CHURCH OF IRELAND NOTES
For Saturday 22nd December 2001
From: The
RCB Library
Email: RCB Library
Christmas Reading
Advent is almost over and soon the prospect of a period of relative peace
and quiet over Christmastide will be realized. For many this is an
opportunity to catch up with some reading and there is ample choice among
the recent publications.
It is, perhaps, a reflection of the uncertainties of the age that there
is a renewed interest in spirituality and in the writers who made the
discipline come alive. Gordon Mursell's English Spirituality includes
extracts from the writings of many leading Anglicans including the great
figures of the seventeenth century such as John Donne, Jeremy Taylor and
George Herbert while a similar theme is pursued in Love's Redeeming Work.
The Anglican Quest for Holiness which has been compiled by three of the
most influential voices among the British bishops - Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth
Stevenson and Rowan Williams. Closer to home Thomas Carroll's Wisdom and
Wasteland is a study of the sermons of the greatest of the Caroline
divines, Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor, who more than any man
before or since, came closest to imbuing language with a sacramental
quality.
Personal reminence is also in vogue and in different ways Hugh Weir's One
of Our Own and Homan Potterton's Rathcormick provide pictures of
Church of Ireland families making their way in the new Ireland. Personal
details of another sort are available en masse in Ronnie Wallace's Clergy
of Dublin and Glendalough which provides biographical information on
bishops and clergy past and present while for those who are more concerned
about the present the 2002 edition of the Church of Ireland Directory
is mandatory reading.
For the growing band of local historians there is another mammoth volume
in the Geography Publications county history series. Armagh History and
Society includes a number of interesting essays on ecclesiastical topics
such as an investigation of St Patrick by Daibhi O Croinin and Henry
Jeffries' study of Archbishop George Cromer. There is much of Church of
Ireland interest in Vivien's Igoe's Dublin Burial Grounds &
Graveyards which includes many atmospheric photographs while Richard
Oram's Expressions of Faith. Ulster's Church Heritage contains
details and photographs of some of the finest Church of Ireland buildings in
the province.
Tomorrow (Sunday) morning RTE will televise Parish Communion with
the parishioners of St Mary's, Howth, where the rector is Canon Cecil
Hyland. The Bishop of Cork will preside at carols services in St Fin Barre's
Cathedral, Cork, and St Colman's Cathedral, Cloyne while the Archbishop of
Dublin will participate in the Festival of of Nine Lessons and Carols in
Christ Church Cathedral. This service, for which there is some unreserved
seating, will be recorded by Lyric FM for transmission on Christmas Day. In
St Patrick's Cathedral the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, for which
tickets are not required, will begin at 5.15 but the Christmas Eve service,
which will be broadcast on RTE 1, is an all ticket occasion.
On Christmas Day, the bishops, led by the Archbishop of Armagh and the
Archbishop of Dublin, by tradition, will preach in their diocesan
cathedrals, while in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Christmas Day is one of
the few occasions when the pulpit is occupied by the Dean, Dr Robert
MacCarthy. RTE will televise an Ecumenical Christmas Celebration led by the
chaplains of Trinity College, Dublin.
On Friday there will be a lunchtime organ recital in Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin, by Jangoo Chapkana, one of Australia's most versatile
young musicians. He will play works by Mathias, Fielding, Langlais and Bach
as well as some of his own compositions.
Church of Ireland Notes appear in the Irish
Times whose web site may be found at
http://www.ireland.com/ |
