Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland notes from the Irish Times
New Guide to Church Records Published
In recent years when, if we believe all that we are told, fewer and fewer people are concerned with institutional religion, there has been a marked increase in interest in church records. Much of this has, of course, been fuelled by the world wide fascination with genealogy and family history but there has, too, been a steady renewal of interest in ecclesiastical history at a national and particularly at a local level.
In Ireland, the success of local history courses, notably the dynamic Master in Local History course in NUI-Maynooth, and the flourishing of local history societies has provided opportunities to train a new generation of local historians and at the same time has supplied a potential readership for new publications which seek to equip neophyte historians with basic information. One such publication is Irish Church Records which has just appeared in a new edition.
Originally published in 1992 Irish Church Records was a pioneering work which in one volume offered researchers introductory essays on the records of the four main churches in Ireland and on some of the smaller religious communities - Quakers, Baptists, Jews and Huguenots. The new edition retains the format of the original publication but has been updated in the light of the considerable advances in church archives over the last decade. Contributors include Richard S. Harrison Society of Friends), Dr Raymond Refaussé (Church of Ireland), the Revd Robin Roddie (Methodist Church) and Mr. Raphael Siev (Dublin Jewish Community).
Irish Church Records is edited by Dr James Ryan and is published by the Flyleaf Press, Dublin, at IRf22.05 in paperback and IR£29.93 in hardback.
As part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Mothers' Union a "pod" containing the five objects of the MU is making a "Journey of Hope" through each of the dioceses of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The pod arrived in the Diocese of Dublin yesterday (Friday) and today (Saturday) will be taken to Glendalough and on to Aughrim where it will be handed over to the Dioceses of Cashel and Ossory. A variety of events and modes of transport have been planned to mark the journey through Ireland culminating in the departure of the pod from the Diocese of Connor to Scotland on 14 August.
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will televise a Service of Holy Communion with the Revd Gillian Wharton and the Dublin and Glendalough Youth Ministry. In St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the services will be sung by the St Mary's Scholars from Warwick and in the afternoon there will be a service to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of the former British Ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart Biggs, at which the address will be given by the current British Ambassador, Sir Ivor Roberts.
On Monday the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, returns from a week long residency in Westminster Abbey where they sang the Sunday services and weekday Evensongs. This was the choir's second residency in the Abbey.
The Ardamine Union Summer Bazaar will be held on Wednesday in the River Chapel Community Centre beginning at 7.00 pm.
On Wednesday and Thursday Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be sung by the choir of Grace Church on the Hill, Toronto. The lunchtime organ recital in St Ann's Church, Dublin, on Thursday will be given by Graham Walsh from St Paul's Church, Glenageary, and admission is free. In Co. Cork the third recital in the Annual Festival of Classical Music in St Barrahane's Church, Castletownshend will be given by Peter Sweeney (organ), Helen Roycroft (soprano) and David Agnew (oboe).