Added on 12/03/2011

Saturday 12 March 2011

St Patrick’s Day Celebrations
On Thursday in Church of Ireland cathedrals and churches, and especially those dedicated to the national saint, St Patrick’s Day will be celebrated.

The principal celebration will be in Downpatrick where the Bishop of Down & Dromore will preside at a Festival Service in Down Cathedral at 11.45am at which the preacher will be the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rt Revd Norman Hamilton. This service will be preceded by a celebration of the Eucharist in St Patrick’s Memorial Church, Saul, which will be followed by a pilgrimage to Down Cathedral. At 1pm there will be a wreath laying ceremony at St Patrick’s grave followed by an Irish stew lunch.

In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, the Primate will preach at the Sung Eucharist while the Bishop of Cork will preside at a Festival Eucharist and Civic Service in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral which will be followed by a reception in the Palace.

In Dublin there will be a Sung Eucharist in St Patrick’s Cathedral at 10.45am at which the preacher will be Bishop Willie Walsh while in the evening at 5pm the Cathedral will host ‘St Patrick in his own Words’ – an ecumenical celebration of Ireland’s patron saint in word, choral singing and traditional music, organized by the Dublin Council of Churches. At 5pm RTE Radio 1 will broadcast Choral Evensong for St Patrick’s Day from Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

Thousands of local young people are set to give the bible a new voice this St Patrick’s Day with an innovative audio recording. Ireland’s largest Christian festival, Summer Madness, wants to celebrate St Patrick's Day by producing an audio version of the entire bible using young peoples' voices from across the island. Summer Madness. It is hoped that young people from across Ireland to go to www.audioboo.com and simply choose and record a chapter from the Bible. This will then be compiled into one complete audio bible that will feature young people from all locations, backgrounds and denominations in Ireland that will be freely available to anyone to download or listen to online.

This morning (Saturday) beginning at 10am there will be a colloquium in the Thomas Davis Theatre in TCD to discuss the proposed Anglican Covenant. Bishop Gregory Campbell, Church in Wales, will present the case for the Covenant, the Revd Jonathan Clatworthy, General Secretary of Modern Church, will air reservations, and the Bishop of Cashel & Ossory will discuss the implications for the Church of Ireland. The colloquium is a joint initiative by the TCD Chaplaincy and the Church of Ireland journal, Search.

This (Saturday) evening Bishop Samuel Poyntz will administer the Rite of Confirmation in Christ Church, Derriaghy, in the absence of the Bishop of Connor who is on sick leave.

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 11.15am RTE will televise a Service of the Word with the Dean of Cashel, Dr Philip Knowles, and the Tipperary Singers while in the TCD Chapel, the final ‘Seeing Salvation’ sermon will be given by the Revd Darren McCallig, who will discuss ‘The Tower of Babel’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. At Evensong in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a special service to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible at which the preacher will be the Revd G.D. Campbell from St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Blackrock. The Rector of Mullingar, the Revd Alastair Graham, will preach at the Patronal Festival Service at 7pm in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Trim, where there will be music from the Diocesan Choir and the Revd Philip Heak.