Letters of good wishes and telephone calls have been flooding into the deanery in recent weeks. People's kindness has been overwhelming. This short paragraph in the Church Review and in the cathedral's monthly service sheet is the only way in which the dean can express his thanks to so many. As was said last month, company would be wonderful, but quietness and peace are what the doctors have ordered. Despite appearances when he goes to the Sunday Eucharist, he does have to rest a lot simply to maintain his present level of strength.
The splendid Christ Church Lecture Series, is a new venture which is being organised by the Archives Committee, continue at 1.15 p.m. on the first two Tuesdays in November. On 4 November Dr Tadgh O'Keeffe, of the department of archaeology in UCD will discuss the architecture and environment of the canons regular. The final lecture, on Christ Church and the augustinians, will be given on 11 November by Dr Raymond Gillespie.
The Church of Ireland Historical Society will meet in the chapter house on Saturday 8 November 1997, beginning at 10.30 a.m. At 4.00 p.m. a further volume in the cathedral's history series - the first surviving Chapter Act Book dating from 1574 - will be launched, together with the recent Joe Coady lecture.
The Michaelmas term is now well under way with several new faces amongst the cathedral's team of musicians. This year's Guinness organ scholar, Stephen Mailey, hails from Derry and has just completed a music degree at Trinity College. We trust he will find his time with us stimulating and fulfilling. The cathedral choir has several new members - soprano Deirdre Comerford and bass Michael Lee who hails al the way from New Zealand! New choral scholars are Richard Griffiths and Victor Coe. To the girls' choir we welcome this year's probationers: Patricia Bedlow, Lindsay Cashin, Laura Keville and Kate McCaughey. The pattern of cathedral choral services remains much as usual with the exception that Saturday Evensong is now sung, as originally, by the Lay Vicars alone. This small but dynamic group of just ten voices is particularly suited to the earlier repertoire, and this is becoming a feature of Saturday Evensong. Of particular note this month is the offering on 29 November of Bach's exuberant motet Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden.
November promises to be a busy month for the musicians. On Saturday 1 November, the feast of All Saints, Sung Eucharist at 5.00 p.m. will feature the Victoria mass O Quam gloriosum est regnum, sung by the Lay Vicars. This will be the first occasion at which this group will have sung a holyday Eucharist. On Sunday morning, 2 November, the full choir sings as the Citizenship Service (please note 10.45 start) at which the Dean of Liverpool will preach. That afternoon they make their way to Kildare where a concert is to be given in the cathedral at 7.30 p.m. This concert will feature many of the works to be recorded two weeks later (see below). The annual Remembrance Sunday requiem will use the setting of Maurice Duruflé's requiem mass - only the second occasion on which this has been sung in the cathedral.
The following weekend the Priory Records engineers will be in the cathedral, with the choir putting in some nine hours of hard work to record another CD for this prestigious English firm. This, the second such project for Priory is to be entitled Great Irish Cathedral Anthems, and will feature works by past musicians of the cathedral (Bateson, Farmer, Jewett, Woodward, Robinson, Prescott Stewart), pieces recently commissioned by the cathedral (Synnott, de Barra) as well as well-known names such as Stanford and Wood. On the last Sunday in November, 30th, the Advent Procession will take place at 8.pm.. This is a most atmospheric service, using symbols of darkness and light together with seasonal hymns and carols in a great candlelit procession through the cathedral.
Recent shifting of cupboards in the music room has revealed that the older ones, dating from 1953, were the generous gift of Mrs Harriet Nina Moore, widow of Archdeacon Alexander Duff Moore who had been rector of Kilbride (Bray) and archdeacon of Glendalough from 1937-42. If you can help with information please send it to the Director of Music, Mr Mark Duley, The Chapter House, Christ Church Cathedral.
Two recent services of Evensong marked out special events for three people who have given considerable commitment to the cathedral. On Sunday 28 September we marked the 99th birthday of Archdeacon Raymond Jenkins, his 87 years since his first visit to the cathedral for the memorial service of Edward VII in 1910 and his long years of service to the cathedral board from which he retired only earlier this year. The other, on Saturday 27 September, included a blessing on the marriage of two people closely associated with the choir, Máire O'Connor and Simon O'Leary. Our thanks to the Lassus Singers with their conductor Ite O'Donovan for their beautiful singing of the Eucharist and Evensong on Sunday 21 September when our own choir was in Westport.
Material for December must arrive with the cathedral secretary by 12 November.
