Church Of Ireland Notes

This weekend will see the largest tranche of ordinations this year as 16 deacons are made and three deacons are raised to the…

This weekend will see the largest tranche of ordinations this year as 16 deacons are made and three deacons are raised to the priesthood.

In St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, today the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will ordain to the priesthood the Rev Hilary Dugan, the Rev David Luckman and the Rev Alan Miller, who are curates in Armagh, Portadown and Dungannon respectively.

Tomorrow, in Christ Church Cathedral, Sonia Gyles, Francois-Xavier Murenzi, Sandra Pragnell and Olivia Williams will be made deacons by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey. While in Belfast Cathedral, the Bishop of Connor, the Rev James Moore, will ordain David Gillespie, Moreen Hutchinson, Trevor Johnston, Edith Quirey and William Stewart to the diaconate.

The largest ordination will be in the dioceses of Down and Dromore, where Bishop Harold Miller will make seven deacons in Shankill parish church, Lurgan. These are Elizabeth Hanna, Bruve Hayes, Bryan Martin, William Orr, Brian Parker, Karl Teggarty and Arthur Young.

READ MORE

Today the Dean's Gift Day will be held in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, where the proceeds will be put towards the installation of visitors' toilets at the bottom of the Minot Tower. The project is calculated to cost some £135,000 and those who are unable to come to the cathedral are invited to send donations to the St Patrick's Cathedral office, 35a Upper Kevin St, Dublin 2.

Tomorrow evening the Fingal choral festival will be held in the Church of St John the Baptist, Clontarf. The festival will take the form of Songs of Praise and music will be provided by the St George's brass band.

On Tuesday, the standing committee of the general synod and the executive committee of the representative church body will meet in Dublin, where the bishops will meet on Wednesday. The Wednesday evening organ recital in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, will be given by Simon Harrison, organ scholar in Trinity College Dublin and on Thursday there will be a musical evening in St George's Church, Belfast, in aid of the choir funds.

On Friday evening the Archbishop of Dublin will institute the Rev Alan Rufli to the Holmpatrick group of parishes. While in Ballisodare, Co Sligo, the Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Right Rev Kenneth Clarke, will institute the Rev Richard Dadswell as rector.

A new era opens in the life and witness of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, on Friday evening when the Bishop of Connor and the Bishop of Down and Dromore will install Dr Houston McKelvey as Dean of Belfast.

Dr McKelvey brings an intimate knowledge of the city of Belfast gleaned as a boy in RBAI, a student in Queen's, and in the 1970s as Rector of Kilmakee, a challenging parish on the edge of the city. He has much experience in broadcasting and journalism, and is a former editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette.

Since 1982 his particular focus has been the sphere of education.