SINCE it opened in 1981, mainly to serve the 52 parishes of the diocese, the Ardfert Retreat Centre, Ardfert, Co Kerry, directed by Fr Tom Looney, has been a veritable allthe-year-round power house of prayer.
Secular priests from Britain, on holiday in this Saint Brendan country, in July, will be interested to know that Bishop Eamonn Casey of Galway, with them in mind, is directing a four-day retreat at the Centre from Wednesday evening, July 25 to Sunday afternoon, July 29. Cost £50.
Ardfert is five miles north of Tralee, and just a mile from that superbly beautiful atlantic strand of Banna, where Sir Roger Casement came ashore in his quest to stop the 1916 Rising.
For Retreat details write to the Secretary, Ardfert Retreat Centre, Co Kerry, Ireland.
Frances Greenwood, chairman of the Association of Separated and Divorced Catholics, whose headquarters are at the Holy. Name Presbytery, Portsmouth Street, Manchester, says Fr Philip Sheldrake S.1 is purely chaplain to the London group and not the chaplain of the whole association.
REPRESENTATIVES of Interchurch Families who held their International Conference in Scotland recently. The theme was the authority of the church and of the individual.
Interchurch Families is unique, as it exists to support couples who belong to different church traditions, usually Catholic and a Christian of another denomination.
From the left, Keith Henderson, chairman of the Association of Interchurch Families in the Republic of Ireland; Fr Gerard Magill, lecturer in Moral Theology at the Catholic seminary of St Andrews College, Drygrange; Dr Ruth Reardon, secretary, and Canon Martin Reardon, chairman, of the English Association of Interchurch Families; Most Rev Alastair Haggart, Primus of the
Episcopal Church of Scotland; and Rev Dr George Balls of the Church of Scotland.
Also present were representatives in Interchurch Families from Scotland and France;
Further details on Interchurch Families from Rev Chris and Mary Bard, The Vicarage, Epping Green, Epping, Essex. Tel: 0378-72949.