 As part of our centenary celebrations, and also as part of Mission Alive organised by the Irish Missionary Union during Mission Month in October, we will host two public lectures in Cork. These will deal with important missionary topics, and are provided as a public information service.
HIV / AIDS in Africa – the Christian Response: Sr. Dr. Miriam Duggan (pictured above), Superior General of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa and President of the Irish Missionary Union will deliver this lecture in Room 6, West Wing, UCC at 7.30pm on 8 October.
The Role of Faith in Development in Developing Countries: Niamh Brennan of Dtalk (Development Training and Learning at Kimmage) will deliver this lecture at 7.30pm on 21 October in the MSC Centre, Western Road, Cork.
Public Lectures in Cork
As part of our centenary celebrations, and also as part of Mission Alive organised by the Irish Missionary Union during Mission Month – October 2009 - we hosted two public lectures in Cork. These dealt with important missionary topics, and were provided as a public information service.
The Christian Response to HIV / AIDS in Africa
Sr. Dr. Miriam Duggan, Superior General of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa and President of the Irish Missionary Union delivered this lecture in University College Cork on 8 October.
Sr. Miriam is a graduate of the UCC Medical School, and received her Masters in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Birmingham in 1969. She was admitted to Fellowship of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1982.
She served as consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Nsambya Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, and became medical superintendent at the hospital. In 1987 she founded the Nsambya Hospital Home Care Service for AIDS patients, and several community outreaches. In 1991 she founded Youth Alive as an AIDS prevention programme. Following its success in Uganda this programme has now spread to 21 African countries.
In 1998 she transferred to South Africa where she continued to establish care and prevention programmes in that country and in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Sr. Miriam has been conferred with the following honours and degrees:
1993: awarded Woman Doctor of the Year in Genoa
2006: honoured by Harvard University, Church of Uganda and the Templeton Foundation for Pioneering Behaviour-Based HIV Prevention
2007: Degree Doctor of Ministry, Honoris Causa conferred by College of Holy Cross, Worcester, USA
2008: Recognition Award presented by the Parliament of Uganda in recognition of her work in the fight against HIV / AIDS over 25 years.
Since 2001 she has been the Leader of her Congregation. For more information about her views and her work, please visit Overseas Missions and HIV / AIDS in Southern Africa on this site.
You can read the full lecture here
Mr. Jim Corr, former Lord Mayor of Cork acted as Master of Ceremonies. You can read his comments here
Jim Corr on left with Sr. Miriam, Fr. Joe McGee (MSC Deputy Provincial) and medical students Oisin Hannigan and Emma Tetford from UCC .
The Role of Faith in Development in Developing Countries
Niamh Brennan of Dtalk (Development Training and Learning at Kimmage) delivered this lecture on 21 October in the MSC Centre, Western Road, Cork.
Niamh holds an MA in Development Studies, and worked for three years as a lay missionary in the Philippines.
Her presentation attempted to examine the role of faith in development. It began by re-examining the concept of development and how even with increased economic development there remains huge disparities between rich and poor, environmental destruction and a sense of meaningless for many people. It traced how this has led to a recognition that spirituality and faith must be accounted for in development projects and interventions.
It then presented faith as an element of development highlighting how it influences people’s everyday decisions and suggested that no development intervention can be successful without taking faith into account. It then went on to present faith as an obstacle to development, showing how religion can be divisive and how development interventions can be used as a bribe with the real aim being to proselytise. Due to the fact that the development discourse has been exceptionally noticeable for its lack of analysis of religion and faith and acknowledging the influence that these yield, this presentation concluded with a call for an exploration of the role of faith in development.
You can read the full lecture here
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