The newly-formed Biblical Association of the Church of Ireland recently launched its Lenten resource on Creation. The Bible study material consists of a pdf freely available to download from http://bibliahibernica.wordpress.com/lent-2011-creation/.
The resource was launched in Christ Church Cathedral by Canon Ken Kearon, Secretary-General of the Anglican Communion, and Very Rev Dermot Dunne, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral. The launch was supported by Eco-Congregation Ireland.
Rev Kearon said Creation was one of the five great missions of the Anglican church and was gaining importance today because of our environmental concerns. “We don’t always examine environmental concerns with biblical reflection,” he said. “We need to do this to see how we treat Creation today.”
He said he was “genuinely delighted” to launch the resource and said he was sure studying it would be “an enjoyable and uplifting experience”.
Rev Dunne described it as “a gift, a ready-made resource” which was an important development in the Church of Ireland and the wider church. “We need more biblical reflection in the church,” he said. “It is wonderful that this is the beginning of a movement in the church to encourage people to explore the Bible more. I hope that this is the start of a serious institution in the church.”
The initiative is designed both to link into the Anglican Consultative Council’s project “The Bible in the Life of the Church” and to function as an inaugural effort and advertisement for a proposed Biblical Association for the Church of Ireland (BACI).