Anglican leaders from all over the world took part in a day–long Pilgrimage to Derry–Londonderry at the half–way point of their historic week–long Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) gathering in Northern Ireland.

Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and laity started their tour in Ebrington Square before walking the Peace Bridge from the Waterside to the Cityside. From there, they visited the Guildhall where they were formally welcomed by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Cllr Grace Uí Niallais and the City of Londonderry Lord Lieutenant Ian Crowe MBE.

Following lunch in the Guildhall, the 140 guests walked the city’s famous walls and visited St Augustine’s Church – ‘the wee church on the Walls’ – where they met and heard from Richard Moore, founder of Children in Crossfire, who was blinded when he was hit by a rubber bullet fired by a soldier during the ‘Troubles’.

The afternoon was rounded off with a Service of reflection and prayer in St Columb’s Cathedral.

Here are some of the comments captured at the conclusion of the Pilgrimage.

At the invitation of Bishop Adrian Wilkinson, the Very Revd Dr David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury, will be a guest in the Diocese of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory for several days this month. On Sunday Dean Monteith will be the guest preacher at the morning Choral Eucharist at St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny, at which the Bishop will preside. That afternoon there will be a special service to mark the shared life and witness of the diocese at 3.30pm in St Canice’s cathedral at which Dean Monteith will also preach.

From Monday until Wednesday, Dr Monteith will be the guest speaker at the annual Clergy Conference in the Park Hotel, Dungarvan.

Dean Monteith was installed in December 2022 as the 40th Dean of Canterbury (post–Reformation) heading up a staff of 250 and over 500 volunteers and  leading the mother church of the Anglican Communion. Prior to this he was Dean of Leicester where he was responsible for the re–interment of King Richard III after the discovery of his remains in a ‘car–park’, and the redevelopment of the cathedral in one of Britain’s most diverse cities where he also chaired the inter–faith ministry of the diocese.

He also served as Associate Vicar of St Martin–in–the–Fields, London, and as an Area Dean in Wimbledon first being ordained in the Diocese of Birmingham in 1993. His interests focus on faith in the public realm, change, culture and the arts. A native of Enniskillen, Dr Monteith was educated at Portora Royal School and Durham University.

At Evensong on Sunday in St Patrick’s cathedral, Armagh, the Rector of Ballymore, the Revd Colin Darling, will be installed as Prebendary of Tynan and Ms Janet Maxwell, Head of Synod Services and Communications in Church of Ireland House, as a Lay Canon. In Dublin, at Evensong in Christ Church cathedral, the Revd Alan Breen, Rector of Kill o’ the Grange, and the Revd Garth Bunting, Rector of Drumcondra & North Strand, will be installed as members of the cathedral chapter.

On Monday at 10.15am the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at Morning Service in St Michan’s church, Church Street, Dublin 7, on the occasion of the commencement of Michaelmas Law Term. The address will be given by the Rt Revd Trevor Gribben, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

On Thursday evening at 8pm author Amy Jeffs and musician Natalie Brice will be in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, for a performance of original songs exploring the world of medieval saints.  The music celebrates Amy’s latest book Saints: Medieval Legends of Heroes, Humans and Magic. Each engaging contemporary folksong follows historical introductions and readings by Amy. The evening will shine a light on the poignancy, politics, violence, beauty and pilgrim–driven power of the medieval cult of saints, as well as its cast of hermits, giants and dragon–slaying virgins, still enthralling to this day. Entrance is free but booking is required.

Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times

Black Santa is back on the steps of Belfast Cathedral, with the 48th annual sit–out for charities getting underway at 10am on Monday December 16. Check out our photo gallery here!

The launch of Dean Stephen’s Forde’s seventh sit–out was as always well supported by local media and by the Mayor of Belfast – Councillor Micky Murray joining the Dean at the famous barrel soon after the event got underway and even donning a black Anglican cloak for a time as he made a donation.

A new Black Santa has joined Dean Forde and the Canons and clergy of the Cathedral – the as yet unnamed Teddy dressed in the familiar Black Santa attire was presented to the Dean by Mildred Irvine who had not only knit cuddly Black Santa’s clothes, but had included a barrel complete with rattling coins!

The Dean will stand on the steps of St Anne’s morning and afternoon every day until the afternoon of Christmas Eve, with the exception of Sunday December 22 when he will be busy with the annual Carols in the City service.

The Black Santa Appeal was established by Dean Sammy Crooks in December 1976 – its name coined by the media on account of the warm black Anglican cloak worn by the Dean and his successors.

This year’s appeal is making the most of new technology – passers–by can make a donation simply with a tap of a card or phone!

