Irish Times Notes14 Mar 25

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

St Patrick’s Tide

In recent years St Patrick’s Day has assumed an increased significance in the Church of Ireland calendar.

The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell, will be in Washington where he will visit a local parish and school dedicated to St Patrick, attend  breakfast at the British Embassy, and preach at the Eucharist in the National Cathedral. Also, he and Archbishop Eamon Martin will be in a facilitated  dialogue at a Townhall type meeting on Capitol Hill at the invitation of the Speaker’s Office.

An Irish Language Service of Evening Prayer, organised by Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise, will take place in St Multose’s church, Kinsale, at 8.00pm this evening (Friday).  All are welcome to attend and translation of the Service is available. The Development Officer of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise, Dr Rita Kelly, will be in Edinburgh, invited by the Consul General of Ireland, where she will investigate the use of Scots Gaidhlig  in worship with the Revd Dr Iain Richie at Inverness, who leads worship in Gaidhlig.

On Sunday, the Eve of St Patrick’s Day, the preacher at the 11am Choral Eucharist in St Patrick’s cathedral, Armagh, will be the Very Revd Dr Sarah Rowland Jones, Dean of St Davids in the Church of Wales. In St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast, there will be a special Festival Choral Evensong at 3.30pm with lessons in Irish and Ulster Scots.

In St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, the preacher at the 11.15am Patronal Eucharist on St Patrick’s Day will be the Dean, Dr William Morton, and at 6pm there will be a service organized by the Dublin Council of Churches. Earlier at 9.15 am Canon David Oxley will be the celebrant at the celebration of the Eucharist in Irish. Later in St John’s Church, Park Avenue, Sandymount, Canon Oxley will be the preacher at 11am St Patrick’s Day Eucharist when there will be music and prayers are in Irish and English with extracts from the Ó Riada Mass.

Down & Dromore’s annual St Patrick’s Day celebrations will take as their theme ‘Godly Leadership’. Canon Maurice Elliott, Director of the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, will be the preacher at St Patrick’s Memorial church, Saul,. Following the Prayer Pilgrimage from Saul to Downpatrick, David Turer, Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester, Deputy President of the Clergy Discipline Commission and a Reader and regular preacher at All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, London, will preach at the Festival Service in Down Cathedral. After a wreath laying ceremony at the traditional site of  St Patrick’s Grave, there will be a complimentary ‘Picnic in the Pews’.

The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross will preside and preach at the Civic Service and Festival Eucharist of St Patrick’s Day in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral,  after which Dr Colton will host a reception for invited guests at the Bishop’s Palace.