The annual week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins next week. The theme for the week will be "Blessed be God... who has blessed us in Christ" and this will inform the many local events which will take place throughout the country.
In Dublin the opening event will be a service in the Pro-Cathedral on Tuesday evening at which the preacher will be the former Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Donald Caird. On Wednesday there will be an Ecumenical Service of Divine Healing at lunchtime in the Dublin Central Mission, and on Friday there will be an Irish language service for unity in Christ Church Cathedral under the auspices of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise and Pobal an Aifrinn.
Next Saturday, 22 January, there will be a service of Greek Orthodox Vespers at 41 Arbour Hill, Dublin 7, and tomorrow week RTE will televise a service with the staff and students of the Irish School of Ecumenics at which the preacher will be the Director, Canon Kenneth Kearon. On Monday, 24 January, members of staff of the Irish School of Ecumenics will lead a City Centre Service of Prayer for Unity and Reconciliation in the National Film Centre, Eustace Street, while in the evening in Trinity College there will be a lecture by Dr John D'Arcy May on "European Unity, Christian Division".
Today the Girls' Brigade will hold its divisional millennium service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where over 800 members from throughout the Republic of Ireland will be present. The preacher will be the Revd Lynda Peilow, curate of Castleknock.
Tomorrow there will be a memorial service for the late Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Ossory, Dr Henry McAdoo, in St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny. During the service the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Revd John Neill, will dedicate a new diocesan processional cross in memory of Dr McAdoo. The cross is the work of Kilkenny silversmith, Rudolf Heltzell.
In Dublin the preacher at the Sung Eucharist in Trinity College Chapel will be Senator Shane Ross: this will be the first in a series of addresses on the theme of "Community". In the evening in St. Patrick's Cathedral, the annual Epiphanytide Processions will be held.
On Tuesday, in Bible House, Dawson Street, Dublin, the Hon. Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness will launch Restor- ing Justice, Living the Jubilee which is a set of five ecumenical Bible studies prepared by the National Bible Society of Ireland.
On Thursday the Sudan Support Group Ireland will hold a service in Kill 'O The Grange parish church, Dublin, which will be a "Focus on the Sudan" occasion for the four churches of the area.
The address will be given by Fr Paul Boyle from Scotland who has served for eight years with the Mill Hill Fathers in Khartoum. For the last three years he has been in charge of a parish which includes displaced persons' camps and has been diocesan co-ordinator for relief and development. He is currently undertaking the Development Studies course in Kimmage Manor, Dublin.
The Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has gone on-line with its own diocesan web site as part of its programme for 2000/2001. The site includes information on the Church of Ireland and christianity in general, parish profiles, and e-mail contact addresses for all the parishes in the diocese. The web site has been developed for the Diocesan Millennium Working Group by the Revd Paul Willoughby, Rector of Bantry and Durrus. The address of the site is: http://www.cork.anglican.org or http://cork.anglican.org