Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 17 November 2007
Silver Exhibition in Christ Church Cathedral
A new exhibition of silver from the Dublin city parishes, supported by the Heritage Council, has been installed in the Treasury in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The exhibits are mostly of the core items of altar plate – chalices and flagons for communion wine and patens for the consecrated bread. However there are also examples of less common pieces – alms dishes to hold the collection, knives to cut the bread for communion, spoons to strain impurities from the wine and corkscrews to open the wine bottles.
The exhibits include work by some of the leading Dublin goldsmiths such as Sir Abel Ram, who was also Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1684, Thomas Bolton, one of the most celebrated and productive silversmiths of the Stuart period and David Rummieu whose early 18th century knife for St Michael’s church is believed to be the oldest Irish silver-handled knife.
Other pieces have less distinguished or uncertain pedigrees but are of interest for different reasons. A corkscrew from St Bride’s church was the gift of the curate the Revd James King, son of the famous Dublin goldsmith, David King, while an alms dish from St Thomas’ church was, according to the inscription, purchased out of the savings and good management of the churchwarden, Lewis Laurent – not surprisingly he was prevailed upon to remain in office for another five years!.
The pieces in this exhibition date from the 17th century onwards. Some are purely functional while others are considerable works of art. Together they reflect the dynamic interaction of the liturgical life of the Church of Ireland and the vibrant cultural life of the city of Dublin and, in particular, the Company of Goldsmiths, the only Dublin trade guild to survive from medieval times to the present day.
Christ Church is open to visitors from 9.45 am to 5pm during the winter months.
Today (Saturday) the Monkstown Missionary Union will hold its annual sale for the world’s needs in the Knox Hall beginning at 10.30 am. The Bishop of Cork will be in Cyprus for the annual meeting of the European Consortium for Church and State Research in Nicosia where he will deliver a paper on ‘Ireland, Freedom of Religion and the European Convention on Human Rights’.
Tomorrow (Sunday) as part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of St Ann’s Church, Dublin, there will be a Songs of Praise service at 7pm. The hymns will be introduced by Archdeacon Gordon Linney and there will be music by the Steadfast Brass band and leading Dublin choirs, including the Leinster Singers, the Seafield Singers and Loreto College St Stephen’s Green Choir.
On Tuesday the Standing Committee of the General Synod and the Executive Committee of the Representative Church Body will meet in Church of Ireland House, Dublin, while the bishops will meet on both Tuesday and Wednesday. In Christ Church Cathedral the lunchtime lecture on Tuesday will be given by Dr Anthony Malcomson, former Director of the Public Record Office in Belfast, who will speak on Richard Robinson who was Bishop of Kildare and Dean of Christ Church in the mid 18th century. Dr Malcomson’s acclaimed study of Robinson as archbishop of Armagh, Primate Robinson, was published by the Ulster Historical Foundation in 2003.
The autumn session in the Centre for Christian Studies in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, on the theme ‘New Ireland – Old Church’ continues on Wednesday evening. The speaker will be Fr Peter McVerry SJ on the subject ‘Have we failed our young?’.