Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Taizé Brother Visit to Ireland
A member of the well known Taizé Community is in Ireland for a week long visit. He comes from an ecumenical monastic community in the Burgundy region of France which has gained international status for its distinctive style of worship based on chants. The Brothers, in their simple white albs, have made a particularly strong impression on the young who have been drawn into worship by the chants.
Brother Felix is in Glendalough this weekend where there is an ecumenical retreat for young adults in the 18 to 35 age group. Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be a Taizé service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin at 5.15 pm. Church leaders including the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, will attend as will President Mary McAleese. On Tuesday the Taizé tour will be in St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, and will then travel north for services in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and the Church of Ireland Student Centre in Belfast. On Sunday 25 February the venue will be in St Paul's Church, Mountmellick, and later St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, where there will be a Youth Workshop followed by a Taizé Service.
Further details of the Taizé tour may be had from Peter Byrne at 01-8300299.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast a Service of the Word from Whitechurch parish church, Dublin, where the rector is Canon Horace McKinley. The Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd John Neill, will visit Killanne and Killegney while in Dublin the preacher at the Sung Eucharist in Trinity College Chapel will be the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, who will address the theme "On Public Things". The Bach Festival 2001 continues in St Ann's Church, Dublin, at 3.30 pm, with performances of cantatas 65, 123, 124, and 154 by the Orchestra of St Cecelia, the Bach Cantata Choir and solists. Later in the evening in St Macartan's Cathedral, Clogher, the Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd Brian Hannon, will preach at the Diocesan Healing Service.
On Monday and Tuesday the annual Church of Ireland Theological Lectures at Queen's University will be held in the Geography Theatre, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast at 4.45 pm. This year the lecturer is Bishop Stephen Sykes, Principal of St John's College, Durham. Bishop Sykes has had a distinguished academic career in Cambridge and Durham and was, from 1990 to 1999, Bishop of Ely.
He is chairman of the Church of England Doctrine Commission and chairs the Inter-Anglican Theological and Doctrinal Commission. He will speak on "Power and Theology".
The annual Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference begins in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth, on Monday and continues until Wednesday. The theme will be "Discovering God in Popular Culture". Among the speakers will be Dr Andrew Pierce, Irish School of Ecumenics, the Revd Dr Alan McCormack, TCD, the Very Revd Patrick Towers, Provost of Tuam, and the art historian, Dr Peter Harbison.
On Thursday the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will be in America for a meeting of Anglican primates in Kanuga, North Carolina, which will continue until 9 March. Following the retirement of the Primate of Central Africa, Dr Eames is now the senior primate in the Anglican Communion.
The annual retreats of the Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer have been arranged for 8-10 and 11-14 June. And the venue will again be the Bellinter House Conference Centre near Navan. The witness at both retreats will be Canon Raymond Fox, Vicar Choral in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. Early booking, if possible before the end of April, would be appreciated and details may be had from Mr Tony Dunton, 345 Longland Road, Claudy, Co. Derry BT47 4AJ (tel: 048/028 71338577).