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May '98 Around and about Dublin'sChrist Church Cathedral |
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Patrick Comerford, a good friend of the cathedral, writing in The Irish Times in Holy Week spoke of Easter Sunday as a day when the summer emptying of churches begins. Certainly nothing could have been less true in the cathedral. For the Easter morning Eucharist even the side aisles were full as choir and congregation sang their joyful hymns with organ trumpets and timpani – some 460 in all. Indeed between Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and the and two Easter Sunday services just over 900 worshippers attended – all ecstatic with the music, the bells and the archbishop’s sermon. Not least in the ecstasy was that felt by the dean on his return to his cathedral.
Two distinguished former members of the cathedral chapter have passed to their reward within the same number of weeks. Canon Maurice Arthur Handy had a long and interesting life. Born in 1904 deacon 1927, priest 1928, he served curacies in Saint Stephen’s and in Donnybrook before being appointed to Whitechurch from 1941-65. In that year he was made warden of the Church’s Ministry of Healing, where he remained until his appointment to Hacketstown in 1972, retiring in 1976. He was a valued member of the cathedral chapter from 1963-75. He was small of stature but big in ideas and one of the most pastoral of priests in the diocese.
Canon Eberto (Bertie) Mahon Neill was his opposite in many ways. Tall and commanding in appearance and strong in his evangelical faith, he yet was big enough to see value in ideas he did not always share - born in 1916, deacon 1939, priest 1940. Among the parishes he served were Castleknock, Harold’s Cross and Boyle, from which last he retired in 1987. His late wife was buried just a few weeks before him. Among his family he is survived by his son John who is bishop of Cashel and Ossory.
Egan House is to be the new headquarters of The Church’s Ministry of Healing and is a refurbishment of the previously semi-derelict widows’ house in the grounds of Saint Michan’s church. The house will be blessed by the archbishop of Dublin on Saturday 23 May at 3 p.m. and the archbishop of Armagh will be the preacher. The new building will provide consultation rooms and badly-needed office accommodation.
Heard but unseen is the comment often made of our band of ringers – though they slip into service very quietly after ringing. Saturday 23 May is to be a festival day for them. Among the events will be escorted tours of the belfry (insurance cover permitting), the visual sight of the new portable peal of bells being rung in the south transept combined with a poster display illustrating the science of bell-making. The ringers’ collection of handbells will be used for playing tunes during the course of the day. The last component of the day will be the ringing of a peal by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. If you have an interest in bells and would like to know more, do come and visit this exhibition which will run throughout the day
The cathedral’s summer series of concerts and recitals begins this month. There are to be lunchtime recitals every Friday at 13.15, featuring the cathedral organ and well-known local performers as well as choirs from abroad and even a harmonium recital! The series begins on 8 May with a performance by Chorus Nouveau – an exciting Swedish choir making its Irish debut here. Other performers this month included the cathedral’s own organists Mark Duley and Andrew Johnstone, as well as choir member Deirdre Comerford. Deirdre was the winner of the advanced competition in this year’s Feis Ceoil.
This month’s "extended anthem" at Sunday Evensong is to be Britten’s "Rejoice in the Lamb", to be sung on 17 May. On Sunday 31 May – the day of Pentecost – the Cathedral Girls’ Choir will sing Evensong at 15.30 and this year’s probationers will be admitted as choristers. They are Lindsay Cashin, Laura Keville and Kate McCaughey. All three are pupils of the Presentation Convent Primary School, Warrenmount. The link between this local school and the cathedral grows ever stronger, not least to the support of the Principal, Sr Anne-Marie. We hope to have a further intake of Warrenmount pupils for next year.
How fortunate we have been over recent years in the cathedral to have visiting choirs of such distinction when our own choir is in recess. It was good recently to welcome the fine choir of Saint Peter’s church, Antrim Road, Belfast.
A small cathedral such as Christ Church might count itself privileged to possess the great Jones organ and the little Telford? organ in the south transept. To this we have now added a third! John Byfield in 1752 installed a new organ in the cathedral. Rebuilt in 1845, it was soon afterwards sold/given to the new church of Saint Nicholas in Cork. On the recent closure of the church it was gifted to its former home by the dean of Cork and by the parishioners and our cathedral Friends paid for its journey back to Dublin and into storage.
To begin the process Mark Duley and Sue Hemmens travelled to Cork to assist Edwin Hunter and his son David in the dismantling of the case – assisted by the members of the Saint Nicholas’ select vestry who happened to be meeting in the church at the time of dismantling! Others in Cork included Ian Sexton, and William Drake, the Byfield organ restorations expert who had flown in from Devon with his assistant Joost de Boer. Des and Ruth Kinsella, in a hired van, left Dublin airport at 4 a.m. on Monday 30 March, arriving back, tired and exhausted, but with the entire organ case, about 10.00 p.m. With the assistance of choir members it has been stored in the north aisle of the crypt with the smaller and more fragile parts placed in the deanery basement. A good effort by all concerned. Now, where do we find the cash to do something with it?
An exciting day, Sunday 7 June, is promised so we invite all our friends to be present if possible – secure parking in the Werburgh Street multi-storey park. At the 11 a.m. Sung Eucharist Dr Lewis Ayres, lecturer in Trinity College and expert in the period when the Nicene Creed was formulated, will preach. At Evensong the dean will be the preacher – looking forward to the millennium and to the complete restoration of the building. After Evensong, weather permitting, there will be a garden party at the deanery and a further volume in the cathedral history series – concerning the earliest chapter books from the 1570s – will be launched.
Taking place on Tuesdays 5, 12, 19 & 26 May at lunchtime (1.15pm) in the crypt, see its webpage for further details.
Is no one interested in the wider news of the dioceses or of the Church of Ireland. We have a small number of takers of the Church Review at 85p per month. It is full of general news, book and video reviews as well as notes from all the parishes in Dublin and Glendalough. There’s also the Church of Ireland Gazette (no takers at all) with news from both north and south. Search is a theological journal. The current issue, £3.00 from APCK, Dawson Street and from the Religious Education Resource Centre, Rathmines has an article by the dean on "Cathedrals – Burden or Bonus?
For just 30p per month this newssheet and the choir music lists can be posted to any part of Britain or Ireland. Abroad the postal cost is 32p Europe and 45p for the rest of the world.
There can be no happier priest in the Church of Ireland at present than our parish vicar, Canon David Pierpoint. On Thursday 23 May Saint Michan’s was rededicated by the archbishop in the presence of Her Excellency the President, His Excellency the Papal Nuncio, members of the judiciary and ambassadors – not to mention the important people of the parish and many former parishioners. David, his wife Denise, and the parishioners worked hard to give the church this renewed lease of life and they deserve our congratulations and good wishes. The archbishop preached a splendid sermon for the occasion. Saint Werburgh’s church will soon also have a new look when the green netting and scaffolding comes down to reveal its striking exterior in time for the commemorations connected with the 1798 rising. Lord Edward Fitzgerald lies in a vault and, near him, in the graveyard, is Major Sirr, his captor and friend in life.
Material for June must arrive with the Dean by 12 June 1998.
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