Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 28 June 2008
Ordinations in Armagh
Tomorrow (Sunday), St Peter’s Day, will bring the last in the round of summer ordinations. In St Patrick’s Cathedral the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, will ordain two deacons. Carmen Hayes will serve in the parish of St Mark, Portadown, and William McCracken in Camlough and Mullaglass. Archbishop Harper will also be the preacher.
The annual Church of Ireland Ordination Newsletter, which is prepared by the Central Director of Ordinands, Canon Katharine Poulton, reveals that since the beginning of June fifteen deacons have been ordained and seventeen deacons have been raised to the priesthood. Of these, four of the deacons and three of the priests are female
Three of Ireland’s finest chamber choirs – New Dublin Voices, the Mornington Singers and Galway’s Cois Cladaigh – will bring the Pipeworks Festival to a resounding close. They will sing at various Dublin city centre venues today (Saturday) and tomorrow at 5 pm (Sunday) in St Patrick’s Cathedral, they will join Resurgam, under the direction of Mark Duley, Pipeworks’ artistic director, to sing Vespers in seventeenth century Lutheran manner. With massed choral forces, brass accompaniment and the distinctive acoustic of Ireland’s largest cathedral, this event promises a rousing conclusion to the festival.
Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a notable day in St Polycarp’s Church, Finaghy, when two ministeries totaling eighty-five years will be observed. At the seven o’clock Eucharist the diamond jubilee of the ordination of the Ven. Clayton Stevenson, former Archdeacon of Connor, and the silver jubilee of the ordination of his son, the Revd Leslie Stevenson, Rector of Portarlington, will be marked. The celebrant will be the former Bishop of Connor, Dr Samuel Poyntz, and the preacher will be the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke. Meanwhile at 6.30pm in Christ Church, Lisburn, the parishes of St Paul and Christ Church will join in a special service to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the ordination of Canon Ken Cochrane who served as priest-in-charge and as Rector of St Paul’s from 1963 to 1998. The preacher will be the Dean of Connor, the Very Revd John Bond, who was Canon Cochrane’s first curate.
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at 12.15 the bell ringers of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, hope to ring a quarter peal for the departing long ship, the Sea Stallion. At 3.30 the Annual Open Air Service of Praise will be held at St Doulagh’s Church, Balgriffin, which is reputed to be the oldest stone roofed church in Ireland still in continuous use. The preacher will be the Revd Kevin Brew, Rector of Howth, and music will be provided by the 1st Coy Boys’ Brigade band.
From Monday the Choir of St Patrick’s Cathedral will be on summer recess. Evensong from Monday to Wednesday will be sung by St Paul’s Choir, from Fayetteville, Arkensas, and they will be followed on Thursday and Friday by the choir of Trinity Co9llege, Oxford.
Beginning on Tuesday and continuing throughout the months of July and August, St Stephen’s Church, Lower Mount Street, Dublin, colloquially known as the Peppercanister Church, will be open to visitors between 12.30 and 2 pm.
On Friday morning a Festival of Flowers on the theme of ‘Celebrating Our Heritage’, begins in St Columba’s Church, Kells, Co. Meath. The festival will continue until Sunday 6 July when the preacher at the closing service will Dr Walton Empey, who was Bishop of Meath and Kildare from 1985 to 1996. On Friday at lunchtime the Frevo Quartet will give a lunchtime concert in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.