The next meeting of the Church of Ireland Historical Society will be held in Armagh public library on Saturday, April 23rd, beginning with coffee and registration at 10.30am.
In the morning session, Valerie Adams, a former senior member of staff in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and now librarian and archivist at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Belfast, will speak on Exploring Church of Ireland Records held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. She will be followed by Ruairí Cullen, a doctoral student at Queen's University, Belfast, who will present a research paper on George T Stokes and the Oriental Origins of Irish Christianity.
Dr Jane McKee, formerly senior lecturer in French in the University of Ulster and chair of the Irish section of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain & Ireland, will speak on Peter Drelincourt (1644-1722): his Huguenot Background and Early Career in Ireland.
The final lecture will be given by Colin Armstrong, a visiting research associate at the School of History and Anthropology in Queens, on A Laudian in Ulster: the Irish career of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 1658-67.
Registration can be done online at churchofireland hist.org. Queries may be addressed to the honorary secretary, Dr Adrian Empey, by emailing him at secretary.coihs@gmail.com, or see the society's website: churchofirelandhist.org.
This morning, the Cork, Cloyne & Ross Diocesan Mother’s Union Service will be held in St Luke’s Church, Douglas, where the preacher will be Canon Eithe Lynch. This afternoon, at 3pm, the annual Thanksgiving Service and Gift Day of the Church’s Ministry of Healing will be held in St Michan’s Church, Dublin, where the celebrant will be Canon David Gillespie and the preacher will be the Bishop of Tuam.
Tomorrow morning the Bishop of Cork will preside at Choral Eucharist in St Fin Barres’ Cathedral to commemorate the Easter Rising. The preacher will be the Archdeacon of Tuam, the Ven Gary Hastings, and Cór Cúil Aodha, directed by Peadar Ó Riada, will sing a setting of the Eucharist composed by Sean Ó Riada.
Tomorrow afternoon in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, there will be an ecumenical service at 3.30pm to mark the 75th anniversary of The Blitz. In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, there will an organ recital at 4.15pm by Paul Mullen, organist of St Patrick’s Church, Greystones, and in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, at 8pm, David Leigh will continue with his series of organ recitals to mark the centenary of the death of Max Reger. At 5pm in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Clogher, the Dean of Derry, Dr William Morton, will preach at the annual Friends’ Service, while in Donegal parish church at 7.30pm, Choral Evensong will be sung by the Letterkenny-based ensemble, Gaudium Chamber Choir.
On Tuesday at lunchtime in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, the Revd Paul Arbuthnot, sacrist in Westminster Abbey and former member of the cathedral choir, will speak on the 19th century music of St Patrick's. In Clonakilty, the Bishop of Cork will institute the Revd Kingsley Sutton to the Kilgarriffe union of parishes.
In Belfast next Friday evening at 7.30pm, Canon Giles Fraser will give a lecture as part of the bi-centenary celebrations of St George's parish church. Canon Fraser, well known for his contributions to BBC's Thought for the Day and for his column in the Guardian, will speak on Refugees – An Old Testament Perspective.