June is traditionally the time for ordinations. From now until Petertide, the archbishops and most of the bishops will ordain newly qualified candidates to the diaconate and raise to the priesthood those who have served a period as deacons.
This month, 16 deacons and 23 priests will be ordained and this number will be augmented in the autumn by a further two priests and one deacon. Of those to be ordained in June, three deacons and nine priests will work in the auxiliary ministry while the remainder will be full-time stipendiary parish clergy.
Tomorrow, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, will ordain Robert Whiteside to the diaconate and on Monday, Maureen Ryan will be made a deacon by the Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson. They will serve in the auxiliary ministry, in Edenderry and Tuam respectively.
On Thursday, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will ordain three deacons: John Anderson for Magherafelt, Bryan Follis for St Mark's, Portadown, and Kenneth Hall who will be an auxiliary in Cookstown.
Seven deacons will be raised to the priesthood tomorrow by the Bishop of Down and Dromore while the Bishop of Connor will ordain a further six priests. A further five ordinations to the priesthood will be held in the dioceses of Meath tomorrow and in Armagh, Cashel and Cork on Thursday.
Today, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffey, will institute the Rev Gordon Freeman, formerly curate in the Lecale group of parishes, to the incumbency of Ardara, Co Donegal. In Kells, Affirming Catholicism will hold a Columban Pilgrimage which will close with a eucharist celebrated by the Bishop of Meath while the former Bishop of Connor, Dr Samuel Poyntz, will lead the Church of Ireland Men's Society on a visit to Dublin where he will celebrate the eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral.
In Gurteen Agricultural College, Roscrea, the Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert Diocesan Synod will be held while in Dublin there will be fetes in the parishes of Taney and St Matthias, Ballybrack.
This evening in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the annual choir concert will be held. The Cathedral Choir will sing works by Josquin, Taverner, Bach, Britten, Tippett and Parry while the Cathedral Girls Choir will perform pieces by Rutter, Schubert, Berlioz and Mendelssohn.
Tomorrow, RTE will broadcast Morning Service from the Church of the Holy Name, Greenisland, Co Antrim, where the rector is the Rev Stephen Lowry. In Dublin, the preacher at the Patronal Festival Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral will be Dr Lewis Ayres, from Trinity College, while in St Patrick's Cathedral the Dean of Armagh, the Very Rev Herbert Cassidy, will preach at the Friends' Festival Evensong.
The Fingal Choral Festival will be held in Lucan parish church while in St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin, the midsummer choir concert will feature works by Faure, Bach, Bruckner and Casals among others.
On Monday evening, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Rt Rev John Neill, will institute the Rev Peter Barrett to the incumbency of Waterford and he will then be installed as Dean of Waterford. At the same service the Rt Rev John Neill will be enthroned as Bishop of Waterford and the new cathedral chapter will be installed.
The lunchtime organ recital in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on Wednesday will be given by Frank Hughes, director of music, Wesley College, and in the evening the theologian, Gerard W. Hughes, will deliver the Moya O'Reilly memorial lecture in the Irish School of Ecumenics.
Mark Duley will give a lunchtime recital on the harmonium in Christ Church Cathedral on Friday.