Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
New Director of Music for Christ Church
The Board of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, has announced that the cathedral’s new Director of Music is to be Ms Judy Martin who is currently Director of Chapel Music in Worcester College, Oxford, and Organist of the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Oxford. She will take up her duties at the beginning of September.
Ms Martin is a music graduate of the University of Cambridge and also holds a PGCE (secondary) Music from Oxford Brookes University. Since 1986 she has held a variety of musical posts in schools, colleges and churches in England and Australia.
There were twenty six applications for the post and Ms Martin was selected from a shortlist of five. An adjudication panel of five members of the Cathedral Board was supplemented by two external assessor, Dr Joe McKee, Head of the Belfast School of Music, and Mr Bob Chilcott, Director of the BBC Singers in London. Their decision has been received enthusiastically by the Cathedral Choir.
Another musical process has recently come to fruition with the publication of Music in the King’s Hospital, 1675-2003. Written by Mrs Lesley Whiteside, the historian of the school, the book plots and analyses the development of music in one of Ireland’s most distinctive educational foundations. There are sections on music in the chapel and on the stage, on concerts and on the teaching of music. The text is enlivened by both black and white and colour illustrations many of which will jog the memories of former pupils. Copies are available from the Headmaster’s Secretary, The King’s Hospital, Palmerstown, Dublin 20 at 15 euro including postage.
Today (Saturday) the ordination season begins with ordinations to the diaconate in Armagh and Limerick. In St Patrick’s Cathedral the Archbishop of Armagh will ordain Gerald Macartney for the curacy of Drumglass while in St Mary’s Cathedral the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe will ordain Stanley Evans to serve in the auxiliary ministry in Killaloe.
This evening (Saturday), at 4.00 pm, there will be a programme of organ music and song in St Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, with soloists from the St Carthage Singers and Jan Van Putten at the organ while at 7.30 pm in St George’s Church, Belfast, there will be a concert by the Choir of St George’s and the Choir of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. The St Patrick’s Choir will also sing the services in St Anne’s Cathedral tomorrow (Sunday), when the services in St Patrick’s will be sung by the Lassus Scholars and members of Piccolo Lassus. In Balbriggan and Skerries the visiting preacher will be the Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd John Paterson.
On Monday and Tuesday the bishops will attend a conference of Anglican bishops in Liverpool and from Wednesday to Friday some of their number will be involved in a selection conference for prospective ordinands in the Theological College.
The Wednesday evening organ recital in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, will be given by Shane Brennan, Master of the Music in the Carmelite Church, Whitefriars Street, Dublin. On Friday evening the Georgia Festival Chorus will give a concert in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, while St Patrick’s Church, Greystones, will host a concert by the Kertusset Girls Youth Choir, from Finland, and the Choir of St Laurence’s School, Greystones.
On Friday the first of the annual retreats organized by the Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer begins in Bellinter House, Navan. This is a silent ecumenical retreat and the witness is the Revd Dr W.J. Marshall, former Vice-Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College.