Parish News Archives

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Summer Festival - Celebration of Cultural Diversity

The 2009 Summer Festival - Celebration of Cultural Diversity held in our parish hall Sunday, 21 June, was a huge success! It started with tasty foods from various countries at 1 pm and continued at 2 o'clock with a staged event starting with a Romanian pan- piper and a Romanian couple dancing to his music and continuing on with many international entries, songs, prose and poems in Scottish, Arabic (Lebanese), English, Russian, German and with dances from America, Ireland and finally Greece. Both UTV and Romanian Television were in attendance.

The church hall was packed and the atmosphere was electric with the dancers of the last act spontaneously jumping off the stage and getting priest and people to join in the dance Zorba the Greek It was the first of a number of events planned between Shalom House and the Orthodox Church, with further events due to be organised for the Autumn.

And here is a letter printed in the Belfast Telegraph, Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Positive side of many cultures

In light of the broken windows and homes and racial attacks in Belfast it is good to see a positive counterweight in north Belfast. June 21 saw a successful summer festival at the Antiochian Orthodox Church at the corner of the Antrim and Cliftonville roads, a celebration of cultural diversity organised by Shalom House and the Orthodox Church.

Some of the countries represented by parishioners in the Orthodox Church here put on dances, instrumental performances, poems and songs in a variety of ethnic traditions and languages.

Listening to various comments of people who were there and urged me to write in, I am confident that I am not the only one who is looking forward to more of the same.

Johanna McBride, Belfast

His Eminence Metropolitan JOHN Visits St. Ignatius

November 20th through the 23rd we had the great honour and privilege of welcoming to Belfast our newly enthroned archbishop, His Eminence Metropolitan JOHN of Western & Central Europe. READ MORE

Paul Totten Ordained Deacon

Saint Ignatius' faithful servant Paul Totten was ordained a Deacon by Metropolitan JOHN on Sunday 22nd November 2008. READ MORE

Directory of Migrant-Led Churches and Chaplaincies Launched

The All-Ireland Churches Consultative Meeting on Racism's (AICCMR) new Directory of Migrant-Led Churches and Chaplaincies was launched in Belfast on Friday 5th December 2008, by Fr Irenaeus du Plessis at Edgehill College, and in Tallaght, Dublin on Sunday 7th December by Minister for Integration, Conor Lenihan TD.