Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
New Canons
Three new Canons were installed during Choral Evensong at Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, last Sunday.
The Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Western and Central Europe, Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph, was installed as Ecumenical Canon. He succeeds the Revd Lorraine Kennedy Ritchie of Clontarf Presbyterian Church and joins Fr Tom Laden SJ.
Annie Fletcher, Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, became the new Lay Canon. She succeeds former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, who retired last year and joins Professor Jim Lucey, Inspector of Mental Health Services at the Mental Health Commission.
Canon Tom O’Brien was installed as Canon Treasurer having been appointed 12th Canon last year. He is Minister in Charge of St James’s church in Crinken, Dublin.
Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph was born in Romania. He was ordained in 1994 at the monastery of the Cathedral of Alba Iulia. He went to France in the summer of 1994 to study at the Saint–Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris. Since arriving in France he provided the liturgical and spiritual service of the monastery of monastics Notre–Dame–de–Toute–Protection in Bussy–en–Othe, in Yonne. He was elected Archbishop in November 1997 by the Assembly of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western and Central Europe.
Annie Fletcher is the Director of IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art. A noted international curator, she joined IMMA from the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands where she was Chief Curator. Born in Ireland Fletcher studied in Trinity College Dublin and started her career in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1994. As a curator she is particularly interested in how an encounter with art can generate a shared civic space and how, in today’s world, contemporary art can address complex ideas of time, space and participation in order to achieve resonance with the public.
Canon Tom O’Brien has been Minister in Charge of Crinken in south Dublin since August 2023. Prior to that he was a Self– Supporting Minister in Dublin and Glendalough and had supported ministry in a number of parishes including his home parish of Holmpatrick, Howth, Kill O’ the Grange, and Raheny & Coolock. While engaged in Self –Supporting Ministry, he held senior positions within the HSE.
The Past Choristers Association of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, will hold a Table Quiz in the cathedral, crypt on Monday evening at 7.30pm. Further information may be had from Victor Coe at pastchoristers@christchurch.ie
From Tuesday until Thursday the Archbishop of Dublin, as co–chair of Porvoo, will visit the Faroe Islands as the Church of the Faroes is seeking full membership of the Porvoo Communion.
In St Mary’s cathedral, Limerick, at 1.15pm on Thursday there will be a recital by pianist, David Vesey, who will perform music by Haydn, Prokofiev and Liszt.
The Archbishop of Armagh has been invited by the Lord Mayor of London to preach the Spital Sermon on Thursday at the church of St Lawrence Jewry. This endowed sermon originated in the 14th Century when it was initially preached just after Easter from the old open–air pulpit at St Mary Spital, hence its name. The sermon was intended to attract donations and bequests to the alms–house on the site and nowadays is held to coincide with a meeting of the Court of Common Council in February or March of each year with a visiting bishop as the guest speaker.
In St Ann’s church on Dublin’s Dawson Street on Thursday at 1.20pm Helen Hancock will perform with Yue Tang, cello, and David Leigh, piano.
Published in the Friday edition of The Irish Times