Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Holy Week Celebrations
Tomorrow (Sunday) is Palm Sunday when RTE will broadcast a parish eucharist from St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway, where the rector is Canon Patrick Towers. BBC Radio Ulster will carry a service from St Anne's Church, Dungannon, with the choirs and musicians from the Royal School, at which the preacher will be the Revd Dr Kenneth Wilson. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where there will be a blessing and procession of palms, the visitors will include members of one of the London livery companies, the Worshipful Company of Engineers, who will be holding their annual meeting in Dublin. At Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral the final episcopal Lenten address on the Apostles' Creed will be given by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke.
On Monday and Tuesday evenings, in St Patrick's Cathedral, Compline, a contemplative evening office sung to plainsong and Tudor polyphony, will be sung by the Close Chorale and on Wednesday there will be a service of Tenebrae. Christ Church Baroque and the Christ Church Cathedral Choir, directed by Mark Duley, will perform Bach's St John's Passion in Christ Church Cathedral on Tuesday evening. The performance will feature the use not only of period string instruments but also period wind instruments.
The clergy of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough will renew their ordination vows at the annual Maunday Service in Christ Church Cathedral on Thursday when the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, will also consecrate the oil of healing.
On Good Friday RTE will broadcast The Last Hour from Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, with the Very Revd John Paterson, the Revd Dermot Dunne and the Cathedral Girls' Choir. In St Patrick's Cathedral the Liturgy of Good Friday and the Preaching of the Cross will be conducted by Dr Herbert O'Driscoll, who is a Canon of Washington Cathedral. The former Bishop of Connor, Dr Samuel Poyntz, will conduct a Three Hour Service in St Mark's Church, Armagh.
During Holy Week the Dean of St Patrick's, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will be preaching in Whitechurch, Co. Dublin, while the Dean of Cork, Dr Michael Jackson, will be in St Mark's Church, Newtownards. In Dundrum, where the parishioners of Taney will be joined by those from Rathmichael and Tullow, the Holy Week preacher will be Canon Herbert O'Driscoll.
On Sunday evening in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd John Neill, will ordain Lady Stella Durand as a deacon to serve as curate in the Kiltegan and Hackettstown group of parishes. The preacher at the service will be the Revd Declan Smith, formerly Mission Personnel Secretary of CMS Ireland.
The Johnstown High School Madrigal Choir and the Vosburgh Handbell Choir from Upstate, New York, will give concerts in St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, Galway, tomorrow (Sunday) evening and in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, on Tuesday evening. On Friday evening the Vox media Choir from Stockholm will present a programme of music and readings for Good Friday in St Patrick's Church, Greystones, while in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the Hibernian Chamber Orchestra and the Goethe Institut Choir, with choirs from Germany and Italy, conducted by Eric Rupprecht will give a concert in aid of the Carmichael Centre.
The Revd Dr Ian Ellis, Rector of Newcastle, Co. Down, has been elected as President of the Irish Council of Churches. He is the author of Vision and Reality. A Survey of Twentieth Century Irish Inter-Church Relationships and of "A Quest for Unity" which appeared in the APCK volume of millennium essays entitled A Time to Build.