Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
A Spire for Belfast Cathedral?
The Dean of Belfast, Dr Houston McKelvey, has launched an architectural competition to design a spire for St Anne?s Cathedral, Belfast. The two stage competition is open to young architects, those of forty years or younger, who are working in Ireland. A judging panel will select applicants who demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the cathedral and who have a vision for the building for the next century.
The competition is being supported by the Laganbank Corporation which is committed to upgrading and enhancing the fabric of the area which has in recent years become known as the ?Cathedral Quarter?. St Anne?s Cathedral is the second most popular free tourist attraction in Belfast and draws some 30,000 visitors each year.
The cathedral, together with the City Hall, is a principal manifestation of the growing status of Belfast in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The foundation stone was laid in 1899 and the nave was consecrated in 1904. Since then there has been a series of building initiatives culminating in 1981 in the consecration of the north transept and Royal Irish Rangers? Chapel. The celebration of the centenary of the consecration of the nave has provided the impetus for this new building project.
Today ( Saturday) CMS Ireland will hold its Spring Sale in St Philip?s Church Hall, Temple Road, Dartry from 10.30 to 12.30. At lunchtime there will be a lecture in the Dublin City Library and Archives, Pearse Street, by Dr James Kelly, St Patrick?s College, Drumcondra, who will speak on ?Sir Edward Newenham, 1734-1814. Defender of the Protestant Constitution?. Dr Kelly?s study of Newenham has recently been published by Four Courts Press.
The Diocese of Cashel and Ossory will host a visit from their link diocese of Lund in the Church of Sweden which will be begin today ( Saturday) and continue until Wednesday. Tomorrow ( Sunday) all the churches in the diocese will use an English translation of the Swedish form of the Eucharist. At 4.00 pm in St Laserian?s Cathedral, Old Leighlin, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will install Canon Gordon Wynne, Rector of Bagnalstown, as Dean of Leighlin.
Tomorrow ( Sunday) morning RT É will televise a service for Passion Sunday with Canon Horace McKinley and the parishioners of Whitechurch, Co. Dublin, while in St Bartholomew?s Church, Clyde Road, the Passion Sunday preacher will be Fr John Littleton, President of the National Council of Priests in Ireland. At Evensong in St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, the final address in the current Lenten series will be given by Canon Michael Bordeaux. Formerly Director of the Keston Institute, Canon Bordeaux, who last preached in St Patrick?s in the 1970s, will speak on the Russian Orthodox Church. At 8.00 pm in Powerscourt parish church, the Enniskerry Choir will sing the Eucharist using, for the first time, the new Book of Common Prayer.
On Tuesday evening, in St John?s Church, Kilkenny, and again on Friday evening, in St Ann?s Church, Dublin, the Dublin based vocal octet, Res Nova, directed by David Leigh, assistant organist in St Patrick?s Cathedral, will sing a programme of music appropriate to Lent, drawn from English and Flemish works of the 16 th century. Among the composers whose works will be featured will be John Sheppard, Joannes Ockegham and William Cornysh.
In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, on Friday evening the Cathedral Chamber Choir will give a concert which will include the world premiere of ?Sunset on Calvary? by Paul Crabtree, and Irish premiers of Gyorgy Orban?s ?Stabat Mater? and Arvo Part?s ?Triodion? and ?Salve Regina?.
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