Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 2 December 2006
Belfast Parish Register Published
Next Thursday, in St Anne?s Cathedral, the Dean of Belfast, Dr Houston McKelvey, will launch the publication of the Register of the Parish of Shankill, Belfast, 1745-1761 which is the tenth volume in the now well established Representative Church Body Library parish register series.
The old parish of Shankill encompassed the town of Belfast in the middle of the eighteenth century and its register records many of the residents of Belfast, both Church of Ireland and non-conformist, before the town developed into the great industrial centre for which it is best known. Some of the names are well known in the history and development of Belfast but for others this register is the only evidence of their existence. The church in which the register was compiled no longer survives. It was replaced in the late eighteenth century by a new parish church, itself subsequently demolished, on the site of the present St Anne?s Cathedral where the original register is still preserved. The register is the oldest surviving Church of Ireland parish register for Belfast.
This register has been edited by Professor Raymond Gillespie from NUI Maynooth and Ms Alison O?Keefe, a former graduate assistant in the RCB Library, and will be available from the Good Bookshop in Donegal Street, Belfast at £10, or direct from the RCB Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14, at ?15.
Today (Saturday) the lunchtime recital in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be given by Judith Lamber (soprano) and Tristan Russcher (piano).
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning the preacher at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, will be the Precentor of St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, Canon Robert Reed, while in the evening, at 7pm, in the Chapel of Wilson?s Hospital, Multyfarnham, there will be a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of a former Warden, the Revd Robert Whiteside, to which all are welcome. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, this year?s Advent Procession will be filmed and recorded for DVD and to assist with this the congregation is asked to be seated by 4.50 pm. Advent Processions will also be held In Derry Cathedral and Limerick Cathedral, both at 7 pm.
On Wednesday the Archbishop of Armagh will dedicate a new national school in Dundalk. In the evening at 7 pm the Church of Ireland Theological College will have an Advent Carol Service in the Chapel of the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines. The music will be directed by Mark Duley and the Archbishop of Dublin will preside. All are welcome to the service which will be followed by refreshments.
Archbishop Neill will be in Swords on Thursday for a Hard Gospel event in the Emmaus Centre. ?The Future ? Friend or Foe?? will be a seminar for members of the Church of Ireland to reflect on changes that have taken place in the Republic of Ireland over the last ten years, and to assess how effectively the Church of Ireland has responded or reacted. The speakers will be David McWilliams, author of The Pope?s Children, and Patsy McGarry from The Irish Times. Meanwhile in Derry there will be another Hard Gospel event on Thursday morning in the form of a seminar on ?Remembrance ? Whose story is it anyway??. This will bring together Alan McBride from the WAVE trauma centre and Gerry O?Hara, former Sinn Fein Mayor of Derry.
In St Patrick?s Cathedral, Dublin, on Friday, immediately after Evensong, a table donated by the Order of St Lazarus will be dedicated in the Lady Chapel.