Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 10 October 2009
St Canice’s Cathedral Patronal Service
Tomorrow (Sunday) is the feast day of St Canice, the patron saint of Kilkenny, and the patronal festival will be celebrated in St Canice’s Cathedral at 7pm. The service will take the form of an Evensong from 1609 and will celebrate not only St Canice’s Day but also the 400th anniversary of Kilkenny being raised to city status in 1609. The Mayor and city dignitaries have been invited to attend as have the people of Kilkenny for this historic event in the life of the Cathedral. It will also be the last civic service before the Dean of Ossory, the Very Revd Norman Lynas, moves on from Kilkenny in November to take up a new post as canon residentiary in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Hamilton, Bermuda.
Music for the service, which will be sung by the Cathedral Choir directed by the Cathedral Organist, Malcolm Proud, will include music of composers of that era. Preces and responses by Morley by Thomas Morley (1557–1602), Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Orlando Gibbons (1583 –1625) and the anthem, ‘If ye love me’ by Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585). The concluding organ voluntary by William Byrd (c.1539-1623) will be played on the newly restored organ by Malcolm Proud.
After the service there will be light refreshments which will have a medieval theme with flavours of game and cheese, oats and mead, creating the atmosphere of those who lived and worshipped in this great Cathedral 400 years ago.
Today (Saturday) Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (the Irish Guild of the Church) will mark its 95th anniversary with a service of Choral Evensong in Irish (Urnai na Nona) in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 5pm. The Guild was founded in 1914 to bring together members of the Church of Ireland interested in the Irish language and Gaelic culture and to promote the Irish language within the Church of Ireland. It holds services in Irish twice a month in the Chapel of the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, and in Christ Church Cathedral. A series of lunchtime lectures in Christ Church to mark the anniversary has been planned for November.
Tomorrow afternoon in Castledermot parish church the Archbishop of Dublin will ordain the Revd Terry Alcock to the priesthood while in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, the Bishop of Cork will preside at the installation of the Revd Eithne Lynch, Rector of Kilmoe, as Prebendary of Desertmore & Killanully.
In Dublin tomorrow (Sunday) morning the Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will dedicate a memorial in St Audoen’s Church to the late Canon Richard Dowse who was incumbent of St Peter and St Audoen from 1934 until his retirement in 1975. In the afternoon the annual Huguenot Commemoration Service will be held in St Patrick’s Cathedral where the preacher will be the Dean’s Vicar, Canon Charles Mullen.
The Executive Committee of the Representative Church Body will meet in Church of Ireland House on Wednesday.
On Thursday and Friday the annual Cork, Cloyne & Ross Clergy Conference will take place in Ballylickey. The theme will be ‘Canon Law, Communion and Covenant’ and the guest speakers will be Professor Norman Doe, Professor of Law, Cardiff University, and Professor Mark Hill, author of Ecclesiastical Law.
In St Ann’s Church, Dublin the Revd Michael Heaney and his wife, Rhodanne, are leading a shortened Alpha Course for business people at lunchtime on Wednesdays. The sessions are from 12.40 to 1.30pm, lunch is provided, and all are welcome.