For those who cannot make it to Donegall Street, there is also the opportunity to donate online at https://www.belfastblacksanta.org

In addition to raising funds to support small charities across Northern Ireland with the usual portion going to Christian Aid as is has done since the beginning, the Appeal this year will focus on families who have a member with autism and also on charities working to prevent young people, and in particular young people with a lived experience of care, from finding themselves homeless as they move to independent living.

For further details on the impact of the Black Santa Appeal, 10 short videos have been prepared from a selection of the charities supported last year. These can be viewed at www.belfastblacksanta.org/charities

The Spring meeting of the Church of Ireland Historical Society will be held in the Armagh Robinson Library on Saturday on 27 April beginning with teas and coffee in 9 Vicars’ Hill and registration in the Library at 10.30am

In the morning session at 11.00am Dr Brendan Twomey, whose current research interests are centred on the financial and legal affairs of Dean Johnathan Swift will speak on ‘Printing for power: Irish Protestant and Catholic controversies in the world of print, 1690 – 1732’ and at 12 noon Professor  Peter Grey, a history professor in Queen’s University, Belfast, will give a paper on  ‘Sharman Crawford and Disestablishment’.

Lunch will be available in Number 9 Vicars’ Hill at a cost of £10/€10.

After lunch at 2.00 pm the former Archbishop of Armagh Dr Richard Clarke will talk about ‘The Enigmatic Lord Plunket’ and the conference will conclude with a paper by Dr  David Hayton, Emeritus Professor of History in QUB, on  ‘The Leeper family: from Dublin to Australia, and back’.at 3pm.

Attendance is free to all paid–up members. Non–members can purchase a one–day membership for €10/£10.

The annual subscription is fixed at €40/£40 (student rate £15/€15). This includes admission to the bi–annual conferences, book discounts, and exclusive access to the Society’s recordings of papers delivered at previous conferences. Subscriptions for 2024 may be paid on the membership section of the Society’s website: churchofirelandhist.org

Queries may be addressed to the honorary secretaries, Professor Alan Ford or Dr Miriam Moffitt,by email (secretary.coihs@gmail.com). Alternatively, you can visit the society’s website.

Tomorrow (Sunday) on the occasion of his silver jubilee the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, Dr Paul, Colton, has invited all parishes, chaplaincies and organisations in the Diocese to join him in 7 p.m. in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral  for ‘An Easter Celebration of Faith and our Life together in Cork, Cloyne and Ross.’

From tomorrow (Sunday) until Tuesday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, will lead a retreat for the Glendalough Clergy in Ballyvaloo Retreat Centre, Co. Wexford.

On Thursday the Friends of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, will have an outing to the National Gallery of Ireland, meeting at 10.45 in the Clare Street foyer. Intending participants should reply to the Assistant Secretary of the Friends by Monday 15 April.

The Bishop of Meath & Kildare, the Most Revd Pat storey, has appointed the Revd William Steacy, Rector of Athlone, as the new canon of the  two cathedrals in Meath and Kildare. The first installation will take place on Wednesday 8 May, 2024 at 7.30pm in St Patrick’s cathedral, Trim.  The Dean of Kildare, the Very Revd Isobel Jackson, will also be installed to St Patrick’s Cathedral Chapter on that evening. The second installation will take place on Wednesday 22 May, 2024 at 7.30pm in St Brigid’s cathedral, Kildare.

St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, is currently carrying out an oral history research project and is inviting potential interviewees, particularly those who have a substantial connection with the cathedral community, through volunteering, the Grammar or Choir School, music, the clergy, service provision or family connections of long standing, to take part.

The research, which will become part of the UNESCO recognised National Folklore Collection at UCD, will assist with a better understanding of the cathedral community in the past as well as its role in wider Irish society and in the local area.

More information may be had by contacting the St Patrick’s Education & Safeguarding Officer, Clark Bryson, at education@stpatrickscathedral.ie

Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times

A series of free lunchtime lectures will be held at Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, this month on Tuesdays at 1.10pm. ‘Of the Cloth’, which will examine all manner of ecclesiastical fabrics, from the dressing of altars to the robing of monks and clergy.

Speakers will include the art historian and textile conservator, Rachel Phelan, who, next Tuesday, will speak about the Myerscough altar frontals at Kilternan and Christ Church cathedral and the links with the school of embroidery at St John’s Sandymount. The following Tuesday 13 February, Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, a Benedictine monk of Glenstal Abbey and a medievalist specialising in Irish monastic and religious history, will discuss medieval Irish ecclesiastical and liturgical vesture, and will be followed on Tuesday 20 February by the Dean of Limerick, the Very Revd Niall Sloane, who will talk about post–Reformation clerical garb ranging from ruffs to gaiters. The archdeacon of Armagh,  Dr Peter Thompson, will discuss the convergence of ecclesiastical and academic dress on Tuesday 27 February.

