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Welcome
Tobar Mhuire is a well equipped modern Retreat and Conference Centre, set in sixty acres of woodland, in the heart of County Down. We hope that visitors will enjoy our new facilities as well as the peace and quiet of the beautiful surroundings.
The Passionist Community in Tobar Mhuire is committed to keeping alive the authentic memory of Christ's Passion as a source of life and hope to all those struggling to find meaning in their lives. We welcome individuals and groups from Ireland and beyond who wish to take time out to reflect on their human and spiritual development. In Tobar Mhuire they will find a peaceful setting and encouragement from the Passionist Community who reside there.
We welcome all who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives and who are open to discovering a sense of the sacred in life.
The Passionist Community extend a welcome to their sisters and brothers of the Reformed Churches and hope that the resource that is Tobar Mhuire Retreat and Conference Centre will become a shared blessing for all.
Tobar Mhuire is a well equipped modern Retreat and Conference Centre, set in sixty acres of woodland, in the heart of County Down. We hope that visitors will enjoy our new facilities as well as the peace and quiet of the beautiful surroundings.
The Passionist Community in Tobar Mhuire is committed to keeping alive the authentic memory of Christ's Passion as a source of life and hope to all those struggling to find meaning in their lives. We welcome individuals and groups from Ireland and beyond who wish to take time out to reflect on their human and spiritual development. In Tobar Mhuire they will find a peaceful setting and encouragement from the Passionist Community who reside there.
We welcome all who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives and who are open to discovering a sense of the sacred in life.
The Passionist Community extend a welcome to their sisters and brothers of the Reformed Churches and hope that the resource that is Tobar Mhuire Retreat and Conference Centre will become a shared blessing for all.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Annual Summer Institute
Finding a Home in Today's Church
Thursday 27th - Friday 28th June
Speakers: Dr Kevin Egan - Cora Lambert
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Belonging is core to our experience of being human. Belonging to the church was something that in previous times we took for granted. In the light of recent experiences, this sense of being at home in the church is something that we can no longer take for granted. Many people find themselves in a struggle with faith and a church that leaves them with more questions than answers and find themselves at the edges of our churches.
If belonging is core to the experience of being human, then hope is the basis of the call to mission that we all share through our baptism. So where can we can find hope in a time of uncertainty and change. We can rush to rediscover the certainty of the past, or we can take the risk of embracing the uncertain waters of change with a faith in the God who has touched all our lives in surprising ways. The challenge of change in a diocese; parish or religious community is to awaken the hope that is within us and to redefine and redirect our Mission. Our Summer Institute will explore how we might enflesh a theology of hope in the Church community. Among the questions to be addressed are:
Conference costs: £35 per day to include a light lunch Accommodation (if required) £60 per night (single room) evening meal and bed/breakfast £40 per day (sharing twin room) evening meal and bed/breakfast We expect a high level of interest in this event and early booking is strongly recommended. To Book: Contact the secretary at Tobar Mhuire. By Telephone:02844830242 E-Mail:secretary@tobarmhuirecrossgar.com |
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Some Thoughts on the Annual Summer Institute
Finding a Home in Today’s Church
Chaos can be a blessing. In the scriptures, chaos is often used to highlight the ongoing inventive and redemptive work of God. ‘You have turned my mourning into daChaos can be a blessing. In the scriptures, chaos is often used to highlight the ongoing inventive and redemptive work of God. ‘You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy’. (Ps30:11)
We need a greater understanding of that truth in both church and society today.
The late Cardinal Carlo Martini reflected that “in affluent Europe we are a tired church.” He continued: “Our culture has become old, our churches and our religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous”.
