Mission to Ireland 2014

Pray for the people from Beneva Christian who will be traveling to Northern Ireland next month to serve at, and through R.I.O.T. (Revival In Our Town), which is located in Dundrum. 

The following are some of the places we will visit, and areas we will minister. 

Mountains of Mourne

RIOT

Our plan is to develop a permanent full time community centre that not only provides healthy outlets for the youth but also for the rest of the village. The new community centre will aim to create a Revival In Our Town!

Some of our goals include a play park and a multifunctional sports area that will be supervised and maintained regularly. Creating a proper community centre, allows us to expand programs for groups like: Mums & Tots, Suicide Awareness, Senior Afternoon Activities, Smoking Cessation programs. Excitingly, we hope to create local job opportunities. Our aim is that RIOT will become a fluid, living, self-sustaining centre that will benefit the community for years to come.

Down Cathedral

Down Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of Ireland cathedral located in the town of Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. It stands on Cathedral Hill overlooking the town. It is one of two cathedrals in the Diocese of Down and Dromore {the other is Dromore Cathedral) in the Province of Armagh. The cathedral is centre point in Downpatrick.

It is an ancient ecclesiastical site with a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity recorded in the 12th century. In 1124 St Malachy became Bishop of Down, and set about repairing and enlarging the Cathedral. In 1177, John de Courcy (Norman conqueror of Ulster) brought in Benedictine monks and expelled Augustinian monks settled there by St Malachy. By 1220 this building was in ruins and was further damaged by an earthquake in 1245. The Cathedral was burned by Edward Bruce in 1315 and subsequently rebuilt and destroyed several times. In 1538 the monastery was suppressed and then destroyed in 1539 by Lord Leonard Grey, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who stabled horses there. The destruction of the Cathedral was one of the charges for which Grey was executed in 1541. For two centuries after that it lay in ruins.

In 1778 John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, visited and described it as a noble ruin. A Round Tower close to the Cathedral was taken down in 1790.

The cathedral incorporates parts of the 13th-century church of the Benedictine Abbey of Down .

The restoration of the ruined 14th century cathedral of Downpatrick was initiated after an Act of Parliament of 1790 granted £1000 for the purpose. The Earl of Hillsborough donated a further £568 and £300 a year of the deanery tithes were appropriated. The long chancel from the late medieval cathedral was repaired and transformed into an aisled nave and chancel for the new cathedral. 

Work was completed and the cathedral was ready for use in 1818. An octagonal vestibule and a Perpendicular Gothic tower were added to the west end in 1826. 

Crosses from the 9th, 10th and 12th centuries are preserved in the Cathedral. The building today is mainly the original chancel from the 15th century with a vestibule and tower added. It had a second major restoration from 1985 to 1987 during which time the Cathedral was closed.

Castlewellen