The "Great Week" is the title first given to the most important eight days in human history - given by the Spanish nun Egeria when she went on one of the world's first package travel pilgrimages in the fourth century. Her description of the manner in which the Jerusalem Christians marked the death and resurrection of their Saviour has become the pattern for all subsequent holy weeks.
Thus on Palm Sunday morning (weather permitting) the entire congregation will gather outside the cathedral for the blessing and distribution of palms. the reading of the gospel of the entry of Christ into the holy city and the singing of the great hymn "All glory, laud and honour" as we move to our places in the cathedral. There the whole mood of joy changes to one of reflection as we share together the reading of the passion and in the Eucharist.
On Maundy Thursday morning (from the Latin "mandatum" or "command") at 12 noon the archbishop will lead the clergy of the dioceses in the Chrism Eucharist (for the blessing of the oils). Christ on that day commanded the disciples to serve others in ministry. So the archbishop will ask the clergy present to recommit themselves to their ministry as he will to his and share the Eucharist.
Thursday evening at 8 p.m. commemorates the institution of the Lord's Supper and the Foot washing described in Saint John's Gospel. Symbolically, as "they all forsook him and fled" the cathedral sanctuary will be stripped of all its glorious ornament and left plain and unadorned for Good Friday.
Good Friday is a day of quiet. Morning Prayer and Litany will be said at 11 a.m. Evensong will be sung at 3.30 p.m. and the cross will be proclaimed in music and prayer.
Easter begins on the Saturday evening at 9 p.m. when, after a short vigil, the Easter Fire will be lit in the cathedral grounds and the Paschal candle from it. There will be a procession into the cathedral, the renewal of the our baptismal vows and then the great Paschal Eucharist. On Sunday morning at 11 a.m. the archbishop will preach his traditional Easter sermon to his people present.
Secure car parking for all services and events, particularly at night, is available in the Werburgh Street Multi-storey park.
Without music and bells the cathedral would indeed be a poorer place. We now have a large number of young ringers in training so that the future for ringing is good. On Palm Sunday the bells will ring as usual but some of our ringers will be taking the youngsters on tour to three rings at Cork cathedral, also at Bandon and Doneraile.
The choir, too, is in high spirits. Their recent recording of the music of Stanford, made by Priory Records as a part of the company's own sales and distribution, will be on sale from Autumn 1997. Priory is obviously so pleased with the CD that they have now asked us to prepare a second CD of music written by Irish musicians or composed for Irish cathedrals. It will be recorded in November.
Dr Raymond Gillespie, lecturer in history in Maynooth and presently a visiting Fellow of All Souls' Oxford, is a prime mover in the work to prepare a full-scale scholarly history of Christ Church to be published in the year 2000. On Tuesday 18 March at 8 p.m. he will give the Joe Coady annual lecture in the cathedral and reveal some of the cathedral's lost secrets in "Vergers and Vicars: Serving the cathedral, 1540-1700". Admission free and all are welcome.
For more than a decade the friendly smiling face of Paul Fritz has represented the Lutheran Church in Ireland at ecumenical functions or has welcomed others to Saint Finian's church in Adelaide Road. Now his stay in Ireland is at an end as he returns to a new pastorate in Germany. All our good wishes from the cathedral go with him as he returns for ministry in his home land.
With the cathedral shop in 1996 having made its highest sales for a number of years we look forward to meeting up with all our volunteer helpers on Friday 21 March at 11.30 a.m. Plans will be worked out for our 1997 opening hours. To our existing volunteers we say, "Please come and bring a friend". A light lunch will be available.
This will be the first year since 1987 that the dean will have had to miss this annual conference and only his third since he became the first Irish dean to attend in 1981. The 1997 conference is to be in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk which has a very special link with Christ Church. Through Strongbow, our Norman/English builders in the 12th century had a special devotion to two saints - Saint Laud of Normandy and Saint Edmund, king and martyr, of England. In building the cathedral they placed chapels on either side of the Lady Chapel with the dedications of Saint Laud and Saint Edmund. Saint Edmund, as you will have guessed, is the patron saint of Bury St Edmunds the venue for the conference. A link was forged, however, some years ago when the dean preached at the St Edmundsbury patronal festival.
The Candlemas Procession was simple yet glorious marking the end of the season of Christmas and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Ash Wednesday was austere but moving as the Tallis Five- part Litany was sung in procession. The 51st psalm, Miserere mei, by Gregorio Allegri was the introduction to the ashing and the Eucharist.
A civic link between Dublin and Liverpool was begun on Thursday 13 February when the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Liverpool signed a concordat of friendship. Perhaps our cathedrals in the two cities should make some similar link?
