Irish Times Notes03 Apr 21

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’

Easter online

Tomorrow is Easter Day when by tradition the bishops preach in their diocesan cathedrals. Like last Easter their words will be delivered remotely as the Church continues in lockdown but more than before, with the vaccine roll out there is hope of a return to real church in the not too distant future.

Hope has been very much the theme of the joint Easter message from the Archbishops of Armagh. The full text may be read on the Church of Ireland website – www.ireland.anglican.org.  The website and its cathedral, diocesan and parish equivalents will carry details of local Easter celebrations.

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 11am the Dean of Leighlin, the Very Revd Tom Gordon, will leads a Service for Easter Sunday in the RTÉ Studios, Donnybrook.

Another remote event will be the spring meeting of the Church of Ireland Historical Society which will be held online via Zoom on Saturday 17 April.

The morning session will begin at 11am with independent scholar, Dr Brendan Twomey, talking on “Everybody agrees that the Church of Ireland is the worst in Christendom; there are now bishopricks vacant”. The episcopacy of the Church of Ireland, 1689–1694’. This will be followed at 12 noon by a research paper from Ms Elaine Dinan, a PhD student in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, on  ‘Death and Burial in Cork: the view from the provincial press’.

After lunch, at 2pm, Dr David Brown, who is involved in a project that is developing a virtual reconstruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland with digital surrogates for the original contents, will speak on ‘I Historian: history in an artificially intelligent world’  The final lecture, which will begin at 3pm, will be from Professor  Oonagh Walsh, Professor of Gender Studies at Glasgow Caledonian University, on ‘Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?: Religion and the Connaught District Lunatic Asylum, 1870–1900’.

The conference will be on held via Zoom Video Conferencing. If you wish to attend, you can register online. Members can sign up for free. Non–members are most welcome but are asked to subscribe €10 to assist with expenses. If you wish to become a member the annual subscription is fixed at €40 or £40 (student rate £15/€15). This includes admission to the bi–annual conferences (at Armagh Robinson Library and Christ Church cathedral, Dublin), book discounts, and exclusive access to the Society’s thirty–five podcasts. 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 for further details about the conference – http://churchofirelandhist.org/. The Church of Ireland Historical Society meets twice a year. It exists to promote scholarly interest in the history of the Church of Ireland.

The Annual General Meeting of the Church Education Society will be held on Thursday 15th April via Zoom.

Two new Canons have been elected to the Chapter of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin – the Dean of Clogher & Rector of Enniskillen, the Very Revd Kenny Hall, succeeds Canon Sam McVeigh as Prebendary of Tassagard and the Rector of Stillorgan & Blackrock, the Revd Ian Gallagher, succeeds Canon Robert Warren as Prebendary of Tipperkevin. However, while the elections have taken place remotely the installations must await the easing of the current restrictions. In addition to these latest elections there are four other canons to be installed – the Very Revd Roderick Smyth, Dean of Killaloe, the Revd Malcolm Kingston, Rector of St Mark’s, Armagh, the Revd Aonghus Mayes, Rector of Moy, and the Revd Katharine Poulton, Rector of Julianstown.