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Children from St Brigid’s sing Friends are like Flowers at the Pentecost Sunday
service
By Chris Hook
More than 200 people took part in a United Church prayer service at the Dulwich Hill Salvation Army Hall on
Pentecost Sunday to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and Reconciliation.
The event followed a week of services in places of worship throughout the Marrickville area.
“It was a wonderful,
joyful celebration of the unity of our spirit, and also of the relationship and friendship between the churches in Marrickville,” said Elaine Downing, a parishioner of St Brigid’s Marrickville and convenor of the
Church Unity Action Group.
Members of the Marrickville Ministers’ Fellowship also attended the service, demonstrating the close ecumenical relations that have been established in recent times.
Fr Aidan
Kay, as a Jubilee initiative, established the Church Unity Action Group last year to act as the lay auxiliary to the Ministers’ Fellowship. According to Elaine, the group has been running strong ever since.
“It was a step forward. Marrickville will never be the same,” Elaine said.
She said the group sought to build up friendships between members of the different Christian faiths in the area.
“One by one
people are won over then they win over others,” she said.
Elaine said the Pentecost Sunday service was a “celebration of our friendship for the glory of God”.
She said the group was keen to set up a
stall at the Marrickville festival in September, to take the message to the public.
At state level, the Catholic Commission for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations has hailed this year’s Halifax-Portal
Lectures, organised by the Anglican and Catholic Bishops of NSW, as a great success.
Topics covered included Catholic and Anglican Understanding of Scripture, devotional life in the Anglican Church and
Catholic devotion to Mary. All the lectures are available online at www.aceir.cathcomm.or g
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