CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 14th August 1999
From: The
RCB Library
Email: RCB Library
Church of Ireland Lay History Project
August, as the only month in the year without church festivals, has
traditionally been a time for clergy and committed laity to take a break
from the ecclesiastical round. It is also a period when academic
research flourishes for the students have gone and the prospect of a
month's uninterrupted work beckons invitingly.
The coincidence of these two phenomena has witnessed a further
outbreak in research into the Church's past as the contributors to a
projected history of the laity of the Church of Ireland, freed from
their normal obligations, invade the libraries and archives of Ireland.
This project, which will be published by the Four Courts Press in the
year 2001, promises to be a timely corrective to the existing studies of
the Anglican presence in Ireland which have been largely institutionally
based and have had a marked clerical focus.
Just as this new study will concentrate on the laity so too the team
of researchers which has been assembled is predominantly lay. Among the
professional historians who have agreed to take part are Raymond
Gillespie and Jacqueline Hill, NUI-Maynooth; David Hayton, Queen's
University; John McCafferty, UCD; and Toby Barnard, Oxford. The
Historiographer of the Church of Ireland, Dr Kenneth Milne, will be a
contributor as will The Irish Times journalist and theologian, Patrick
Comerford. The clerical ensemble will consist of the Dean of Christ
Church, Dublin, the Very Revd John Paterson; the secretary of the Church
of Ireland Historical Society, Dr William Neeley, and the Precentor of
St Patrick's, Dr Adrian Empey.
This evening (Saturday) in Dublin the choir of Christ Church,
Chelsea, will give a concert in St Werburgh's Church at 7.30 p.m. under
the baton of their distinguished director, Jeremy Summerley. The choir's
recordings of early music with the Oxford Camerata are available on the
Naxos label and are frequently in the classical charts. The choir will
earlier sing Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where they
will sing the services tomorrow (Sunday).
Tomorrow (Sunday) RTE will broadcast a celebration of the Eucharist
from St Columba's parish church, Omagh, where the rector is Canon
Charlie Leeke. This will be the first anniversary of the Omagh bomb
tragedy and the celebrant and preacher will be the Bishop of Derry, Dr
James Mehaffey. BBC Radio Ulster will carry Morning Service from Holy
Trinity Church, Ballywalter, Co. Down, conducted by the Revd John Bowley.
At the historic site of Clonmacnoise there will be a celebration of the
Eucharist in Templeconnor Church at 4.00 p.m.
On Wednesday the Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson, will attend
the opening of the Humbert Summer School in Killala. The Summer School
will continue until Sunday 22 August when the former Archbishop of
Dublin, Dr Donald Caird, will deliver the annual Bishop Stock Sermon.
The St Barrahane's Church Festival of Classical Music in
Castletownshend, Co. Cork, closes on Thursday evening with a recital by
pianist Hugh Tinney and the RTE Vanburgh String Quartet.
An historical perspective on the recent eclipse of the sun is
recorded in the parish register of Geashill, Co. Offaly, which is
preserved in the Representative Church Body Library. On 29 June 1927 the
then rector, the Revd C.R. Kitching, noted "I rose at 5.30 am. A
very wet morning with no view of sun. At 6.24 darkness came on for
almost half a minute. I trust that in 1999 whoever may be here will get
a better view". The Geashill register is currently on exhibition in
the Representative Church Body
Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14.
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at
http://www.ireland.com/ |