When you reflect upon what we are dealing with in the church, it is hardly surprising that people are tired: abuse; cover up; loss of moral authority; falling numbers; decline in vocations; people leaving the church because they no longer feel welcome. We have lost our way. Even the current best efforts at renewal in the dioceses; parishes and religious congregations more often than not lead to frustration and burn out in those who began with such enthusiasm. The problem with renewal, is that the focus is on the ‘bringing back to life’, even in creative and imaginative ways, former ways of doing things or of expressing something. Maybe we need more than renewal. Maybe we need to think more about re-imagining our church rather than renewing it, and letting the cherished structures and processes die when they no longer serve the mission of our institutions.
How many good people in our church are suffering burn out; frustration; low morale; sheer physical exhaustion; loss of purpose and meaning. Why? Because the horse is dead but we keep flogging it! We are pouring ‘new wine into old wineskins’! It can be a source of great frustration for many still committed to making the vision of building God’s kingdom a reality in our world today. At times this vision sits very comfortably alongside the institutional church, but there are times when to keep our sanity we need to remind ourselves that the church is not the kingdom!
Some things are clear. Society is not working as it should. Politics are not working as they should. The church is not working as it should. A time when many of our assumptions about how lives work are being turned inside out by new technology in the quest to be more productive; more efficient; to be better than it was before, it seems that the guts and the passion is being wrenched of life.
Too many of our customs; practices and institutions were designed for a world that has now gone. If that is true in our wider society, it is certainly true of our churches. The temptation within church though is see ourselves as somehow different from these other institutions. It is as if we have somehow manufactured a protective bubble around us to isolate us from the contamination that wants to infect that which is most precious to us. Hence, in the midst of many positive initiatives, the movement that is pushing most vigorously at this moment of chaos is that of trying to restore the church to its former ‘glory’, witnessed in a growing conservatism; clerical dress and traditional practices. The difficulty of this approach is that this sought for former glory never existed in the first place! What was perceived as authority and influence was often a cover up for the widespread abuse and humiliation of people.
We can develop the greatest pastoral plans and vision statements. We can hold listening processes until the cows come home and develop innovative learning programmes; but if we do not change our way of thinking then we will experience continuing frustration and disappointment. As achurch there is an urgent need to critically reflect upon the theological and interpersonal assumptions that we act out of. The development psychologist Roger Gould who studied the process of becoming adult, shows that the journey into adulthood involves challenging those false assumptions that we instinctively hold to be true and involves giving up those former false beliefs or assumptions.
Kevin Egan, facilitator of the upcoming Tobar Mhuire Summer Institute reflects:
“An assumption that I think blocks laity in being adult in the church is the belief that the best people to bring about change in the church are the ordained, after all the church belongs to them. This assumption and the credibility that we instinctively gave to the ordained leaders in the church was challenged by the clergy sexual abuse scandal. It led some Catholics to leave the church and many to hold on by a thread. Many Catholics who desire reform in the church find themselves questioning their assumption that the church is reformable.”
The opening sentence of paragraph 102 from Evangelii Gaudium reads: “Lay people are simply, the vast majority of the People of God. (Percentage wise they make up 98%). The minority – ordained ministers – are at their service.” This statement challenges a basic assumption held by many good Catholics over the years who have sincerely believed themselves to be the “helpers” of the clergy. Likewise it challenges the assumptive world of the ordained. Their primary role is not to offer the sacrifice of the Mass but to be “servant leaders” in the community.
This presents us with a vision of our church in which the flowering of the laity’s role in the church is not to be equated with in the numbers involved in lay ministries. Pope Francis expresses some disappointment that this involvement “is not reflected in a greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church, without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society.” (E.G. 102).
Those who follow a hierarchical model of the church assume that authority rests with the hierarchy and they should hold on to the decision making. Francis expresses regret that this has been the case. He complains of “an excessive clericalism which keeps them (the laity) away from decision-making.” (E.G. 102).
It is in this context that the Annual Summer Institute takes place in the Passionist Retreat Centre Tobar Mhuire on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June. It takes up the theme "Finding a Home in Today’s Church.” Finding a home in the church was something that in previous times we took for granted. In the light of recent experiences, this sense of being at home in the church is something that goes against the tide. Many people find themselves in a struggle with a church that leaves them with more questions than answers and in which they find themselves living at the edge.
