Christian Aid Webinar, ‘Economics and Debt’, 2pm volumes from Thurs 8th Diocesan Council Meeting, via Zoom, 2pm the united Wed 14th Christian Aid Webinar, ‘Inequality and Displacement’, 2pm diocese were Thurs 15th Institution of Canon Jen McWhirter in Westport, 8pm gradually (by invitation only) transferred Wed 21st Christian Aid Webinar, ‘Climate and Global Recovery’, 2pm from local diocesan NOVEMBER custody into Sun 1st Claremorris Service, 12noon the Library Thurs 5th Diocesan Finance Committee Meeting, via Zoom, 10.30pm which is the Thurs 5th Diocesan Glebes & Property Committee Meeting, Church’s via Zoom, 12noon record Thurs 5th Diocesan Council Meeting, via Zoom, 2pm repository. Famine petition of James ODonnell Many will be Thurs 5th Diocesan Board of Education Meeting, via Zoom, 4pm First Diocesan Synod aware that along with most of the records of the Irish Fri 6th Diocesan Schools Service, Tuam, 11.30am The Representative Church Body Library, is pleased to dioceses up to and including the 1860s, the bulk of Sun 8th REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY report that the voluminous and important historical the collection which had been transferred to the Mon 16th RB Week, Dublin/via Zoom diocesan archive for Tuam, Killala and Achonry has Public Records Office of Ireland, was subsequently Sun 29th ADVENT SUNDAY - Services will be announced been arranged, listed and a detailed catalogue will soon and tragically destroyed by fire during the civil war of be published online for public perusal. As soon as the 1922. Thus, what survives is largely from the middle DECEMBER current Covid-19 lock-down is lifted and when the of the 19th century onwards, but with important pre- Sun 6th Claremorris Service, 12noon Library reopens 1860s survivals that provide a new and valuable body Sun 6th Service of Vespers in Galway to the public, the of evidence about how diocesan registries and their Wed 9th RB Meeting, Dublin/via Zoom collection will registrars conducted their business during the 18th become available and 19th centuries. for researchers, and is likely to be Following the appointment of Dr Raymond Refaussé of considerable as the Church’s first archivist in 1984, the diocese was interest for the authorised to transfer the first large tranche of wider diocesan diocesan registry materials to the Library at that time, family, as well as a on the recommendation of the Very Revd W.J. Grant host of local (1929-2009) who was dean of Tuam and rector of historians, Cong 1981-1993, and also served as archdeacon of genealogists, and the diocese from 1980. Dean Grant was encouraged many others. and assisted by Mrs Brigid Clesham, a professional archivist based in Cong, whose interventions at local Visitation 1782 2 3 Archive COVID-19: Where does it hurt? level helped to With each new cache of papers from a different COVID-19: Where does it hurt? put some location, the job became more complicated and shape on a needed focused archival attention. Now, thanks to large and by support from central Church funds, the Library has When reading the economy that was, until recently at least, thriving. then unwieldly been enabled to engage the services of professional various reports on accumulation archival company Arcline to systematically arrange poverty in Ireland and The ‘working poor’ is an increasingly used phrase and of records and the collection and build up a comprehensive picture how Covid-19 has not without reason. Many of the General Grant exacerbated financial Applications we receive on a daily basis are not from for making of the record-keeping and archiving requirements of challenges for those those who are on benefits, but from those who have early lists and the diocese. Two Arcline archivists Alicia Cooney already struggling, I am full-time jobs yet, continually struggle to make ends overseeing the followed by Ciara Daly carried out this work from reminded not just of meet. Poor and declining health is also an issue, as safe transfer of June 2019 and again in early 2020. They were the latest startling well as unexpected expenses, all of which can throw several supervised by the Librarian and Archivist, Dr Susan statistics on poverty, a family’s finances into disarray. collections of Hood, who also completed the work on the Killala but also of the voices the diocesan and Achonry part of the collection. The work was and stories behind those figures. The subversive nature of COVID-19 meant that records further enhanced by a specific project to catalogue some families were hurled into deprivation with between 1985 the maps and plans undertaken by Bryan Whelan, As Head of Charitable Services at Protestant Aid, I some velocity and it was this which prompted our Famine Labourers Returns and 2000. Assistant Librarian. The Tuam collection consists of regularly talk with distraught family members, who Emergency Response Initiative.