Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Christmas with a difference
Christmas, which is traditionally a time for homecoming, meeting and worshipping together, often after a year of separation, will. of course, be somewhat different this year. In some places there will be services but with limited congregations, while in others Christmas worship will be online, so intending worshipers should check parish and diocesan websites for the latest updates.
In consultation with public health authorities Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, has modified arrangements for services in the cathedral next week. Tomorrow (Sunday) there will be a celebration of the Eucharist at 11am with recordings of the cathedral choir and a congregation limited to 50, and at 3.30pm, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols will be online only. On Thursday the Sung Eucharist for Christmas Eve at 11pm will beonline only as will the 11amSung Eucharist for Christmas Day at which the preacher will be the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson. In St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, there will be Carols From the Close tomorrow (Sunday) at 3.15 pm and the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols will be on Christmas Eve at 4pm. The Christmas Day Eucharist at which the Dean of St Patrick’s, Dr William Morton, will preach, will be at 11.15am. All these services will be live streamed.
The Choir of St Patrick’s cathedral, Armagh, directed by Dr Stephen Timpany and with Canon Peter Thompson at the organ, has recorded a service of Nine Lessons and Carols, which will be available online on YouTube – ‘Armagh Cathedral Choir’ – and other formats from tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.
On Christmas Day at 11am RTE will broadcast a service from St Canice’s cathedral, Kilkenny, with the Kilkenny choir and the Revd Dr Richard Marsh, Bishop’s Vicar of the Kilkenny union of parishes. The service will be available on RTE 1 television and Radio 1 Extra.
Those is search of a last minute present might be attracted to the recently published Bishops & Buildings. A Pictorial Celebration of Armagh’s Architecture. This is a beautifully illustrated, large format, soft covered book which provides a clear and concise introduction to the many significant buildings in Ireland’s ecclesiastical capital. The two cathedrals, each dedicated to St Patrick, feature largely as too do to the Palace and Ara Coeli, Armagh Robinson Library, the Observatory and Planetarium. the Royal School and St Mark’s parish church among others. The book is a collaborative project by Armagh County Museum, Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library and Archive and Armagh Robinson Library and is on sale from all of the institutions at €15.
No doubt, Bishops & Buildings will be required reading for the new Dean of Armagh and Keeper of the Armagh Robinson Library, Canon Shane Forster, who’s appointment was recently announced by the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell. A son of St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast, Canon Forster, who is Rector of Ballymore (Tandragee), has served his entire ministry in the Diocese of Armagh which he represents on the Chapter of the National Cathedral of St Patrick in Dublin as Prebendary of Yagoe. It is anticipated that he will be installed on 14 February after which he will be succeeded on the St Patrick’s Chapter as the Armagh representative canon by the Revd Malcolm Kingston, Rector of St Mark’s, Armagh.
Archbishop McDowell has also appointed the Revd Elizabeth Cairns, Rector of Mullavilly, to be Archdeacon of Ardboe, with immediate effect. She succeeds the Rt Revd Andrew Forster who is now Bishop of Derry & Raphoe.
Published in the Saturday edition of The Irish Times