So where can we can find hope in a time of uncertainty and change? We can rush to rediscover the certainty of the past, or we can take the risk of embracing the uncertain waters of change with a faith in the God who has touched all our lives in surprising ways. The challenge of change in a diocese; parish or religious community is to awaken the hope that is within us and to redefine and redirect our Mission.
The Tobar Mhuire Summer Institute will explore how we might give life to such a theology of hope in the Church community.
Among the questions to be addressed are:
Chaos can be a blessing. In the scriptures, chaos is often used to highlight the ongoing inventive and redemptive work of God. ‘You have turned my mourning into daChaos can be a blessing. In the scriptures, chaos is often used to highlight the ongoing inventive and redemptive work of God. ‘You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy’. (Ps30:11)
We need a greater understanding of that truth in both church and society today.
The late Cardinal Carlo Martini reflected that “in affluent Europe we are a tired church.” He continued: “Our culture has become old, our churches and our religious houses are big and empty, the bureaucratic apparatus of the church grows, our rites and our dress are pompous”.
When you reflect upon what we are dealing with in the church, it is hardly surprising that people are tired: abuse; cover up; loss of moral authority; falling numbers; decline in vocations; people leaving the church because they no longer feel welcome. We have lost our way. Even the current best efforts at renewal in the dioceses; parishes and religious congregations more often than not lead to frustration and burn out in those who began with such enthusiasm. The problem with renewal, is that the focus is on the ‘bringing back to life’, even in creative and imaginative ways, former ways of doing things or of expressing something. Maybe we need more than renewal. Maybe we need to think more about re-imagining our church rather than renewing it, and letting the cherished structures and processes die when they no longer serve the mission of our institutions.
How many good people in our church are suffering burn out; frustration; low morale; sheer physical exhaustion; loss of purpose and meaning. Why? Because the horse is dead but we keep flogging it! We are pouring ‘new wine into old wineskins’! It can be a source of great frustration for many still committed to making the vision of building God’s kingdom a reality in our world today. At times this vision sits very comfortably alongside the institutional church, but there are times when to keep our sanity we need to remind ourselves that the church is not the kingdom!
Some things are clear. Society is not working as it should. Politics are not working as they should. The church is not working as it should. A time when many of our assumptions about how lives work are being turned inside out by new technology in the quest to be more productive; more efficient; to be better than it was before, it seems that the guts and the passion is being wrenched of life.
Too many of our customs; practices and institutions were designed for a world that has now gone. If that is true in our wider society, it is certainly true of our churches. The temptation within church though is see ourselves as somehow different from these other institutions. It is as if we have somehow manufactured a protective bubble around us to isolate us from the contamination that wants to infect that which is most precious to us. Hence, in the midst of many positive initiatives, the movement that is pushing most vigorously at this moment of chaos is that of trying to restore the church to its former ‘glory’, witnessed in a growing conservatism; clerical dress and traditional practices. The difficulty of this approach is that this sought for former glory never existed in the first place! What was perceived as authority and influence was often a cover up for the widespread abuse and humiliation of people.
We can develop the greatest pastoral plans and vision statements. We can hold listening processes until the cows come home and develop innovative learning programmes; but if we do not change our way of thinking then we will experience continuing frustration and disappointment. As achurch there is an urgent need to critically reflect upon the theological and interpersonal assumptions that we act out of. The development psychologist Roger Gould who studied the process of becoming adult, shows that the journey into adulthood involves challenging those false assumptions that we instinctively hold to be true and involves giving up those former false beliefs or assumptions.
