14 December 2008

Christmas in Christ Church Cathedral

Patrick Comerford

With just ten days to go to Christmas Eve, this is a busy time in Christ Church Cathedral. On Tuesday, 16 December, at 1.10pm, there is a Charity Carol Service with the Cathedral Girls’ Choir and Lay Vicars Choral.

On Wednesday, 17 December, at 4 p.m., the Cathedral Choir will sing a live broadcast service on BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong programme. Music will include Boles, Adam lay y-bounden, Walsh responses, Howells, Gloucester service, and Maw, There is no rose, with a concluding organ voluntary by Duruflé, Fugue sur le nom d’Alain, Op 7.

On Sunday next (21 December 2008), the settings for the Sung Eucharist at 11 a.m. include Ceasar’s Missa Brevis and Guerrero’s Ave Virgo sanctissima, and at 3.30 p.m. there is a Cathedral Carol Service with the combined Cathedral Choirs.

On Monday 22 December 2008, at 8 p.m., the service of Nine Lessons and Carols will include the combined Cathedral Choirs. Free tickets are available from the Cathedral Office (01-677 8099).

On Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24 December, the first Eucharist of the Nativity will be celebrated at 11 p.m. On Christmas Day, 25 December, the Festal Eucharist will be celebrated at 11 a.m.

And after Christmas, at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 30 December, there is a recital of Handel’s Messiah by the International Handel Festival Chorus.

This month’s edition of the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan magazine, the Church Review, also carries two photographs by Garret Casey from recent events in the Chapter Room of the cathedral: a meeting of the Church of Ireland Historical Society, and a visit by French pilgrims from Eu on the feast day of Saint Laurence O’Toole.

Both Professor William McCormack (above) and I delivered papers at the autumn conference of the Church of Ireland Historical Society in Christ Church Cathedral.

The conference was chaired by the Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, and the former principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College, the Revd Canon Dr Adrian Empey. My paper is availabe here: Irish Anglicans and the Greek War of Independence


The French pilgrims from Eu in France were visiting Christ Church Cathedral on the occasion of the feast day of St Laurence O’Toole. The patron saint of the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough is buried in Eu, but his heart is preserved in Christ Church.

The pilgtims were led by the Archbishop of Rouen, the Most Revd Dr Jean-Charles Descubes, and Madame Le Maire, Marie-Francoise Gaouyer. They are pictured with the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr John Neill, the Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, and chapter members.

This month’s Church Review also carries a report by Carol Casey on a recent paper I delivered at a meeting of the Diocesan Guild of Lay Ministries: Orthodox Spirituality: insights for today

Canon Patrick Comerford is Director of Spiritual Formation, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.