Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times
Saturday 4 March 2006
Gazette 150th Celebrations
Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be a Festal Evensong in St Anne?s Cathedral, Belfast, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Church of Ireland Gazette at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh.
The first issue of the Gazette appeared in March 1856 under the title of the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette, a title which it retained until 1900 when the current title was adopted. From its earliest days it was a kaleidoscope of information on all aspects of the life of the Church of Ireland ? news, reviews, comment, advertisements and, eventually, illustrations. It quickly became required reading for those who wished to be up to date about the Church?s life, especially since it was distributed free to all the Irish bishops and clergy and to all the bishops, deans and archdeacons in Great Britain. The determination of the publishers that it should also be a paper of record has ensured that the Gazette has had a lasting value as a research tool. The RCB Library holds a complete file of the paper and this is one of the most intensively consulted historical sources in the Library.
During the year there will be a series of anniversary events. A Gazette Questions & Answers forum on ?The Church, Society & the Media? will be held in Derry, Cork, Galway and Belfast and on 6 October there will be a conference on ?The Church, Society & the Media? in All Hallows College, Dublin.
Today (Saturday) the first in a new series of lunchtime recitals will be held in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 1.15 pm when Schola Gregoriana from Maynooth will perform Gregorian and old Roman chant.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the lecture sermon in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, will be delivered by the Revd Dr Alan Griffin, the Irish born Rector of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe in the City of London.
The Association of Assistant Cathedral Organists will visit Dublin from Monday to Wednesday. They will hold their AGM in St Patrick?s Deanery and attend services in both St Patrick?s and Christ Church cathedrals. Masterclasses and seminars will be given by leading local musicians including David Adams, John Dexter and Andrew Johnstone.
On Tuesday the Bishop of Meath and Kildare begins a busy schedule with an address to the Monkstown rural deanery Lenten meeting of clergy and laity on? Why bother with God??. From Wednesday until Friday he will chair a Faith and Order Consultation in Dublin with representatives from the Church of Ireland, Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church on some current issue of mutual interest ? the authority of scripture, the ARCIC document on Mary and the diaconate ? and on Friday evening he will be in Athlone to speak on school ethos at the annual conference of the past students of the Church of Ireland College of Education.
On Tuesday a new series of lunchtime lectures begins in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on the theme ?Church of Ireland Rebels: 1916 & the War of Independence?. The series, which will be held in association with Dublin City Council, will feature Church of Ireland personalities who were actively involved in the formation of the Irish state. Professor Christopher Murray from UCD will give the first lecture on Sean O?Casey.
In St Fin Barre?s Cathedral, Cork, on Wednesday evenings during Lent there will be a series of reflections on the latest ARCIC agreed statement Mary Grace and Hope in Christ. Next Wednesday the speaker will be Canon Don Bolen, the Roman Catholic Co-Secretary of the Commission.