Kevin Egan, facilitator of the upcoming Tobar Mhuire Summer Institute reflects:
“An assumption that I think blocks laity in being adult in the church is the belief that the best people to bring about change in the church are the ordained, after all the church belongs to them. This assumption and the credibility that we instinctively gave to the ordained leaders in the church was challenged by the clergy sexual abuse scandal. It led some Catholics to leave the church and many to hold on by a thread. Many Catholics who desire reform in the church find themselves questioning their assumption that the church is reformable.”
The opening sentence of paragraph 102 from Evangelii Gaudium reads: “Lay people are simply, the vast majority of the People of God. (Percentage wise they make up 98%). The minority – ordained ministers – are at their service.” This statement challenges a basic assumption held by many good Catholics over the years who have sincerely believed themselves to be the “helpers” of the clergy. Likewise it challenges the assumptive world of the ordained. Their primary role is not to offer the sacrifice of the Mass but to be “servant leaders” in the community.
This presents us with a vision of our church in which the flowering of the laity’s role in the church is not to be equated with in the numbers involved in lay ministries. Pope Francis expresses some disappointment that this involvement “is not reflected in a greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church, without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society.” (E.G. 102).
Those who follow a hierarchical model of the church assume that authority rests with the hierarchy and they should hold on to the decision making. Francis expresses regret that this has been the case. He complains of “an excessive clericalism which keeps them (the laity) away from decision-making.” (E.G. 102).
It is in this context that the Annual Summer Institute takes place in the Passionist Retreat Centre Tobar Mhuire on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th June. It takes up the theme "Finding a Home in Today’s Church.” Finding a home in the church was something that in previous times we took for granted. In the light of recent experiences, this sense of being at home in the church is something that goes against the tide. Many people find themselves in a struggle with a church that leaves them with more questions than answers and in which they find themselves living at the edge.
So where can we can find hope in a time of uncertainty and change? We can rush to rediscover the certainty of the past, or we can take the risk of embracing the uncertain waters of change with a faith in the God who has touched all our lives in surprising ways. The challenge of change in a diocese; parish or religious community is to awaken the hope that is within us and to redefine and redirect our Mission.
The Tobar Mhuire Summer Institute will explore how we might give life to such a theology of hope in the Church community.
Among the questions to be addressed are:
- What are the challenges of belonging to the church today?
- How has the experience of belonging to the church changed for you?
- What do you not hear spoken of in the church?
- What would you like to hear spoken of in the church?
- Is this a good time to be in the church?
- What experiences have changed your faith/beliefs?
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
Living with Cancer?
A New Initiative in Partnership with Action Cancer
Exciting Developments at Tobar Mhuire for Catholic Teachers
Tobar Mhuire is delighted to announce that in partnership with Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, we are now in position to offer the Graduate Certificate in Christian Leadership in Education.
This innovative postgraduate programme is under the auspices of Mary Immaculate College and is awarded by the University of Limerick.
PROGRAMME CONTENT
The programme will introduce students to key ideas, concepts and principles that underpin the characteristic spirit or ethos of faith-based education. Among the topics to be included are the following: Jesus the Teacher; Nurturing Personal Faith and Spirituality; The Catholic School and Contemporary Culture; Leading and Managing a Catholic School in Ireland Today; an Integrating Seminar will provide practitioner-based sessions that require students to integrate and explore the cross-disciplinary elements of the programme, the students’ own experience in the school environment, and the application of ethical leadership in a variety of complex scenarios that reflect contemporary issues facing school leaders in faith-based schools.
The programme is designed to augment other qualifications participants may have achieved in areas of leadership and management so that they have the knowledge, competence and skills needed to lead a faith-based school. It will be taught in part-time mode, normally on Saturdays at various venues around the country. It is open to all involved in primary and second level education, especially teachers and others aspiring to roles of leadership or management in education.
ASSESSMENT
Student knowledge and skills are developed in taught modules using a range of methodologies and examined through a variety of continuous assessment assignments.
ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
Entrants must hold a primary degree and be involved in either the primary or secondary sector as part of the teaching staff or management team / body. All applicants will have to have Garda/PSNI Vetting.
