Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Next Tuesday evening in St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast, the seventh volume in the RCB Library’s ‘Texts and Calendars’ series, Preaching in Belfast, 1747–72: a selection of the sermons of James Saurin, will be launched by the Bishop of Clogher. The volume has been edited by Professor Raymond Gillespie from NUI Maynooth and Roibeard O Gallachoir, a graduate of the MA in Historical Archives in Maynooth who is shortly to join the staff of the RCB Library.
James Saurin, a descendant of a prominent Huguenot family, was appointed as vicar of Belfast in 1747, and one of his first acts was to write a series of sermons that he preached to his congregation over his long tenure as vicar. Some fifty–five of these sermons were recently discovered in St Anne’s cathedral, having been preserved and used by Saurin’s son and grandson for their preaching. This edition includes twenty of these sermons. They provide a vivid insight into the mind of a Church of Ireland clergyman in the rapidly changing town of Belfast at the middle of the 18th century and illuminates many of the key issues of the world of provincial Ireland.
To learn more about this book, visit the Four Courts Press website at
www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2015/preaching-in-belfast
Today (Saturday) in St Audeon’s church, Dublin at 2.35pm, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will give a public talk for the AGM of Changing Attitude Ireland entitled ‘Learning to disagree agreeably: Lessons from previous controversies in the Church of Ireland’. In St Patrick’s Deanery the 14th Dublin International Swift Symposium will begin at 2pm and tomorrow (Sunday) in St Patrick’s cathedral there will be a Swift Commemoration at Evensong when the address will be given by Professor Aileen Douglas from TCD.
The Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh Diocesan Synod will be held today (Saturday) in Carrick–on– Shannon, and it will be followed on Tuesday by the Derry & Raphoe Synod in Burt, the Cashel, Ferns & Ossory Synod on Wednesday in Piltown and the Armagh Synod on Thursday in the Alexander Synod Hall, Armagh.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the Bishop of Derry & Raphoe will preach at a Service of Thanksgiving and Celebration in Macosquin while in Knockmourne the Bishop of Cork will preach at the 200th anniversary service in St Luke’s church on St Luke’s Day. In St Mary’s church, Howth, Bishop Richard Henderson will be the preacher at the Dublin & Glendalough Annual Diocesan Healing Service which begins at 7pm while at the same time in St Patrick’s church, Dalkey, the Wicklow Gospel Choir will lead a Songs of Praise service with a retiring collection in aid of the current refugee crisis. In St Mary’s church, Thurles, the Very Revd Dr Philip Knowles will preach at the Harvest Festival which begins at 8pm.
On Monday evening at 8pm in Belfast Cathedral there will be a service on behalf of the persecuted church. This has been organized by Divine Healing Ministries and Open Doors.
The Bishop of Limerick & Killaloe will be in the USA on Tuesday where he will give the Pitt Lecture in the Berkeley Divinity School school, the episcopal seminary at Yale, on the topic ‘The Anglican Communion – a Work in Progress’. Later, at the Convocation Evensong in the Marquand Chapel, Bishop Kearon will be conferred with a honorary degree.
In Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, on Tuesday the lunchtime lecture in the ‘Magna Carta: Rights and Freedoms for Today’ series will be given by Archdeacon Gordon Linney who will speak on ‘The Right to Believe’.
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’