Reverend Dr. Heather Morris was installed as the new president of the Methodist Church in Ireland this June, becoming the first female to hold not only that post, but the first female head of any of Ireland’s four main churches. Dr. Morris was elected to the position last summer, and the confirmation took place at the church’s national conference in Carrickfergus on June 12th. … [Read more...] about Irish Methodist Church Elects Its First Female Leader
Religion
Hospital Nuns: From the Civil War to Today
From the Civil War to Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, the extraordinary history of Irish nuns in health care. The Sisters of Mercy were the first women to go with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War in 1854. They worked with her to make nursing more effective and to improve sanitary conditions. In America, the Sisters of Mercy would make their impact on the battlefields in … [Read more...] about Hospital Nuns: From the Civil War to Today
The Last Word: Love Thy Neighbor
A couple of years ago, in my capacity as President of the Glenmary Missioners, I was visiting one of our priests in south Georgia. It was February, cold and gloomy, and we had spent an entire day driving around three counties. As we drove, Fr. Vick pointed out the different trailer parks — each one more rundown and dilapidated than the other. He noted the individual trailers … [Read more...] about The Last Word: Love Thy Neighbor
The Testament of Mary: Tóibín, Shaw and Warner at the PEN World Voices Festival
By Adam Farley. May 6, 2013.
Several years ago, Colm Tóibín taught an evening class at the New School in New York. He called it “Relentlessness,” and before each class, he would drink a mix of a double espresso, Coca Cola, and sugar that he said he thinks pretty well mimics the effects of cocaine, and, as he put it in a panel discussion at the PEN World Voices Festival on May 3, “just go.” At least once, … [Read more...] about The Testament of Mary: Tóibín, Shaw and Warner at the PEN World Voices Festival
200 Years of People v. Philips and Religious Freedom
1813 brought the first test of the right of free religious practice and expression in the United States. The famous case, People v. Philips, which eventually solidified the priest-penitent evidentiary privilege that protects the privacy of information given during confession, was argued in New York City on behalf of the growing Catholic population by the exiled Irish Protestant … [Read more...] about 200 Years of People v. Philips and Religious Freedom