Today in All Hallows College, Drumcondra, the Archbishop of Dublin will preside at a special Diocesan Forum comprising the clergy and two representatives from each parish in the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough.
Following keynote addresses by the Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Paul Colton, and Dr Patricia Barker from Dublin City University, some 200 delegates will be divided into working groups to consider five issues - ministry and support for the clergy, faith development, social ministry and care for the elderly, children and youth, planning and attracting members.
The forum has been preceded by a wide-ranging consultation process to determine the views of clergy and laity, with, in particular, a series of successful rural deanery meetings which were attended by the clergy and four representatives from each parish. Out of these meetings emerged the issues for discussion at the forum.
The consultation process was facilitated by Mr David Meredith who will also be the facilitator of the forum.
Tomorrow morning RT╔ will broadcast a Sequence of Carols and Readings for Advent with the staff and students of the Church of Ireland Theological College, where the chaplain-tutor is the Rev Kevin Moroney, while in the chapel of Trinity College Dublin the Bishop of Cork will preach at the Sung Eucharist.
At Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, there will be a commemoration of those who lost their lives on Irish ships between 1939 and 1945, and in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, the past choristers will join in Evensong. The 175th anniversary of the dedication of Kinawley parish church, Co Fermanagh, will be marked by a special service at which the Bishop of Kilmore, the Right Rev Ken Clarke, will be the preacher.
In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, at 6.00 p.m. tomorrow Christ Church Baroque, directed by Mark Duley, will perform three Bach cantatas.
On Monday, in Milltown, the Irish School of Ecumenics will host the launch of Bringing Churches Together: An Introduction to Ecumenism at which the speaker will be Prof Gideon Goosen from the Australian Catholic University in Sydney. The Archbishop of Armagh will be in Sweden where he will attend a meeting of Porvoo Primates in Uppsala and on Wednesday he will lead the Church of Ireland delegation to the Porvoo Churches.
Wednesday is World AIDS Day which will be marked by Christian Aid Ireland with the opening of Positive Images, a photographic exhibition in County Hall, D·n Laoghaire, which will illustrate life with HIV/AIDS.
In the Centre for Christian Studies in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, the final talk in the And is it True? series will take place. The author of the book on which the series has been based, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, will speak on the intriguing subject of "Bishops Playing Poker".
In Rathfarnham parish church, Dublin, on Thursday "The Wonder of Christmas" flower festival will be opened by TV gardener Helen Dillon.