FEES
The Grad Cert is a stand-alone award and the cost is €750.
A participant on this course will get remission from two modules of the MA Christian Leadership in Education/ Grad Dip. and a corresponding remission in the course costs.
There is no financial support in place from the College for the Grad Cert. However, individual schools, religious orders and dioceses may be willing to make some contribution towards fees. These are worked out on an individual basis by the students
DATES:
The course will be run over five Saturdays, commencing in October 2019. The day will run from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 pm.
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS:
Applications need to be in by December 14th. The link for the application form for the Graduate Certificate is:
http://www.mic.ul.ie/postgradstudies/prospectivestudents/Documents/Application%20form%20for%20taught%20programmes%20MIC%20(fillable)%2003.04.2018.pdf
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr Eugene Duffy
Department of Theology and Religious Studies,
Mary Immaculate College,
South Circular Road, Limerick
T: +353 61 204968
E: eugene.duffy@mic.ul.ie
Deirdre Franklin
Arts Faculty Office
T: +353 61 204507
E: deirdre.franklin@mic.ul.ie
Contact at Tobar Mhuire:
Brian McKee
T: 02844 830 242
E: brian@seedlingsireland.com
Download Course Information Brochure:
This innovative postgraduate programme is under the auspices of Mary Immaculate College and is awarded by the University of Limerick.
PROGRAMME CONTENT
The programme will introduce students to key ideas, concepts and principles that underpin the characteristic spirit or ethos of faith-based education. Among the topics to be included are the following: Jesus the Teacher; Nurturing Personal Faith and Spirituality; The Catholic School and Contemporary Culture; Leading and Managing a Catholic School in Ireland Today; an Integrating Seminar will provide practitioner-based sessions that require students to integrate and explore the cross-disciplinary elements of the programme, the students’ own experience in the school environment, and the application of ethical leadership in a variety of complex scenarios that reflect contemporary issues facing school leaders in faith-based schools.
The programme is designed to augment other qualifications participants may have achieved in areas of leadership and management so that they have the knowledge, competence and skills needed to lead a faith-based school. It will be taught in part-time mode, normally on Saturdays at various venues around the country. It is open to all involved in primary and second level education, especially teachers and others aspiring to roles of leadership or management in education.
ASSESSMENT
Student knowledge and skills are developed in taught modules using a range of methodologies and examined through a variety of continuous assessment assignments.
ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
Entrants must hold a primary degree and be involved in either the primary or secondary sector as part of the teaching staff or management team / body. All applicants will have to have Garda/PSNI Vetting.
FEES
The Grad Cert is a stand-alone award and the cost is €750.
A participant on this course will get remission from two modules of the MA Christian Leadership in Education/ Grad Dip. and a corresponding remission in the course costs.
There is no financial support in place from the College for the Grad Cert. However, individual schools, religious orders and dioceses may be willing to make some contribution towards fees. These are worked out on an individual basis by the students
DATES:
The course will be run over five Saturdays, commencing in October 2019. The day will run from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 pm.
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS:
Applications need to be in by December 14th. The link for the application form for the Graduate Certificate is:
http://www.mic.ul.ie/postgradstudies/prospectivestudents/Documents/Application%20form%20for%20taught%20programmes%20MIC%20(fillable)%2003.04.2018.pdf
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr Eugene Duffy
Department of Theology and Religious Studies,
Mary Immaculate College,
South Circular Road, Limerick
T: +353 61 204968
E: eugene.duffy@mic.ul.ie
Deirdre Franklin
Arts Faculty Office
T: +353 61 204507
E: deirdre.franklin@mic.ul.ie
Contact at Tobar Mhuire:
Brian McKee
T: 02844 830 242
E: brian@seedlingsireland.com
Download Course Information Brochure:
| mic_graduate_certificate_in_cle_brochure.pdf |
