Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 9 August 2008
The Lambeth Conference
Last Sunday the Lambeth Conference ended and the bishops have now dispersed. Those who have been following the excellent series of interviews on the Church of Ireland website (www.ireland.anglican.org) by Church of Ireland Press Officer, Paul Harron, with the Irish bishops will be in no doubt about the demanding nature of the conference programme. Unsurprisingly some of the bishops have gone on a much needed holiday. August is as close as it gets to a holiday month in the Church of Ireland with fewer than usual meetings and much of the regular parish and diocesan activity on hold.
However, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, has returned to diocesan life and the coming week has no shortage of engagements. Tomorrow (Sunday) morning he will celebrate the Eucharist in St Michan’s parish church at 10 am and in All Saints’ Grangegorman at 11.30. In the evening he and Mrs Neill will attend a welcome dinner for the Archbishop of Lagos, the Most Revd Dr Ephraim Adebola Ademowo, and his wife in the Orlagh Retreat Centre. Archbishop Ademowo will be the celebrant at the parish eucharist in Whitechurch, Co. Dublin, tomorrow (Sunday) morning, where the rector is Canon Horace McKinley, and he will pay a courtesy call on Archbishop Neill at the See House on Tuesday morning.
On Monday morning the new Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Eibhlin Byrne, will pay a courtesy call to the See House on Temple Road and in the afternoon the Archbishop will attend a meeting of the Board of St Patrick’s Hospital. August is, of course, the month, par excellence, of the summer school and on Wednesday Dr Neill will attend the Parnell Summer School where he will participate in a round table discussion on the theme of ‘Education and Religion’.
Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be no visiting choir in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and so there will be a Eucharist with a guest organist who will be Vincent Lynch, former organ scholar in Trinity College Chapel. The current Director of the Chapel Choir in Trinity,. Dr Kerry Houston, will be the guest organist in St Patrick’s Cathedral where the services will be sung by the Close Chorale directed by Stephen Hennessy. The St Patrick’s Choir is in Denmark, with the support of Culture Ireland, to participate in the events surrounding the return to Roskilde of the replica Viking ship, Sea Stallion from Glendalough. The choir will sing at the morning service in Roskilde Cathedral tomorrow (Sunday). In Clonmacnoise there will be a summer service in Templeconnor Church at 4pm.
On Monday evening at 7pm in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, there will another in the Spiorad series of Celtic meditative services. These services take place on the second Wednesday of each month and an integral part of each service is the exploration of a particular Celtic saint.
The St Barrahane’s Church Festival of Music continues in Castletownshend on Thursday evening when there will be a recital by the Early Music Ensemble while on Friday the New Hampshire Youth Chorus will give a concert in St Columba’s parish church, Ennis at 8 pm.
Next Friday as part of the National Concert Hall’s choral and organ festival the choir of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, directed by Peter Barley, will perform with organist David Leigh. Their programme will include works by William Byrd, Mauice Duruflé, George Hewson and settings from Eric Sweeny’s Mass for St Patrick which was premiered and broadcast from St Patrick’s Cathedral.