SEARCH Journal

Autumn 2013

Much attention in the world at large as well as in the churches has been focussed this year on the two new men elected to lead the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, Pope Francis and Justin Welby; and much hope is being placed in these two “new brooms”, whose style is refreshingly different from their predecessors. So this issue of SEARCH offers a closer look at their words and deeds in an attempt to consider the challenges that lie ahead in our two communions. We are grateful to Peter Admirand and Yazid Said, Roman Catholic and Palestinian Anglican theologians respectively, both teaching in Dublin, for collaborating in the reflections offered below.

Summer 2013

The biennial SEARCH colloquia on the various subjects we have chosen have always been rewarding. This spring’s colloquium on the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, considered fifty years after the event from an Anglican perspective, has been exceptional in that, thanks to sponsorship from Trinity College Dublin chaplaincy and Ecclesiastical Insurance, we were able to recruit speakers from three countries other than our own, and both Archbishops of Dublin spoke eirenically to introduce and conclude the proceedings in TCD.

Spring 2013

'Women Bishops ’, or the lack of them, have been much discussed in both Ireland and England of late. Many in the Church of Ireland had expected the usual “translation” to Meath and Kildare in January, which would have left an episcopal vacancy that could have given us our first woman bishop and offered an example to our English neighbours. So we lead this issue with a reflection on women’s leadership in the church by Bishop John Neill, who led the Lambeth ’88 debate in this area.