NEWS BRIEFS

Chamber Choir of King’s College School Wimbledon to sing in Armagh

The next performance in the recital series in St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral Armagh will be given by the Choir of King’s College School Wimbledon. This will take place on Sunday 20 October 2019 at 4.15pm, following Evensong.

King’s College School boasts a particularly strong choral tradition. The trebles of the Chamber Choir are all pupils at King’s College Junior School and the altos, tenors and basses are drawn from the senior school. Currently, there are about forty-five boys in the Choir, which has gained a reputation in London and which has performed on tour, both in the UK and abroad, including in Austria, France, Italy and Spain. Performances have been held in the Duomo in Florence, St Mark’s in Venice, Notre Dame in Paris and St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

The Choir regularly sings Evensong in the Cathedrals of St Paul’s, Winchester, Chichester, Salisbury, Guildford and Southwark, St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace. It has also performed in recent years in Tewkesbury Abbey, St John’s, Smith Square, Cadogan Hall and at the Royal College of Music.

As well as a number of Carol Services each year, the Choir also performs a popular Christmas concert in St James’s Piccadilly. It records regularly, with its most recent CD having been released in 2018 to great acclaim and in November the trebles will takr part in the highly prestigious Wimbledon International Music Festival.
For its Armagh recital, the Choir will sing works by Thomas Tallis, Tomas Luis de Victoria, Johannes Eccard, Charles Stanford, Charles HH Parry, Peter Hurford and not forgetting Armagh’s own Charles Wood.

Admission is free, with donations to the Choir Fund of Armagh Cathedral greatly appreciated.

Songs of Praise in Baltinglass

A Songs of Praise service is the main fundraiser for the damaged windows in St. Mary’s Baltinglass is on October 27th at 3.30 pm. Among the guest musicians will be the Bishop. The theme is Reformation and Ecumenism to celebrate the musical traditions that have come out of the different reformed traditions as well as the music and hymns we all share in common

Lead stolen second time in six months from Cairncastle church

Last week for the second time in six months St Patrick’s Church Cairncastle, near Larne, has had its lead stolen from the roof. This time the theft and damage is considerably more serious. The parish thanked the PSNI for their quick response and support as well as Longmore Security. The parish is helping the PSNI with their inquiries and has urged anyone who saw anything suspicious at the church over the last week or know who attacked the church to come forward and report it to PSNI Larne. The parish has received a few requests for ways to donate to help with the repairs which will run into the thousands of pounds and will be setting up a Just Giving Page over the next day or so.

Papal visit organiser to become Scouting Ireland chief executive

A woman involved in the management of last year’s papal visit to Ireland is to become the chief executive of Scouting Ireland.

Anne Griffin is to take over as head of the youth organisation from Dr John Lawlor in January, and will be the first woman to hold the role in the organisation’s history.

Ms Griffin was the general manager of the World Meeting of Families, a major religious gathering which saw Pope Francis deliver a Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park in August of last year.

She was also the general manager of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, another major international Catholic Church event, which was held in Dublin in 2012.

She was also employed as a consultant advise on the running of the 2015 and 2020 congresses.

Dr Lawlor has been chief executive of Scouting Ireland since 2012, and previously held several national volunteer roles in the youth organisation, which has more than 50,000 members.

Upcoming events

On Tuesday afternoon, in the context of the Carleton Sumner School in the Valley Hotel, Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone, the Bishop of Clogher will speak on ‘Disestablishment: What have we made of it?’

On Thursday morning at 11am the Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Primary Schools Service will be held in Christ Church cathedral where the Archbishop of Dublin will preside.

In St Columba’s church, Ennis, on Friday evening at 8pm the Bishop of Limerick & Killaloe will introduce the Revd Kevin O’Brien as Priest–in–Charge of the Drumcliffe union of parishes with Kilnasoolagh. Mr O’Brien was ordained in 2001 and served as an assistant curate and school chaplain before becoming Chaplain to the Bishop of Europe in 2006. Since 2010 he has been Vicar of St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill, in the Diocese of Chichester.

Food for thought

A Harvest Prayer from the Mothers’ Union

We bless you, God of Seed and Harvest,
And we bless each other,
That the beauty of this world,
And the love that created it,
Might be expressed though our lives
And be a blessing to others,
Now and always
AMEN