Admission is free, and all are welcome. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at archives@christchurch.ie

The lecture series is generously supported by the Friends of Christ Church, and is the 33rd in a series which has run with some regularity for 27 years since the first on the Augustinian canons regular in October 1997. It followed on from a series of memorial lectures for former Dean’s Verger, Joe Coady, which ran from 1987–2003, and which in turn recalled the annual St Stephen’s Day lectures begun in 1891 by the cathedral architect, Sir Thomas Drew, which ran well into the 20th century.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, Dr Paul Colton, will institute the Revd Elise Hanley to the incumbency of Cobh & Glanmire union of parishes.  The preacher will be the Revd Meghan Farr, Rector of St Anne’s, Shandon.

On Tuesday the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, will be in Sweden to attend the North European Cathedral Conference in Lund which continues until Friday.

On Wednesday the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell, will be in Cork. He will visit St Fin Barre’s cathedral and Midleton College which is celebrating its Silver Jubilee. In the evening he will be in St Mary’s church, Carrigaline, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary. There, Choral Evensong will be sung by the Choir of Saint Fin Barre’s cathedral The Bishop of Cork will preside and dedicate a reredos which has been relocated, with consent, from the closed church of St Paul, Ballymoney. The Archbishop of Armagh will preach.

In St Ann’s church, Dublin, a new series of lunchtime recitals will begin on Thursday at 1.20pm when Yue Tang will perform Bach’s Cello Suite No.6 in D major.

Applications for displays stands at the 2024 General Synod are now invited from interested groups. The Synod takes place in the Armagh City Hotel on Friday 10 & Saturday 11 May.  Please apply to Aisling.Sheridan@rcbcoi.org on or before Monday, 12February. It may not be possible to provide a stand to all groups who apply; applicants will be contacted in March once the final arrangements for the available space have been made.

The Bishops’ Appeal has announced that two hundred and fifty wood–burning stoves have been distributed in the Kharkiv region by Habitat for Humanity Ukraine in recent months.  Many arrived just in time for Christmas, and all will keep families warm and allow them to cook simple meals.

Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times

This lecture is open to members and non–members of the Society and is free of charge although booking will close at 5.30pm today (Tuesday, 15th March 2022).

Please visit this link in order to make a booking.  Zoom invitations will then be sent out by email to those who have booked.

A National Programme of initiatives to mark the 150th anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland through the Irish Church Act 1869.

It is with regret that the Dublin & Glendalough Disestablishment 150 Committee has taken the decision to park the diocesan Open Church event which was to take place on Culture Night 2020.

It was hoped that every church in the United Dioceses would be open to the public on Culture Night on September 18 as part of the commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. However, in the midst of a global pandemic the committee feels that it would be unsafe to proceed at this stage. They are now planning to hold Open Church as part of Culture Night 2021.

“We are very sad to make this announcement but while we are still dealing with a lot of uncertainty around Covid-19 we do not wish to put parish volunteers and visitors to our churches at risk,” commented committee chairman, Canon Roy Byrne. “We had received a very enthusiastic response to our invitation to participate in Open Church and we hope that parishes will engage as fervently for Culture Night 2021.”

Parishes are still welcome to take part in Culture Night 2020 on an individual basis, either online or offline. Information and registration details are available here: https://culturenight.ie

For further information please contact:

Mrs Lynn Glanville

Diocesan Communications Officer, Dublin & Glendalough 087 235 6472
dcodublin@gmail.com

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]]> https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/9914/open-church-on-culture-night https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/9262/disestablishment-150-lecture-series-in Mon, 06 Jan 2020 10:04:00 +0000 Dublin & Glendalough’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland gets underway this month with a series of lunchtime lectures in Dublin’s Christ Church cathedral.

The lectures will examine the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland after 150 years, from the perspectives of government, history, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of Ireland, and will take place at 1.10pm on the Fridays in January in the cathedral’s music room. Admission is free and all are most welcome.

The series begins on Friday 10 January with Mary E Daly, former professor of Modern Irish History at UCD, and who from 2014–17 served as the first female president of the Royal Irish Academy. Her edited volume with K Theodore Hoppen on Gladstone: Ireland and Beyond (Four Courts Press, 2011), makes her the ideal person to give a governmental perspective on the Church of Ireland’s disestablishment, given that Gladstone was the main architect of the considerable legislation.

Later speakers include the early modernist Professor Alan Ford (Friday 17 January) with a historical perspective on disestablishment, while Dr Colin Barr (Friday 24 January), senior lecturer in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, will give a view from the Roman Catholic Church. The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, perhaps the ultimate insider as archbishop of Armagh, whose doctoral thesis was on the disestablishment revision of the Book of Common Prayer in the 1870s, will conclude the series (Friday 31 January).

