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Everyone in the cathedral offers sympathy to Mark Bowyer, our cathedral manager, on the recent death of his father.
John (Paterson) and Pat (Bray) have been overwhelmed by the kindness of the hundreds of well wishers who sent cards, letters, emails and telephone calls for their engagement. Even now they are still arriving.
Please note that the annual Advent Procession and Readings take place on Sunday 3 December at 5pm. No tickets are required for the service and all are welcome.
The group will meet on Monday 4 December at 8pm in the Chapter House. The meeting will take the form of an in-house discussion on Ethical Tourism: choosing a holiday. We invite you to bring any experiences and brochures which relate to this topic.
Few people can resist a Christmas performance of Messiah and Messiah in Christ Church is a very special treat. First there is the sound of Christ Church Baroque playing on authentic instruments as Handel would have known them. Then there is the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, involved with that of Saint Patrick's in the first performance in 1742, and now in the year 2000 singing the original score with a precision that Handel might have envied. Messiah can be heard in Kilkenny cathedral at 5pm on Sunday 10 December and at 7.30pm in Christ Church on Monday and Tuesday, 11/12 December. The Irish Times last year said the Christ Church Messiah provided some of the best choral singing of the year.
For nearly a decade Christmas in Christ Church would not be the same without the annual carol concert by Amnesty International. The concert will take place at 8pm on Friday 8 December when well-known artists, among them Virginia Kerr and Anúna will perform to aid the charity. For further information please contact Amnesty at 677 6361.
The cathedral's main carol service will be held on Monday 18 December at 8pm. The centre nave is reserved for those with tickets. This includes members of the congregation. Please apply not later than 4 December. A large area of the cathedral (almost 200 seats) is available without ticket. The annual charity carol service, sung by the girls' choir, will take place on Thursday 21 December from 1.15-1.50pm. The chosen charity this year is Focus Ireland. Do come and support it.
This popular group has frequently appeared in the cathedral and will do so this year on Friday and Saturday 22/23 December at 8pm.
24 December this year falls on a Sunday. There will be the usual Sung Eucharist at 11am but Evensong will be said, not sung, at 3.30pm.
Please note that the Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist always begins at precisely 12 midnight and lasts about an hour and a quarter. This year the festival will be enhanced by Christ Church Baroque performing with the cathedral choir. On Christmas morning at 11am His Grace the Archbishop will give his Christmas address to the city and the dioceses at the Festival Sung Eucharist. All are welcome.
New Year brings the Feast of the Epiphany and the return of the cathedral choirs after the Christmas recess. There will be a Sung Eucharist at 5pm on Saturday 6 January and normal choral services will resume on the Sunday.
Members of the Chapter met on the feast of St Laurence O'Toole, 14 November, to transact necessary business and to choose their Sundays in residence for the year 2001. We welcome three new members to the company of the priest vicars: The Revd Roy Byrne (curate-assistant of the cathedral group), the Revd William Ritchie (vicar of Saint Bartholomew's with Christ Church Leeson Park) and the Revd Kevin Moroney (chaplain to the theological college).
It was in 1940 and in the height of the Emergency/2nd World War that Dean Lewis-Crosby was inspired to dream of holding a service in which the people of Dublin might celebrate their citizenship. Whether or not he intended it to become permanent we are not told but such was its success that the service last month was the sixtieth such to be held - always on the first Sunday in November. In the late 1960s Dean Salmon, in the heady spirit of those days, made the service more ecumenical and President de Valera attended in person. Today people of all traditions can be found at the service. This year a splendid address was given by Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of Dublin City University (the first lay person to address the congregation) on the importance of inclusiveness in society and particularly in the churches. (Copies of his address are available in the cathedral and on the cathedral website) The large attendance was led by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress and by representatives of the civic and commercial life of the city - especially by the many charitable organisations which do such notable work among the very people of whom the professor was speaking. The collection of £1190 was given to the the Irish Refugee Council. Particular thanks for the meticulous organisation of the service must go to the Cathedral Manager and his staff, to the choir for the splendid music and to Mrs Mary Pat Jackson for the magnificent flowers.
The Friends of Christ Church is an enterprising body that often organises exciting tours and mind-exercising lectures. On St Cecilia's day, patroness of music, more than 250 came together for a really entertaining evening of music and words from some of the best-known figures in the life of our city. Organised by Fred Gray (artistes) and Irene Drew (food) and their team of helpers, this has been one of the Friends highlights of the year.
The cathedral, as a liturgical shop window for the united dioceses, has always felt it desirable to keep abreast of changes accepted by General Synod. Even in Book of Common Prayer days the Eucharist had been enhanced in many ways: hymns had been added, as were some extra ceremonies (such as Harvest) and some changes in wording.
In 1972 Dean Salmon introduced the proposals approved by General Synod that year, Holy Communion 1972. Again, when General Synod published the Alternative Prayer Book 1984 the cathedral was to the forefront in introducing the new book.
Almost ten years ago, to make the cathedral Eucharist more easily followed by visitors from all over the world, we printed the official liturgy in a user-friendly edition, about which the compliments have been many. That book, at each re-printing, also kept up with new proposals made at General Synod. Among these were linguistic changes to make the service more gender inclusive and additional sections of words spoken by the entire congregation. These have not only met with approval in the cathedral but have actually been copied in the latest Church of Ireland proposals. Flattery indeed!
General Synod 2000 has accepted a restructuring which will move the penitential section of the service from the middle to the very beginning - a thing long sought by many. The new edition of the cathedral's Eucharist booklet will thus incorporate those new structures approved by the synod and will be used from the first Sunday of Advent, 3 December. As adapted for the cathedral it should ensure that the service in future normally ought not to exceed an hour and a quarter.
The service will begin, as at present, with the psalm of the day used as an introit, and the greeting and Collect for Purity said from the back of the nave. At the Kyrie the procession will move to the lectern, where it will be followed by the confession and absolution and Gloria in excelsis. The section will end with the Collect of the Day.
The reading of God's Word will follow. The Old and New Testament readings will be in sequence and without a psalm intervening, the Gradual hymn being sung by the congregation. The Gospel, as has long been tradition in Christ Church, will be read from the 15th century medieval lectern beside the pulpit, the book of the Gospels symbolising God's living Word, Jesus Christ, among us. This indeed is why we stand for its reading and honour it by carrying it into the cathedral in the procession.
Sermon, Creed and Prayers follow as customary and the Peace will be given from its former place - at the lectern, close to the people. The Offertory hymn follows.
From the Offertory onwards the changes are minor and mostly in the nature of additional participation by the congregation. At the invitation to communion the congregation verbally acknowledges their willingness to receive the gift offered to them.
Our world is constantly changing and our understanding of God is always developing. God doesn't change, yet in every generation we need to find new ways of expressing ourselves to one another and to God. The presentation of our worship in Christ Church will always aim at mixing formal liturgy with the devotional needs of a congregation. Fussiness is something we shall endeavour to eschew.
Material for the January Church Review must reach the dean by 12 December.
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