Next week the 1,400th anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Ferns will be marked by services in both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic cathedrals. These services have been arranged by the diocese's Joint Ecumenical Committee.
Tomorrow evening there will be a Service of Thanksgiving in St Aidan's Cathedral, Enniscorthy, where the preacher will be the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, while on Friday evening the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, will be the preacher at the Patronal Festival Service in St Edan's Cathedral, Ferns. The Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Right Rev John Neill, will attend the service in Enniscorthy and will preside at the service in Ferns.
W.H. Grattan Flood, who, in 1916, published a history of the diocese from a Roman Catholic perspective, noted the almost total disappearance of diocesan records, while the fire in the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922 largely destroyed the Church of Ireland archive for Ferns. However, the recent publication of Memory and Mission. Christianity in Wexford, 600- 2000 AD, edited by Father Walter Forde, should provide a new generation with an introduction to the history and development of the diocese.
Tomorrow, the first in a series of millennium addresses at Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, will be given by the former Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Cahal Daly, on the theme "Hopes for the new Millennium". The Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Paul Colton, will preach in the Honan Chapel of University College Cork, while in the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin, the preacher at the Sung Eucharist will be Patrick Comerford of The Irish Times. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 5 p.m. Christ Church Baroque will present a concert of cantatas, motets and organ works by Bach.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity continues next week. Tomorrow, RTE will televise a studio service with the staff and students of the Irish School of Ecumenics, at which the preacher will be the director, Canon Kenneth Kearon. In St John's Church, Sandymount, Dublin, the preacher at the Sung Eucharist will be Father Michael Hurley S.J. In an inspired and generous display of practical ecumenism, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and Ross, Dr Buckley, has authorised collections at churches throughout his diocese to support the restoration and development programme in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork.
In Dublin, on Monday, members of the Irish School of Ecumenics will lead a City Centre Service of Prayer for Unity and Reconciliation. This will be held in the National Film Centre, Eustace Street, at lunchtime. In the evening, the Trinity College chaplaincy has arranged a lecture by Dr John D'Arcy May of the Irish School of Ecumenics, who will speak on "European Unity, Christian Division? Christianity's Responsibility for Europe's Past and Future". This will take place in the Ussher Theatre in the Arts Building.
On Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin there will be a performance of J.S. Bach's Art of the Fugue by Dublin-born Colm Carey, who is organist of the Chapel Royal in the Tower of London. The performance will be accompanied by a talk on the work by the musicologist Jeremy Summerly, who is head of academic studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
The Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson, has appointed the Rev Gary Hastings as prebendary of Kilmoylan and Achonry in St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam. Canon Hastings has been rector of Aughaval, Westport, since 1995.