Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 16 December 2006
Belfast Cathedral Sit-Out
One of the, by now almost iconic, images of Christmas in the Church of Ireland is that of the Dean of Belfast, muffled in hat, scarf and cape, standing outside St Anne?s Cathedral, beside a large barrel in which all sorts and conditions of men and women put donations for charity. As the present Dean, Dr Houston McKelvey, with his customary directness, has observed ? ?there is no other Cathedral in the world which is enabled to give almost a quarter of a million pounds each year to charity?. That this happens, and happens year by year, is the most eloquent testimony to human kindness and challenges the Church of Ireland to search for other ways in which this all too evident goodwill can be harnessed for the common good.
This years sit-out will begin today (Saturday) and the Dean, supported by the canons of St Anne?s, will be outside in Donegall Street each day from 9.30am to 5.30pm until 23 December.
One way in which the effect of the Belfast sit-out has spread has been through the initiative of the clergy of St Ann?s Church, Dublin, who in recent years have mounted their own sit-out in Dawson Street. This year the Rector of St Ann?s, Canon Tom Haskins, and his supporters, will gather funds to support the African Famine Relief and the St Vincent de Paul organization. The Dublin sit-out will also begin today (Saturday) and will continue each day from 9am to 6 pm until Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon Belfast Cathedral will host ?Carols for the City? at which the readings will be given by prominent people who work in Belfast including the Deputy Lord Mayor, Mark Blackburne, and Hilary Sloan from the Belfast Education and Library Board. The Dublin Civic Carol Service will be held in St Ann?s Church, Dawson Street, at 7pm and among the readers will be the Lord Mayor, Councilor Vincent Jackson, and the Archbishop of Dublin. In Christ Church and St Patrick?s cathedrals there will be Services of Nine Lessons and Carols, for which tickets are not required, at 3.30 pm and 3.15 pm respectively. The annual carol service in Enniskerry Village, Co. Wicklow, will be held at 5 pm when the singing will be led by the combined choirs of Powerscourt and Curtlestown parish churches and the Enniskerry Gospel Choir.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 10.45 am RTE will broadcast a Service of Holy Communion from St Sedna?s parish church in the Glen of Aherlow, Co. Tipperary. The celebrant will be the Dean of Cashel, Dr Philip Knowles, and the preacher will be Mrs Margaret Kingston who is a diocesan reader.
In Christ Church Cathedral, on Monday evening, the Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Carol Service, for which tickets are required, will be held at 8 pm.
A seasonal visitor to Dublin is the Metropolitan of the Indian Orthodox Church, the Rt Revd Dr Thomas Mar Markarious who will pay a visit to the Archbishop of Dublin on Tuesday.
The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, has a vacancy for a tenor lay vicar choral to begin in January or September 2007. In addition the Cathedral Board invites applications for the position of organ scholar which will be vacant from September 2007 when the term of office of the current organ scholar, Fraser Wilson, comes to an end. Details of these positions may be had from the cathedral website www.cccdub.ie or by e-mailing the Director of Music, Ms Judy Martin