Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
New Dean for Belfast Cathedral
Next Tuesday evening in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, Canon John Mann will be installed as Dean of Belfast and instituted as Vicar of the Cathedral Parish in succession to Dr Houston McKelvey who has retired from the stipendiary ministry.
Canon Mann was ordained in 1979 for the curacy of Cloughfern in Belfast and after a second curacy in Knock he returned to the Diocese of Connor in 1985 as Rector of Ballyrashane & Kildollagh. In 1989 he was appointed as Rector of Bentworth in the Diocese of Winchester but returned to the Church of Ireland and to the parish of Cloughfern as rector in 1993. He was appointed to represent the Diocese of Connor as Prebendary of Clonmethan on the chapter of St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1993 and since 2002 he has been Rector of St John’s Malone.
Canon Mann has been a member of the Representative Church Body since 2002 and a member of its Library and Archives Committee since 2009.
Heritage Week continues today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday). Today (Saturday) in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a lunchtime guided tour by the cathedral architect, Paul Arnold. Calary Church in Co. Wicklow will be open to visitors today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) between 2pm and 6pm with free guided tours of the church and grounds while tomorrow (Sunday) there will be guided tours of St Doulagh’s medieval church, Balgriffin.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the services in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be sung by the Aularian Singers while in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, the Charles Wood Boys’ Choir will sing at the morning Eucharist which will be broadcast on Radio Ulster at 10.15am. In the afternoon there will be a Service of Dedication in Drumsnatt parish church, Co. Monaghan, where the preacher will be the Dean of Kilmore, the Very Revd Raymond Ferguson.
At 7pm in St Mary’s church, Maryborough, the Bishop of Cashel & Ossory will institute the Revd Dr Stanley Monkhouse to the Portaloiase group of parishes. Dr Monhkhouse was ordained in the Church of England in 2006 and has most recently been priest–in charge of the parish of Old Brampton and Great Barlow in the Diocese of Derby. However, he is no stranger to Ireland having been Professor of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and organist in St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street,.
Mark Bowyer, who is based in Dublin, has been appointed as the Royal School of Church Music’s (RSCM) Co–ordinator for Ireland. Originally from Macclesfield in Cheshire, he moved to Ireland in 1999, where he has maintained and developed his interest in church music alongside senior management positions at Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals in Dublin and at St Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny. He was awarded the Archbishop’s Certificate in Church Music by the Guild of Church Musicians in 2002 and has played an active role in the work of the RSCM’s Irish committees since 2007, first as Honorary Secretary and currently as Honorary Treasurer to the Republic of Ireland committee.
David Grealy has been appointed Assistant Director of Music at St Bartholomew’s Church. Ballsbridge, Dublin. A native of Galway city, he is a first class music and history graduate of NUI Maynooth and studied organ performance under Professor Gerard Gillen. He is currently is organist–in–residence at Westminster Cathedral, having been organ scholar there in 2008–09. He has won numerous prizes for organ including the Stanford Prize in 2003 and the advanced organ prize in 2005 at the Dublin Feis Ceoil.