Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 1 May 2010
General Synod to Meet in Dublin
Next Thursday the General Synod opens in Dublin and continues until Saturday. The venue will be in Christ Church Place but not as in the past in the old Synod Hall but in Christ Church Cathedral – the first time the nave of the cathedral has been used for this purpose. The General Synod Service will be held on Thursday evening in St Patrick’s Cathedral where the preacher will be the Bishop of Clogher. The offertory from the service will be devoted to the Bishops’ Appeal and Protestant Aid. During the Synod daily worship will be led by the Bishop of Limerick & Killaloe.
The legislative programme this year is light with bills and resolutions relating to clergy pensions, the separation of the St Patrick’s Cathedral group of parishes from the cathedral and restructuring of the board of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.
Other issues for debate include education, inter-church dialogue, the Anglican Covenant, a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, and the restructuring of the committees and boards of the General Synod. The Liturgical Advisory Committee has produced a document on ‘Liturgical Space and Church Reordering’ which it will seek leave to have published and it is hoped that Church of Ireland Publishing will issue this later in the year.
However, it seems inevitable that much of the discussion, both formal and in the corridors and cafes, will be about finance. The Church of Ireland has not been immune from the financial turmoil which has beset the country and the report of the Representative Church Body, which will be presented on Friday morning, will reflect on the adjustments which have already been made and those which may still be required.
Just in time for the Synod, Christ Church Cathedral has published a new and extended guide to its stained glass. The former short guide, by Lesley Whiteside, was produced over ten years ago to determine the demand for specialised booklets for visitors. It has been out of print for some time and, in response to visitor requests, it has been expanded to set the stained glass scheme in the context of the 1870s restoration of the cathedral and to give a fuller explanation of the iconography. The architect, George Edmund Street, viewed the stained glass as an integral part of his restoration of Christ Church as a thirteenth-century cathedral and gave detailed instructions on the choice of glass, the drawing and the painting. Visitors often ask why the glass in the nave is so different from that in the rest of the cathedral, an issue which Mrs Whiteside addresses in the new booklet, which gives an explanation of each window and points out features which are often missed.
Today (Saturday) in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, there will be a Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church beginning at 10am. In the evening at 7.30pm there will be a special service at which the address will be given by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali. In Cork at 6pm the Clerks Choral of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Youghal, directed by Ian Sexton, will sing Compline in St Anne’s, Shandon, as part of the Cork International Choral Festival.
On Monday at 8pm the Westminster College Chamber Singers from Salt Lake City will give a concert in St Mary’s Church, Killarney, and on Wednesday the lunchtime recital in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, will be given by the organist, Trevor Selby who will play works by Bach and Jongen.