Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from 'The Irish Times'
Saturday 10 March 2007
Enthronement of Archbishop of Armagh
Next Friday afternoon, at 2.30 pm, the service of enthronement of the new Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, will begin in St Patrick?s Cathedral, Armagh. The archbishop will be enthroned by the Dean of Armagh, the Very Revd Patrick Rooke, in the context of Evensong which will be sung by the Cathedral Choir directed by the Organist and Master of Choristers, Mr T.P. Saunders.
Members of the Standing Committee, the Representative Church Body and representatives from the dioceses of Armagh and Connor, where the archbishop was bishop from 2002, have been invited. The bishops, of course, will be present as will be representatives from other churches and figures from public life, both north and south.
The Archbishop will preach and his first sermon as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland in Armagh Cathedral will be eagerly awaited. Archbishop Harper is well aware of the challenges which face the Church of Ireland at home and his recent participation in the Primate?s meeting in Tanzania will also have sharpened his awareness of the wider problems of the Anglican Communion. However, his talents for listening to and patiently engaging with issues, together with a cheerful and affable manner, augur well for the new primacy.
Today (Saturday) a visit to Cork by the Revd Johan Dalman, Ecumenical Officer of the Church of Sweden, who has been leading times of reflection and spirituality, concludes, while this evening, in Belfast, the choir of St Anne?s Cathedral will sing Mass in the newly restored Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Peter.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning RTE will broadcast a Sung Eucharist at which the preacher will be the Rector of Zion, the Revd Wilbert Gourley, and the celebrant, the Revd Tom Gordon, while in Derry Cathedral the services will be sung by the choir of Seapatrick parish church, Banbridge. In the afternoon in St Macartin?s Cathedral, Enniskillen, the Archbishop of Armagh will conduct the Commissioning Service of the Mothers? Union All Ireland President, Margaret Crawford, and the All Ireland Board of Trustees in the presence of the MU World Wide President, Rosemary Kempsell. The refurbishment of Calry parish church, where the rector is Canon Liz McElhinney, will be celebrated at a Songs of Praise service at 7 pm when the Bishop of Kilmore will preach and dedicate memorial gifts. Earlier in the day, at 4pm, the new Dean of Cork, the Very Revd Nigel Dunne, will be installed in St Fin Barre?s Cathedral where the preacher will be the former Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey.
In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Monday evening at 8 pm the Lenten lecture will be given by Professor William Reville, UCC, who will speak on ?Belief and Science?. Meanwhile in London Dr Alan McCormack, formerly Church of Ireland chaplain in TCD, will be installed as parish priest in the church of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate by the Bishop of London.
The lunchtime history lecture in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Tuesday will be given by Stuart Kinsella who will speak on the cathedral monuments. In the evening, in the Knox Hall, the speaker at the Monkstown Rural Deanery Lenten meeting will be one of he truly iconic figures of modern Ireland, Fr Peter McVerry SJ, who will discuss the problem on homelessness.
On Thursday then lunchtime Lenten address in Derry Cathedral will be given by local broadcaster, Anita Robinson, while in the evening the Ecumenical Lent meeting in Rathfarnham parish church will consider the issue of the acceptability of religious symbols in Ireland today.