Added on 22/09/2012

Saturday 22 September 2012

Celebrations in Naas
Next Friday a weekend of celebrations begins in Naas to mark 800 years of continuous worship in St David’s parish church where the rector is the Revd Philip Heak. On Friday evening there will be a Civic Service in the church at which the bishop of Meath & Kildare will preside. This will encompass examples of music and liturgy which would have been used over the last 800 years. The prayers will be led by church leaders from Naas and there will be musical accompaniment by the Kill Singers. Following the service there will be a reception in the council chambers and a presentation on the history of St David’s and the Christian witness in Naas dating from the fifth century.

The celebrations will continue on Saturday 30 September with tours of the church and a Childrens’ Harvest Service at 3.30pm while in the evening there will be a concert in St David’s with the Nas Na Ri Singers. The concluding service, a United Service of Harvest Thanksgiving, will take place in St David’s on the following Sunday morning when the celebrant will be Bishop Roy Warke and the preacher, the former Provost of Tuam, Canon Patrick Towers.

Today (Saturday) in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, there will be lunchtime recital by the cathedral’s assistant organist, David Bremner.

The former Director of Music in Westminster Abbey, Dr Martin Neary, will be in residence in Derry Cathedral this weekend. He will lead choral workshops on today Saturday) and conduct the Choir tomorrow (Sunday) at 7.00 in a choral service in which he and the Dean of Derry, Dr William Morton, will introduce a series of hymns for congregational singing.

Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, 125 years of the Mothers’ Union in Ireland will be celebrated with an All Ireland Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Service and Sung Eucharist at which the preacher will be the Bishop of Kilmore, the Rt Revd Ken Clarke who is the Central Chaplain of the MU. At Evensong in St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, Canon Patrick Lawrence, Rector of Monkstown, will be installed as chancellor , Canon Robert Warren, Rector of Taney, as Prebendary of Tipperkevin and the Revd Kieran O’Mahony, a member of the Augustinian community in Ballyboden as Prebendary of Finglas, an ecumenical canonry which was previously held by Professor Enda McDonough. In St Anne’s cathedral, Belfast the Dean of Belfast, the Very Revd John Mann, will preach at the Ulster Covenant Centenary Service at 3.30pm and in St Fin Barre’s cathedral, Cork, the Annual Cathedral Friends Service will be held.

On Thursday the Clogher Diocesan Synod will be held in St Macartin’s Hall, Enniskillen, while, in Dublin, St Mary’s Home will hold an Autumn Fayre in St Conleth’s College, Clyde Road, from 10 am until 2pm. The Diocesan Service for Primary Schools and Junior Schools will take place in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, at 11am. The theme will be ‘Prayer’. The Archbishop of Dublin will preside and the preacher will be the Revd Garth Bunting, Residential Priest Vicar in the cathedral.

On Thursday afternoon the Tax Justice Bus will be outside St Patrick’s Grammar School Hall, Dublin, where Christian Aid will hold a meeting to discuss how the church in Ireland can support international calls for greater financial transparency and an end to financial secrecy that enables unscrupulous companies to dodge taxes.

At lunchtime on Friday in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, there will be a recital of Chopin waltzs by pianist, Stuart O’Sullivan.