A member of the well-known Taize community is in Ireland for a week-long visit. Brother Felix comes from an ecumenical monastic community in the Burgundy region of France which has gained international status for its distinctive style of worship based on chants.
Brother Felix is in Glendalough this weekend for an ecumenical retreat for young adults between 18 and 35.
Tomorrow there will be a Taize service in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 5.15 p.m., attended by church leaders and the President, Mrs McAleese. On Tuesday the Taize tour will be in St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, and will then travel to the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and the Church of Ireland Student Centre in Belfast.
On Sunday, February 25th, the venues will be St Paul's Church, Mountmellick, and later St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, where there will be a Youth Workshop followed by a Taize Service.
Further details of the tour may be obtained from Peter Byrne at 01-8300299.
Tomorrow RTE will broadcast a Service of the Word from Whitechurch Parish Church, Dublin, where the rector is Canon Horace McKinley. The bishop of Cashel and Ossory will visit Killanne and Killegney.
In Dublin, the preacher at the Sung Eucharist in Trinity College Chapel will be the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, who will address the theme "On Public Things".
The Bach Festival 2001 continues in St Ann's Church, Dublin, at 3.30 p.m., with performances of cantatas 65, 123, 124, and 154 by the Orchestra of St Cecilia, the Bach Cantata Choir and soloists. Later that evening the Bishop of Clogher will preach at the Diocesan Healing Service in St Macartan's Cathedral, Clogher.
On Monday and Tuesday the annual Church of Ireland theological lectures at Queen's University will be held in the Geography Theatre, Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, at 4.45 p.m. This year the lecturer is Bishop Stephen Sykes, principal of St John's College, Durham. He was bishop of Ely from 1990 to 1999 and is now chairman of the Church of England Doctrine Commission. He will speak on "Power and Theology".
The annual Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference begins in Termonfeckin, Co Louth, on Monday and continues until Wednesday. The theme will be "Discovering God in Popular Culture". Among the speakers will be Dr Andrew Pierce, Irish School of Ecumenics; the Rev Dr Alan McCormack, TCD; the Very Rev Patrick Towers, Provost of Tuam; and the art historian Dr Peter Harbison.
On Thursday the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will attend a meeting in the US of Anglican primates in Kanuga, North Carolina, which will continue until March 9th. Dr Eames is now the senior primate in the Anglican Communion.
The annual retreats of the Fellowship of Contemplative Prayer have been arranged for June 8th-10th and 11th-14th. The venue will be the Bellinteer House Conference Centre near Navan. The witness at both retreats will be Canon Raymond Fox, Vicar Choral in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. Bookings before the end of April would be appreciated and details may be had from Mr Tony Dunton, 345 Longland Road, Claudy, Co Derry, BT47 4AJ. Tel: 048/02871338577.