January 1999 Review

Five Funerals

Jan Bartlett
Arnold McKiernan
Dr Aidan Rogers
Archbishop Henry McAdoo
Allen (Teddy) Figgis

Resignation
Easter Vestry
February Lectures
Bishops' Appeal
January in Christ Church
Christmas


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Five Funerals

November/December often seems to be a time of deaths and funerals. This past month indeed has seen the deaths of no less than five people whose lives were closely connected with the life of Christ Church Cathedral. We will remember them.

Jan Bartlett, the wife of our Precentor, John, died on Wednesday 25 November and was buried from the cathedral, after a service largely planned by her, and attended by a large congregation. She had been very active in the Irish Girl Guide movement and was committed to many Dublin charities. In the cathedral she organised the visitor coffee on Sunday mornings and was a regular member of the congregation. Her work here will live on after her, for she was involved with Helen Lawson in the robing of the girls’ choir and had made sets of matching stoles for the clergy, the last, in green, being finished in her memory by Helen.

Arnold McKiernan devoted himself to the music of Christ Church for nearly twenty-five years, retiring in 1980. It was not an easy time. In his earliest days he had to provide two choral services daily throughout the week and to pay for them with a shoestring budget. The choir school was no longer an educational attraction and the lay vicars were, not unnaturally, attracted to the better conditions in another place. With Dean Salmon he had the foresight in 1972 to introduce young women into the choir and slowly the standard of music began to rise to what it had once been. Arnold was a widower by the death of his first wife Margaret and now leaves his second wife Cicely. They had been living in the west of England but holidaying with family in Dubai when Arnold died. A memorial service will be arranged later to commemorate him.
Dr Aidan Rogers had his spiritual home in Saint Patrick’s cathedral but was a regular weekday and occasional Sunday communicant in Christ Church. Hugely talented, he held a doctorate from the Sorbonne. A master in writing English, he had devised and produced a pageant for the 900^th anniversary of Saint Michan’s church in 1996.
Archbishop Henry McAdoo has been a legend in the contemporary history of the Church of Ireland. As rector, dean and bishop Dr McAdoo was an encourager of people – especially in thinking for themselves. He liked people with "guts" who would make their own decisions and take responsibility for them. He ruled (surely an appropriate word) his dioceses of Ossory and then Dublin with benevolence but firmness. His many outside interests – both writing and ecumenical – ensured that he was a good delegator; but he always checked to ensure that the delegated had done as asked! His name will be principally revered as co-chairman of ARCICI 1 with Bishop Alan Clarke. His hopes were high but he saw them dashed, as much by the general synod of the Church of Ireland as by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Neither could comprehend the ARCIC method of doing theology and thought it fudge. Lesley, his wife, was always a gracious companion and a strength to him and a friend to the clergy. The bishop of Meath and Kildare will preach at his memorial service in the cathedral on Sunday 10 January at 3.30 p.m.
Allen (Teddy) Figgis died on Friday 11 December and was buried from the cathedral after a funeral Eucharist on Tuesday 15 December attended by over 400 of his friends. With Dean Salmon he largely masterminded the Safeguard Christ Church campaign of 1980, was generous to a fault at that time, and subsequently devoted himself to the cathedral until his retirement at Easter 1997. An intensely private person, he could yet be an amusing houseguest and a witty speaker. His Limericks were spontaneous and are still quoted around the cathedral. Deeply devout in an unostentatious way, up to and including the day of his death he quietly slipped in and out of the cathedral to attend the daily Eucharist.

Resignation

The following note from our administrator, Christopher Shiell, sent first of all as a letter, has been accepted with deep regret by the cathedral board.

"It is with the very greatest regret and sadness that I have found it necessary to tender my resignation as Administrator of the Cathedral. In a nutshell, I have found it impossible to balance the demands of a very young family with the very considerable but understandable time which the cathedral makes. In the short term this was manageable but in the medium to long term I could see that I would have an increasing problem. I was not prepared to allow my job to suffer nor to put any further strain on my family and I decided that it was better for both that I should depart, sooner rather than later. This is obviously not something which I foresaw when I took on this post.

"In the short time I have been with the cathedral I have found nothing but kindness and support and I really am most grateful for the way in which I was welcomed into the cathedral family. I think that the next few years will be an extremely exciting time in the history of the cathedral and I would dearly love to have been part of that.

"Like many people, I have fallen in love with this place and I wish it and all who are connected with it, nothing but the best now, and in the years to come.

Christopher Shiell

Easter Vestry

Full details for renewing names in the register of general vestrymen were given in the December Review and appropriate registration slips, where needed, are available in the cathedral. At the board meeting on 21 January the Honorary Treasurer, as laid down by the cathedral statutes, will be asked to certify that each existing name on the register, and each new registrant, fulfils the requirements.

February Lectures

Christ Church in Stuart Dublin is the title for the next lecture series to be given by Dr Kenneth Milne, Mr Douglas Bennett, Dr Colum Kenny and Dr Edward McParland. The series will begin on Tuesday 2 February at 1.15 p.m. Full details will appear in the February news sheet and Church Review.

Bishops' Appeal

Christmas is about the one who had not where to lay his head. It’s very easy to preach about this and yet be unable to do much about it. The cathedral was therefore happy to be able, through Bishops’ Appeal, to make available the sum of £3,000 to the Central American disaster fund. We know that, through their contacts with organisations on the ground, our small gift will be well and wisely spent by the Appeal organisers.

January in Christ Church

3^rd (Sunday). The cathedral choirs resume the full round of choral services after their Christmas break. The Girls’ Choir will sing the Eucharist at 6 p.m. on Wednesday 6^th at 6 p.m., the feast of the Epiphany.

10^th (Sunday) at 3.30 p.m. Memorial service for the late Bishop Henry McAdoo. The preacher will be the bishop of Meath and Kildare.

22^nd (Friday) at 8 p.m. Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as gaeilge, at which the preacher will be the Reverend Baden Stanley, rector of Bray, County Wicklow.

24^th (Sunday) at 8 a.m. (N.B.). A sequence of readings, music and reflections for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is to be broadcast live by BBC Radio 4 UK. A large congregation is unlikely but any who can attend will make a welcome addition to the volume of the hymns of the service. There will be the usual 11 a.m. Sung Eucharist but Evening Prayer will be said at 3.30 p.m.

28^th (Thursday) at 11.30 a.m. An ecumenical service to launch the International Year of the Older Person will be held. Representatives of all the major Churches will be present as well as those of the State. The girls’ choir will sing at this service.

29^th (Friday) from 11 a.m. The Electoral College for the united dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross will meet all day in the cathedral to elect a successor to the Rt Revd Roy Warke, the recently retired bishop.

6^th February (Saturday) from 11 a.m. The Friends Committee plans an open day to demonstrate the needs of the Welcome Desk Area in the cathedral. Do please try to come and see how you might be able to help your cathedral.

7^th February (Sunday) at 5 p.m. (N.B. time). A celebration of the Christ’s being presented in the Temple (Candlemas). A feast of liturgy and music in procession.

Christmas

A fuller review of Christmas will appear in next month’s notes. Our appearance and sound on radio and television has received much acclaim – the European Broadcasting Union concert being heard all over Europe and also in Canada. The crib has been much admired and a particular joy to those who have the hearts of children. Thanks to choirs, bellringers, staff, flower arrangers who worked so hard, and to David and Sandra Jones for being with us from San José cathedral.

Material for the February Church Review must reach the dean by 12^th January.


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