To be a Living Sacrament - Trinity 12 - 2024

It was Augustine who first called a sacrament ‘‘an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.’
It is therefore both the promise and the making real of that promise. On the outside, there are actions and perhaps some words, but they are only what is visible, what can be observed. What cannot be seen, is the deeper reality, the more profound truth of what is being given, what is being handed on, what is truly present.
The liturgy of the Eucharist participates in a reality which was, and continues to be, through the present and into the future. It stands between two worlds, the world of time, and the world of beyond time, an intersection between now and the eternal, a liminal space between the individual and the universal.

Part of the Church of Ireland, St Nicholas Church, Adare and its fellow churches teaches and ministers within the progressive Christianity tradition, with influences from the scholars who built on the work of the Jesus Seminar. It seeks to be a church that is welcoming and inclusive, affirming and open in its liberal theology; and whilst we don’t claim to have all the answers, we are most certainly committed to ‘living the questions’. We have influences of Celtic spirituality in our worship and view of the natural world, living as we do in the beauty of County Limerick.
The Church of Ireland also forms part of the Anglican communion which is an association of Anglican churches from 38 provinces, including the Church of England, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church in Wales, the Episcopal Church in the USA (otherwise known as the Episcopalians) and churches across the globe. With 80 million members, it is the third largest Christian body in the world, after the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Hymn: 'O Praise ye the Lord' - www.smallchurchmusic.com
Music: 'Capclear' - Aislinn - licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org