Today, at Evensong, the Very Rev Dr Robert MacCarthy will be installed as Dean of St Patrick's. The President, Mrs McAleese, will attend as will the Lord Mayor of Dublin and the Mayors of Galway and Kilkenny, two cities in which Dr MacCarthy has served.
The lessons will be read by the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, and by Senator David Norris who is a member of the cathedral congregation.
Dr MacCarthy gained considerable experience as an administrator in several universities and with the Church Commissioners in London before his ordination in 1979 and this, together with a forthright pastoral style, is likely to prove an invigorating experience for those at St Patrick's.
St Patrick's is a national rather than a diocesan cathedral and, as the shrine of Jonathan Swift, is one of the country's major tourist attractions. The balancing of a small regular congregation, the many special commemorative services, and the ever-increasing tourist trade will test the new dean to the full.
e will be further strengthened when a group from the American city's Irish American The Irish American Heritage Society of San Jose will visit Christ Church Cathedral today.
Tomorrow RTE will broadcast Morning Service from St Etchen's Church, Killucan, where the rector is Canon Patrick Carmody. In St Eunan's Cathedral, Raphoe, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffey, will ordain Mr Kenyon Homfray to the diaconate to serve in the parish of Convoy.
The Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Paul Colton, will rededicate St Mary's Collegiate Church, Youghal, while in Armagh the preacher at the annual Friends' Festival Service in St Patrick's Cathedral, will be the Dean of Ossory, the Very Rev Norman Lynas. In Belfast, the congregation of St George's Church, High Street, will begin a period of worship in the Chapel of Unity in the Methodist College while their church is refurbished.
On Monday evening in St Jude's parish hall, Belfast, the a.g.m. of the Irish branch of the Church Society will be held. The speaker will be the Rev David Phillips, Director of the Church Society in England. The Bromma Church Choir from Stockholm will begin a short Irish tour in Clifden where they will sing in Christ Church. On Tuesday, they will be in All Saints Church, Blackrock, Dublin, and on Wednesday in St Patrick's Church, Greystones.
The Irish College of Preachers will hold a conference in the Church of Ireland Theological College, Dublin, from Wednesday to Friday. The principal speaker will be the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, and the Bible studies will be led by the Rev Dr Alan McCormack, Chaplain in Trinity College Dublin.
On Thursday the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Right Rev Edward Darling, will preside at an ecumenical service to launch an appeal for St Brendan's Cathedral, Clonfert, the medieval doorway of which is one of the great icons of Irish heritage.
On Friday, the Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson, will conduct a quiet day for the clergy of the dioceses of Down and Dromore.
The Rev Nigel Waugh, Rector of Delgany, has been appointed All Ireland Chaplain of the Mothers' Union in succession to Canon Thomas Haskins.