For further information please contact:

Mrs Lynn Glanville

Diocesan Communications Officer, Dublin & Glendalough 087 235 6472
dcodublin@gmail.com

www.dublin.anglican.org

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]]> https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/9262/disestablishment-150-lecture-series-in https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8989/heritage-week-talks-walks-to Thu, 15 Aug 2019 15:33:00 +0000 As part of the Church of Ireland’s programme of events to mark the 150th anniversary of its Disestablishment, a lunchtime lecture series organised by the RCB Library will run at the Irish Architectural Archive (IAA), 45 Merrion Square, Dublin, during Heritage Week (next week).  Each lecture will start at 1.15pm. The lectures are aimed at a general audience and likely to be light, topical and entertaining. They are free and all are most welcome to attend.

On Tuesday, 20th August, Professor Alan Ford, Professor Emeritus of Theology at the University of Nottingham, will speak on ‘What kind of a Church is the Church of Ireland?‘  Professor Ford holds a PhD on the Irish Reformation and was an editor of The Church of Ireland and its Past: History, Interpretation and Identity, published by Four Courts Press in 2017.

On Wednesday, 21st August, Dr Michael O’Neill FSA will speak on ‘Architecture and Ecclesiology: The evidence from the Church of Ireland drawing collections.’ Dr O’Neill is an architectural historian and the curator of A Visual Window to an Ecclesiastical World – an exhibition of the Church of Ireland’s historical architectural drawings – which is continuing at the IAA until 30th August.

On Thursday, 22nd August, the Rt Revd Michael Burrows will speak on ‘Liturgical space and the re–ordering of Church of Ireland churches‘.  Bishop Burrows has served as Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory since 2006 and was previously Dean of Cork, Rector of Bandon, and the Church of Ireland Chaplain of Trinity College Dublin.

On Friday, 23rd August, Dr Niamh NicGhabhann, from the University of Limerick, will speak on ‘Church of Ireland restorations and representations in 19th–century Ireland‘.  Dr NicGhabhann’s work combines research and teaching with curating, arts management and creative collaborations.  She is currently researching the history of public space in Ireland.

Dr O’Neill will also conduct walking tours, discussing Disestablishment and looking at the Cathedrals of Christ Church and St Patrick’s and adjacent parish churches and how they reflect this event.  These will take place from 3pm to 4.30pm on Tuesday, 20th August, and Thursday, 22nd August, starting from the labyrinth in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral.  The tours will be free of charge but places are limited and booking is required. To make a booking, please contact Caoimhe Leppard at caoimhe.leppard@rcbdub.org or on 00 353 (0)1 4125 608.

The RCB Library’s exhibition of architectural drawings – A Visual Window to an Ecclesiastical World – which also has free admission is now entering its last few weeks, so for those who have not yet had a chance to view its colourful content, there is an opportunity up to Friday, 30th August – including each day of the Heritage Week programme in the IAA. More details can be found at www.iarc.ie/exhibitions

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Enquiries for the Press Office can be made through the contact details below or through the online contact form at the following link: www.churchofireland.org/contact

Church of Ireland Press Office

Tel: (028/048) 9082 8880
Duty mobile: +353 87 9484412

]]> https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8989/heritage-week-talks-walks-to https://www.ireland.anglican.org/news/8986/dissolving-the-sacred-union-the Thu, 15 Aug 2019 12:00:00 +0000

A hundred and fifty years ago, Parliament disestablished the Church of Ireland, dissolving what Disraeli called the ‘sacred union’ of Church and State in Ireland. Disestablishment involved fundamental issues – the identity and purpose of the established Church, the religious nature of the State, and the union of Ireland and Britain – and debate was carried on at a high level. With disestablishment, the Church of Ireland lost much of its property, but it recovered, now as an independent Episcopal Church with a renewed mission. The idea of the United Kingdom as a Christian State, however, was dealt a grievous blow.

Speaker: Stewart J. Brown has been Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Edinburgh since 1987. His publications include The National Churches of England, Ireland and Scotland (2001), The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. vii: Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution (2006), edited with Timothy Tackett, and Providence and Empire: Religion, Society and Politics in the United Kingdom, 1815–1914 (2008).

Date and Time: Tuesday 8th October 2019 at 7.30pm

Venue: Armagh Robinson Library, 43 Abbey Street, Armagh, BT61 7DY (beside St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, Armagh)

Cost: Free (Donations welcome)

To Book: Please email director@armaghrobinsonlibrary.co.uk or call 028 3752 3142.

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