Tomorrow, at Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the fourth in the series of millennium addresses, entitled "Hopes for the New Millennium" will be delivered. The speaker will be the poet, Seamus Heaney.
The series of addresses will continue monthly until the end of the year, and many other famous figures have committed themselves to speak. The President, Mrs McAleese, and her predecessor, Mrs Mary Robinson, now United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, will speak in June and December respectively.
The world of politics will be represented by Dr Garret FitzGerald and Sir Reg Empey, while in August Senator David Norris, politician, litterateur and member of the cathedral congregation, will be the speaker. The churches are represented by the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, and Cardinal Edward Cassidy from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
Tomorrow the services in St Patrick's Cathedral will be sung by the Abbeydale Singers from Sheffield, The choir will sing for the close of the Easter octave in the chapel of Trinity College in the evening.
The Trinity College Chapel Choir will sing Matins in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, where the preacher will be the Trinity chaplain, Dr Alan McCormack. In Christ Church Cathedral the services will be sung by Cor Dyfed from Wales.
The Schola Cantorum choir from Lulea in Sweden will sing at the 10.30 a.m. service tomorrow in Christ Church, Dun Laoghaire, and this will be followed by a short concert in the church hall.
On Monday evening they will give a concert in St Columba's Church, Kells, Co Meath, with the proceeds going to aid the rebuilding of the church in Romania.
On Wednesday and Thursday the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, will preside at a retreat for the clergy of his dioceses in Bellinter. The retreat will be directed by the Rev Roger Devonshire, rector of Pitlochry.
The 150th anniversary of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Sandymount, will be marked on Thursday evening by a celebration of the Eucharist at 8 p.m. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, will preside and preach and the service will be sung by members of Our Lady's Choral Society.
The church, opened for worship on March 24th, 1850, was built with Caen stone in the Anglo-Norman style, and in recent years its external appearance has been greatly improved by a programme of cleaning and stone replacement. St John's has always been a centre for the Catholic liturgical tradition within the Church of Ireland.
With the collapse of the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe and the desire of many countries to join the European Union, relations between the Orthodox churches and the churches of the West have become of increasing importance.
On Friday the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches will begin a five-day meeting in Moscow at the invitation of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Dr Kenneth Milne will attend as an observer on behalf of the Irish Council of Churches.