The annual theological lectures in Queen's University, Belfast, will be held on Monday and Tuesday at 5.30 p.m. in the Geography Theatre, Elmwood Avenue, and will be preceded by tea in the Church of Ireland Centre, 22 Elmwood Avenue, from 4.45 p.m. Admission is free.
This year's topic will be "The Return of Religion at the Close of the Millennium" and the speaker will be the Right Rev Michael Marshall, Assistant Bishop of London. Bishop Marshall will already be known to many through books such as Church at the Crossroads, Great Expectations and Saints Alive, while his latest book, Glory Under Your Feet. Six Bible Studies on the Transfiguration of the Church and the Transformation of Society, appeared earlier this year.
He has had a varied career, having been a curate in Birmingham, a tutor in Ely Theological College, a university chaplain and a parish priest in London, Bishop of Woolwich from 1975, and, from 1984, Director of the Anglican Institute in St Louis, Missouri, which involved preaching, lecturing and broadcasting at mission centres of the Anglican Institute across North America.
In 1992, Bishop Marshall returned to England to head, with Canon Michael Green, the Springboard Initiative which was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Decade of Evangelism. In that capacity he travels widely throughout the world, lecturing, preaching and conducting a variety of forms of mission activity.
Today the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will be in Newport to attend the enthronement of the Archbishop of Wales. The Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, will be in Scotland, where he will speak at the St Andrew's Diocesan Synod, and tomorrow he will preach in St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth.
Tomorrow, RTE will televise a Liturgy of the Word in anticipation of Women's World Day of Prayer, which will be held next Friday. The service will be led by Ms Jean Binnie and the preacher will be Ms Suzanne Harris. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the services will be sung by the vocal ensemble, Cathedra, from Co Down, while at the Sung Eucharist in the Chapel of Trinity College Dublin, Dr James Arthur, Professor of Education in Canterbury, will preach on "Communities of Memory".
In St Ann's Church, Dublin, the Bach Cantatas 137 and 180 will be performed by the Draiocht Chamber Choir and the Orchestra of St Cecilia.
On Monday, in Llandudno, the clergy of the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough begin their annual clerical retreat, which will last until Thursday. The Chaplain of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Alan McCormack, will entertain members of the Theological College and the College of Education.
In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on Tuesday, the final lunchtime lecture in the current series will be given by the architect, Shane O'Toole, who will speak on the "The Old City Revisited. Temple Bar and Dublin's Urban Regeneration".
On Wednesday, the Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Paul Colton, will preside at a Liturgical Welcome for the Rev Martha GrayStack, the new chaplain in Kingston College, Mitchelstown. Mrs Gray-Stack has been auxiliary priest in charge of the Clara union of parishes in the Diocese of Meath since 1993.
Wednesday is the closing date for the Millennium Church Magazine Competition. Diocesan and parish magazines and parish and society newsheets are all eligible for entry and details may be had from the press office in Church of Ireland House, 61-67 Donegall Street, Belfast BT1 2QH. Prizes will be awarded in May.