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The Church Of Ireland
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CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Friday 31st December 1999
From: The
RCB Library
Email: RCB Library
Millennium Marked
The response of the Church of Ireland at both central and local level to the millennium has been uncertain. Is this really a religious event? Ought there to be celebrations? Might a sober response, contrasting with the enormous advertising hype, be more appropriate?
The Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, never one to shirk a challenge, has responded by arranging a service for this afternoon (Saturday) at 3.00 pm. to mark the beginning of the third millennium. The service will address the real biblical theme of Jubilee - new life for the outcast, the marginalised and the poor, those who have been damaged in "body, mind and estate".
Although the first Christian jubilee was not proclaimed until the year 1300, the tradition of a periodic remission of both spiritual and material debts, and the purification of the body and soul, is much older. The word jubilee is derived from the Hebrew jobel and means remission. Under the law of Moses, every fifty years, debts were remitted, slaves were freed and land returned to its owners. In this context, the recent involvement of the churches in urging governments to remit the debts of the developing world are entirely appropriate.
The St Patrick's service has drawn upon the expertise of organizations which work with the marginalised. Among those which have helped in the planning are Focus Ireland, St Vincent de Paul, Homeless Initiative, South Inner City Development Association, AIDS Alliance and the Franciscan Fathers on Merchants Quay. The service will feature presentations by each organization, introduced by Brian Dobson of RTE, and the singing will be led by the Gloria Singers. The Lord Mayor of Dublin, the Rt Hon. Councillor Mary Freehill, will give the address and the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Robert MacCarthy, will preside.
In Christ Church, Taney, Co. Dublin, the new millennium will be rung in on the bells of St George's Church, Temple Street, which have been re-hung in Taney following the closure of St George's. This will mark the conclusion of an admirably appropriate millennium project which has successfully fused the old with the new, and which in many ways is a metaphor for how the Church of Ireland must proceed. The new millennium is not an occasion for the religious iconoclasts to jettison the past but is a fresh opportunity for the Church of Ireland to use its past constructively to inspire present and future generations.
Throughout Ireland and Britain church bells will be rung at noon today (Saturday) and among the great fraternity of ringers will be the newly formed Taney Change Ringers. This celebration of 2000 years of Christianity will be a remarkable symbol of unity with the bells of churches in every corner of our islands welcoming in the third millennium of faith.
Tomorrow (Sunday) in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, the Bishop of Cork, the Rt Revd Paul Colton, will celebrate and preach at the Sung Eucharist on the theme of "Walking in the Light of Christ". This will be the principal liturgical celebration in the diocese to mark the beginning of the year 2000. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, choral services resume after the Christmas recess.
Thursday is the Feast of the Epiphany which will be celebrated in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, with a Sung Eucharist at 6.00 pm. The music will include Kodaly's Missa Brevis and Poulenc's Christmastide motet Videntes Stellam.
Church of Ireland House, Dublin, and the Representative Church Body Library will be closed throughout the Christmas and New Year period and will re-open for business on Tuesday 4 January at 9.30 am.
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at
http://www.ireland.com/