Legislation before this year's general synod will, if passed, provide for fuller representation of the cathedral chapter on the board of the cathedral. Ex-officio members will be the dean, the precentor, the chancellor and the treasurer. The full chapter will elect five others from their number to sit with the nine lay members.
The lay members, at the Easter general vestry this year, had their opportunity to elect members for the period until 1999 which will be the official triennium. At that election chapter and lay electors will together elect their representatives for the triennium 1999-2002!
Until then board membership will be:
| Ex-officio by statute | Elected at the Easter vestry |
| The Dean | Judge Gerard Buchanan |
| The Precentor | Mr Desmond Kinsella |
| Two clerical vicars | Mr Stuart Kinsella |
| The Revd Douglas Slator | Dáithí Ó Maolchoille |
| The Revd Mark Gardner | Dr Kenneth Milne |
| Elected by the chapter | Mr Mervyn Percival |
| Canon Stanley Baird | Mr Terence Read |
| Canon Richard Bertram | Ms Helen Roycroft |
| Canon Desmond Harman | Mrs Lesley Whiteside |
| Canon David Muir | |
| Archdeacon Edgar Swann |
Outgoing members of the board were Mr Clive Christie, Mr Harold Clarke and Mr Simon McCormick who have all served the cathedral with great commitment over many years. We are indebted to them more than we can say.
We offer congratulations to our diocesan/provincial registrar, the Revd Victor Stacey, who has been appointed a chapter canon of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It is good that we shall still see him regularly in Christ Church on diocesan occasions. His installation will take place in Saint Patrick's at 3.15 p.m. on Sunday 4 May.
It has become the custom to invite deans of other cathedrals to share our patronal festival with us. We are privileged this year to have as our distinguished preacher, at 11 a.m. and at 3.30 p.m., the Very Revd Dr Stephen White, dean of Raphoe. Dr White has written on the theology of the Cambridge theologian Don Cupitt and, most recently, a well-reviewed book, preparatory for the 1998 Lambeth Conference, entitled "Authority and Anglicanism".
This distinguished choir, with their organist Roy Massey, is to give a recital in the cathedral on Saturday 31 May. Full details as yet are not available but will be, from the cathedral, by early May. A note for your diary if you enjoy church music.
The Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams, bishop of Monmouth in Wales, is one of the most distinguished younger theologians in these islands. He is one who not only speaks with conviction but does so with beauty of words. He will preach at the Sung Eucharist on Sunday 8 June at 11 a.m.
The shop is now open Monday through Saturday to provide the needs of visitors to the cathedral and to ensure that the name of Christ Church is carried around the world. The helpers met recently to undertake their rotas for the summer and we are most grateful to them for time generously given. The shop is managed by Mrs Valerie Hade, assisted by Mrs Joan Nicoll.
Easter was simply magnificent. We had the pleasure of having the archbishop with us for all the principal services. From Maundy Thursday's Chrism Eucharist and the evening celebration of the Lord's Supper, he joined with us in Good Friday Evensong and in the Easter Vigil on the Saturday evening - which was dramatic in its powerfulness and in its music. (You can hear the Langlais again on Pentecost Sunday.) Yet Easter morning, with trumpets and timpani and the archbishop's Easter sermon, was a fitting climax to the triduum. The input from both choir and ringers was simply superb and memorable and congregations were both large and multi-national - more than three hundred on Easter morning alone.
Wantage parish church helped us celebrate the post-Easter period. They are a fine choir and seemingly enjoy visits to Dublin every other year or so.
On 13 April 1742 the choirs of the two cathedrals joined to enable Mr Handel to give the first performance of Messiah. On 13 April, two hundred and fifty five years later, an ecumenical service was attended by some five hundred people to mark the event. The cathedral choir and the members of Our Lady's Choral Society joined to make music before the latter went to Fishamble Street to sing the Easter music from Messiah. The preacher at the service was Fr Gerry Raftery, OFM, Merchants' Quay, who spoke movingly of the needs of the poor of eighteenth century Dublin and of the same needs today.
