Bishop Harold Miller will welcome the Methodist President, Harold Good, as preacher on the Hill of Down on Saturday 16 March. The Festival Service will be held in Down Cathedral and to which the Bishop has invited a group of Methodists from the Down district as well as members of the other denominations in the area. The Strandtown Primary School Choir and the Sullivan Irish Traditional Group will help lead the worship. The Dean of Down is the Very Revd John Dinnen.

Prior to this service, the two ‘Harolds’ will lead the Pilgrimage from Saul (the place where Patrick founded his first church in Ireland) to Downpatrick. This follows a Communion Service, according to the Methodist rite, when the Presiding Minister will be the Revd Robin Roddie, District Superintendent of Down District. The preacher will be the Revd Henry Hull, the new rector of Lecale. 

Bishop Miller said: “On Saturday 16 March to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, members
of the Methodist Church and the Church of Ireland will set out on a special journey together. We will go in pilgrimage from Saul to Downpatrick. The journey will be short, but highly symbolic, because this is the year in which the Methodist Conference and the Church of Ireland General Synod will make a key decision in the life of our two churches, as they look towards embracing the Methodist/Church of Ireland Covenant”.

Timetable for the day:

9.30 a.m.	Communion Service in Saul Church
10.30 a.m.	Pilgrimage from Saul to Downpatrick
11.45 a.m.	Festival Service in Down Cathedral
1.00 p.m.	Wreath-laying ceremony at St Patrick’s grave

Photographers welcome