Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 10 November 2007
Hard Gospel Hymn Writing Competition
The Hard Gospel Project is offering a €1000 (£672) grand prize for the winner of its hymn-writing competition, which seeks to encourage talented musicians to submit compositions based on the theme of ‘Loving God and loving your neighbour’. The deadline for the competition is Saturday 1st December and the winner will be announced on January 1st 2008. The winning entry will also be premiered by the Discovery Gospel Choir at the Hard Gospel Immigration Conference on Saturday 19th January 2008, in the Emmaus Retreat Centre, Dublin.
The three judges for the competition are Melanie Clark Pullen, Bishop Edward Darling and Lorna Palmer. Melanie Clark Pullen has been an actor for the last ten years in Ireland and the UK. Her TV acting credits include The Clinic (RTE), The Big Bow Wow (RTE) and Eastenders (BBC). Melanie is also a Local Preacher in training in the Methodist Church. Bishop Edward Darling was General Editor of the Church Hymnal, (fifth edition) in 2000 and was elected Executive President of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland at its annual conference in July 2007. Lorna Palmer is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London and has directed choirs in Lisburn Cathedral, Belfast Bible College, Wesley College Dublin and the Church of Ireland Theological College.
The winning hymn will also be published and circulated for use in Church of Ireland churches throughout the country. Any entry must therefore be suitable to be performed in a variety of settings and on a variety of instruments. Entry forms have been sent to every parish, but are also available at www.hardgospel.net (see under the section ‘News’). Final entries must be sent to The Hard Gospel Project, Church of Ireland House, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6.
Today (Saturday) in Dublin the Church of Ireland Historical Society will meet in the Theological College at 10.30 pm. At the same time a November Fair will begin in Sandford Parish National School while in the afternoon, at 3 pm, Therese Fahy will give a piano recital in Whitechurch parish church. The choir of St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway, will sing Evensong in Kilcummin parish church, Oughertard, at 5 pm and again tomorrow (Sunday) at 4 pm
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Archbishop of Dublin will celebrate the Eucharist and preach in St Bartholomew’s parish church. Remembrance Sunday will be marked in Christ Church Cathedral with a Requiem Eucharist at which the Revd Alan Martin will preach while in the afternoon in St Patrick’s Cathedral the preacher will be the Revd Chris Long, Rector of Enniscorthy and a former RAF Chaplain.
On Tuesday the lunchtime lecture in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 1.15 pm, will be given by Dr John McCafferty from UCD who will speak about Dean Jonas Wheeler. Dr McCafferty’s book, The reconstruction of the Church of Ireland. Bishop Bramhall and the Laudian reforms, 1633-1641 has recently been published by Cambridge University Press.
The Bishop of Cork will be in London on Wednesday where he will deliver the Ecclesiastical law Society London Lecture at Lincoln’s Inn on ‘Canon Law through the Crucible of Disestablishment’. Meanwhile back in Cork at the Centre for Christian Studies in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Ellmarie Spillane-Dowd, from the Society of St Vincent de Paul, will speak on ‘Hidden Disadvantage’
The series of recitals of the organ works of Dieterich Buxtehude in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, continues on Thursday evening at 7 pm when the recitalists will be Mark Duley and David Leigh.