Follow me, a new religious education programme for primary schools under Protestant management, will be launched in Kilternan Church of Ireland National School, Co Dublin, at lunchtime on Wednesday. Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, president of Dublin City University, will introduce material for infant classes and pupils from the school and put some of the material into action.
The programme is resourced by the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches with considerable assistance from the Roman Catholic Commission on Catechetics. Among those attending will be the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, who chairs the committee which oversees the programme, and representatives from the other churches.
The programme has been produced in response to a 1998 survey of all teachers in Protestant primary schools which found that 95 per cent of respondents agreed that religious education should be taught at primary level and that they would be willing to teach it.
Tomorrow at evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the final Lenten address for this year will be given by Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien on the theme "Lent: A time of growth in our understanding of Northern Ireland".
Lecture term begins on Monday in the Theological College and in Trinity College Dublin, where chapel services resume for Hilary term with matins at 9.15 a.m. The bishops will meet in Dublin on Monday and Tuesday where, among many other matters, they may consider a recent letter in the Church of Ireland Gazette which suggested a need for more transparency about such gatherings.
The publication of a new book by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, entitled And Is It True?, will be celebrated in the Irish Writers' Museum, Dublin, on Tuesday evening when the guest speaker will be journalist and broadcaster Olivia O'Leary.
On Tuesday evening the Lenten address in Howth will be given by Ms Gillian Kingston, honorary secretary of the theological working party of the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church in Ireland, on "Ecumenism - dead or alive?"
On Wednesday in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, Aine Hyland, professor of education in UCC, will speak on "Discipleship and being different".
The final session of Lenten talks in Rathfarnham parish church, Dublin, on "Faith matters in the new millennium" will be given on Thursday evening. The speakers, on the theme of "The gift of human sexuality", will be Canon Kenneth Kearon, director of the Irish School of Ecumenics, and the Rev Paul Tighe, head of the department of moral theology in Mater Dei.
On Tuesday the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rev John Neill, will institute the Rev Peter Cole-Baker to the incumbency of Templemore. Mr ColeBaker was ordained in 1998 for the curacy of Ballywillan, Co Antrim.
In St Peter's Church, Antrim Road, Belfast, on Thursday evening the St George's Singers and the Studio Symphony Orchestra will perform J.S. Bach's St John's Passion. A concert in aid of Abbeystrewry Union of Parishes Restoration Fund will be given on Friday evening to mark the completion of the refurbishment of the church organ.
The Sunday School Society Resource Centre in Holy Trinity Church, Rathmines, will no longer be open on Mondays and will be closed for the month of July. Messages may be left by telephoning 01-4972821.