Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
Saturday 16th July 2005
In Memoriam Thomas Killian Carroll
The Revd Dr Thomas Carroll, Fr Tom to most, who died recently was, together with the late Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Henry McAdoo, among the foremost interpreters of the writings of the seventeenth century bishop of Down and Connor, Jeremy Taylor. He wrote widely on Taylor in journals but will be best remembered for two important books - Jeremy Taylor: Selected Works, which was published in America by the Paulist Press in its acclaimed Classics of Western Spirituality series, and Wisdom and Wasteland: Jeremy Taylor in His Prose and Preaching Today, published by Four Courts Press in 2001.
Although a priest of the Dioceses of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Dr Carroll spent most of his career abroad, studying in Rome and teaching, mainly in North America. It was in Rome in 1968 that he was introduced to the writings of Jeremy Taylor by the Director of the Anglican Centre, Canon John Fendlow, and this led to a doctoral thesis on the ?Sacramental Theology of Jeremy Taylor? which he defended at the Angelicum University. In the course of his research he first met Archbishop McAdoo, so beginning a lifetime friendship, and it was in Rome, too, that he broadened his Church of Ireland acquaintenships by meeting, in the Anglican Centre, the enigmatic Canon John Brown, Warden of the Divinity Hostel, and the formidable Archdeacon of Dublin, Raymond Jenkins.
A second doctoral dissertation, on ?Jeremy Taylor, Liturgist and Ecumenist?, defended at the Anselmianum in Rome in 1973, deepened Dr Carroll?s interest in ecumenics. He taught at the Irish School of Ecumenics in its early days and often recalled with great fondness his happy working relationship with the late Dean of St Patrick?s, Dr Maurice Stewart, who was also among the early staff of the School. However, although most of Dr Carroll?s teaching was done in America, especially at the University of Dallas, he was securely anchored to his family home in Longford and so was a frequent visitor to Ireland. Such sojourns invariably involved visits to the RCB Library, where he regularly refreshed his Anglican reading, to the Church of Ireland Theological College where he taught courses in homiletics, and to Christ Church Cathedral where he gloried in the finest liturgy in Ireland.
He was the best of ecumenists recognising in Anglicanism something valuable and distinctive which should not be lost in the, at times, desperate desire to be one, and by his death the Church of Ireland has lost a good friend. But in his new state he shall, in the words of Taylor, enjoy ??fullness without want, light eternal brighter than the sun?love without dissimulation, excellence without envy, multitudes without confusion, music without discord?
This evening (Saturday) at 8 pm the Choir of King?s College, London, will give a concert in St Bartholomew?s Church, Dublin, in aid of the Restoration Fund.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the services in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be sung by the Cantabile Singers while in St Patrick?s Cathedral the Priory Voices will sing at the Sung Eucharist when the preacher will be the Bishop of Wakefield, the Dr Stephen Platten.
On Sunday evening at 8pm in St Ann?s Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, the National Choir of New Zealand will perform music to suit all tastes, in aid of the St Stephen?s Church, Dublin. Situated in Upper Mount Street, this church is affectionately known to generations of Dubliners as 'The Pepper Canister', because of its distinctive dome, and anyone interested in viewing the interior of this architectural gem, may do so at lunchtime between 12.30 and 2.00 Monday to Friday.
On Wednesday evening at 7pm the Ardamine Summer Parish Bazaar will begin in Riverchapel Community Centre while in St Peter?s Church, Bandon, at 8pm, there will be an organ recital by Peter Sweeney.
In Castletownshend on Thurdsay evening the Bishop of Cork will open the 25th Festival of Classical Music in St Barrahane?s Church. The first concert in the series, which begins at 8.30pm, features the pianist, Hugh Tinney, and the RTE Vanburgh Quartet.
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