Press Releases03 Mar 12

The Dean of Belfast to pay tribute and lead a prayer at St Anne’s Cathedral, following Frank Carson’s funeral, 3 March 2012

The funeral cortege for well–known comedian Frank Carson, following the Requiem Mass in St Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street on the morning of Saturday 3rd March 2012, will pause at the steps of St Anne’s Cathedral. The Dean of Belfast, the Very Revd John Mann, will say: 

‘We are thankful for Frank’s humour, for the happiness he spread, for embracing this Cathedral in his concern and for, at all times, expressing those great qualities of hope and love, through word and action, that transcend division and bring people together in common endeavour.

‘God our creator and redeemer,
by your power Christ conquered death and entered into glory.
Confident of his victory
and claiming his promises,
we now leave your servant Frank in your gracious keeping.

We thank you for giving him the gift:
to help us to laugh in even the darkest of days;
to lighten burdened lives by an irrepressible spirit;
to show us how to be both exuberant and sincere;
to know how sensitively to help joy and sorrow to meet;
to be able to give when our need was greatest;
and to express faith in the people of this City.

May God bless all whom Frank loved and leaves behind,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who died and is alive
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit
one God, now and for ever.  Amen’

Issued on behalf of the Dean of St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast by the Church of Ireland Press Office