Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
Election in St. Patrick's
On Monday the chapter of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, will assemble to elect a new dean to succeed the Very Revd Dr Maurice Stewart who has retired.
Following a celebration of the Eucharist in the Lady Chapel the chapter, under the chairmanship of the treasurer, Canon Robert Reede, will proceed to the election. Only a member of the chapter may be elected as dean which, as the chapter is presently constituted, rules out the possibility of a women becoming the next dean. On the other hand, the Archbishop of Dublin, who by virtue of his office is Prebendary of Cualaun, is eligible for election although this eventuality is considered to be unlikely.
St Patrick's is the only cathedral which elects its own dean. The other decanal appointments are made by diocesan bishops.
Following the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, by the Irish Church Act of 1870, St Patrick's Cathedral was re-constituted as a national cathedral. As a result twelve of the twenty two prebendaries or canons are appointed by the dioceses in a representative capacity. The remaining canons and the dignitaries are elected by the chapter, apart from the Archbishop of Dublin and the Vicar of the St Patrick's Cathedral group of parishes to which offices prebendal stalls are annexed.
Thus the chapter includes a wide spectrum of opinion and experience. Such eclecticism makes the forecasting of the election result uncertain.
This evening (Saturday) in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, as part of the Cathedral Arts programme, there will be a performance of The Parting of Friends by Kenneth Pickering, a play about Cardinal Newman.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will televise Morning Service with the congregation of Zion Church, Rathgar, where the rector is the Revd Wilbert Gourley. In St Ann's Church, Dublin, the preacher for Pentecost will be the Chaplain of Trinity College, Dr Alan McCormack, while in Lucan and Leixlip there will be addresses from Dr Raj Rajkumar, a CMSI mission partner from South India. There will be a Festival of Praise in St Flannan's Cathedral, Killaloe, while in St John's Church, Edgeworthstown the Bishop of Kilmore, the Rt. Revd Michael Mayes, will preach at a service to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of the novelist Maria Edgeworth.
The final lecture in the current lunchtime series on "Irish Cathedrals in the Middle Ages" will be given on Tuesday. The speaker will be Professor Roger Stalley, Trinity College, Dublin, whose subject will be "Tuam Cathedral - Fit for a King".
On Friday evening the Rt. Revd Paul Colton will be enthroned in St Fachtna's Cathedral, Ross, while the Bishop of Kilmore will preach at the Florencecourt Flower Festival. The Kinsale Gospel Choir will give a concert in All Saints Church, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.
The Church's Ministry of Healing Annual Strickland's Conference begins on Friday and continues until Sunday 30 May. The speakers will be the Revd Dr A. Townsend; the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rt. Revd Harold Miller; Canon Leslie Maconachie, CMH Chairman; and Mrs Jean Thompson, CMH Deputy Warden. The conference will be held in Strickland House, Downshire Road, Bangor and details may be had by telephoning Belfast 457853.
The death has taken place of Mrs Norah Quinn, widow of the Rt. Revd George Quinn, Bishop of Down and Dromore, for whom a memorial service was held in Bangor Abbey on Monday 26 April. Mrs Quinn will be remembered, not only throughout the dioceses of Down and Dromore but also in Limavady, where she was born, Belfast where she worked before her marriage, and in the parishes in which she ministered with her husband- Holywood, Magheralin, Ballymacarrett and Bangor.