This Sunday, 28 May at 4pm, an Ecumenical Service for Pentecost Sunday in Clogher Diocese will take place at the former Church of Ireland church and ancient round tower at Inniskeen near Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan.
Both the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Larry Duffy, and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, the Right Revd Dr. Ian Ellis, will lead the service.
Bishop Larry Duffy will give the address at this service and two young people from post-primary schools in the area will offer reflections on Pentecost. Local clergy from parishes in the Carrickmacross area; Revd Ian Cruickshank, Rector of Carrickmacross Union, Magheracloone and Ardragh and Canon Martin Treanor, P.P., Innishkeen Parish, will also participate.
For over two decades, the Roman Catholic and Church or Ireland bishops of Clogher have come together, along with members of their respective Church communities to mark together the Day of Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday, as it also known. Each year, a site of historic significance in relation to the origins of the Christian church in different parts of the diocese is chosen to host this ecumenical service.
This year’s outdoor service takes place at the monastic site at Inniskeen where Saint Daigh lived towards the end of the 6th Century. The monastery at Inniskeen was burned in 789, plundered by the Vikings in 948 and burned again in 1166, just before the Norman invasion of Ireland, which would lead to much change. With the passage of time, the monks were replaced by secular clergy.
Today, all that is left of the monastic foundation is the Church of Ireland church (closed in 1970), which contains remnants of the earlier foundation, and the bottom part of the round tower. For many years afterwards, Inniskeen parish was (and still is, officially) known as the Parish of Inis-Caoin-Deagha.
ENDS
