Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 19 December 2009
Christmas Reading
Hard on the heels of Advent comes a new book from Columba Press by the former Dean of Kildare, the Very Revd Matthew Byrne. My Father’s Business. St Luke’s Narrative of the Ministry of Jesus is the first volume in a two part project. This book deals which the ministry of Jesus in Gaillee and the following volume will consider his ministry in Judea.
The book looks exclusively at St Luke’s record of Jesus living and working in the context of the customs, religion and prejudices of the day. There are, too, brief explorations of the leading personalities – John the Baptist, Herod, and of course, the Twelve Apostles. It is, as the author acknowledges, ‘a personal view of what I think is St Luke’s view of the Jesus I was taught about as a lad in the home in which I was reared’. Those who are familiar with Matt Byrne’s disceptively effortless television performances will know that like his TV slots, there is more to this book, and more behind its production, than his own modest words suggest.
Christmas is, for some at least, a chance to catch up with reading. Just last month, Church of Ireland Publishing produced Reader Ministry in the Church of Ireland, by George Leckey. Earlier in the year the same imprint was responsible for publishing Gillian Kingston’s Working Out the Covenant, from the Covenant Council of the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church, and for Pastoral Care in the Digital World by Gordon Wynne and Lachlan Cameron.
As always there has been much published on the history of the Church of Ireland. St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. A History, edited by John Crawford and Raymond Gillespie was the most substantial institutional history but there were also impressive studies of Kilkenny College by Lesley and Andrew Whiteside, and of the Adelaide Hospital School of Nursing by Gerard Fealy. Adrian Empey’s masterly edition of the proctors’ accounts of the parish of St Weburgh, Dublin, provides a fascinating insight into the life of a Dublin parish in the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth. There has, too, been much parish history, among which Ted Fleming’s history of The Diamond in north Armagh and Brian Barton’s account of St Peter’s Belfast, are exemplary .
Today (Saturday) at 4pm the Lord Mayor, the Archbishop of Dublin, Alice Leahy, and Sen. David Norris will be among those at a Community Carol Service at the Mansion House, while at the same time there will be a Community Carol Service in the courtyard of Marlay House organized by the local parishes.
Tomorrow morning (Sunday) RTE 1 will broadcast a Service of the Word from St Nicholas Collegiate Church, Galway, conducted by the Revd Vicki Lynch with rock band, Theophany Cacophany. The Bishop of Tuam will preside at the Galway Civic Carol Service in St Nicholas’ at 4pm while at 7pm the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at the Dublin Civic Carol Service in St Ann’s Church.
The Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Service of Nine Lessons and Carols will be held in Christ Church Cathedral on Monday evening at 8pm. Tickets are required for this service as they are for the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve which will be broadcast by RTE at 4pm.
On Christmas morning RTE will broadcast a Service of Holy Communion conducted by the Revd Darren McCallig and will televise a Service of Carols and Readings led by the Revd Tom Gordon and the Lowry Singers.