Added on 09/06/2012

Saturday 9 June 2012

Dean of St Patrick’s Gift Day
Today (Saturday) the new Dean of St Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin, the Very Revd Victor Stacey, will hold his first gift day and will be in the cathedral from 11.30am to 1.30pm and 2.30pm to 4.00pm to receive donations.

Some thirty years ago Dean Victor Griffin began the practice of annual gift days in St Patrick’s and his initiative was followed by his successors Dr Maurice Stewart and Dr Robert MacCarthy. Much needed funding has been raised for the fabric over the years from this source due to the extraordinary generosity of the many friends of the cathedral.

This year the focus will be on the cleaning, redecoration and reordering of the three chapels at the east end of the cathedral. The cleaning and redecoration, which will begin in October and last for a year, is already funded. However, support is now needed to reorder the chapels to suit the liturgical needs of the cathedral community. Good quality furniture will be required and a new and sympathetic way of dividing the chapels devised and constructed.

Tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon the Dean will preach at the Friends Festival Service  which will be followed by a Garden Party in the Deanery Garden.

The Cork, Cloyne & Ross Diocesan Synod will take place today (Saturday) in Rochestown Park Hotel. In Sandford parish church there will be a Hymnathon from 10.30 am until 5pm in support of the rectory restoration while in St Mary’s church, Castletownroche, Co. Cork, at 8.15pm the Clerks Choral will give a concert in aid of the church repair fund.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the annual Open Air Ecumenical Service will take place at 3pm at St Columcille’s Holy Well, Ballycullen Road, Dublin, where the preacher will be Canon Patrick Comerford, while in Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, the Friends of St Maeldoid’s Annual Reunion Service will be held in Muckno parish church.

The life of St Columba will be celebrated tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon at 4.00pm with the annual diocesan open air service at the ruined abbey in Gartan, where the Britannia Brass Band from Derry will lead the hymn singing. The local parish will serve refreshments after the service, which is also a great social gathering of the diocese and local community.

On Monday the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at the Ecumenical Liturgy of Word and Water at the Eucharistic Congress.

The Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer Retreats will be held on 15–17 and 18–21 June at St. Columban’s House, Navan, where  the Witness  for the 50th Anniversary Retreats will be Canon Raymond Fox.

The Centre for the Study of Irish Protestantism (CSIP), which has been established under the auspices of the Department of Adult and Community Education and the Department of History at NUI Maynooth will be officially launched by Professor Philip Nolan, President of NUIM on Friday evening. The Centre, which is the initiative of Mr Tony Walsh at the Department of Adult and Community Education, is interdisciplinary in nature and is committed to the exploration of the totality of Protestantism in independent Ireland in the context of its social, historical, cultural and spiritual dimensions. CSIP’s first Annual Conference will take place on Saturday, 16 June – full conference details may be had at  www.irishprotestantism.ie.

Next Saturday will also bring the annual reunion of the past choristers of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, beginning in the cathedral at 2pm. There will be a rehearsal followed by Choral Evensong at 5pm. Details may be had from Victor Coe at pastchoristers@cccdub.ie

Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’