Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday when Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, or as it is more properly called, the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, will celebrate its patronal festival.
In the morning the choir and organ will be joined by an orchestra for the Sung Eucharist at which the preacher will be the Bishop of Salisbury, the Right Rev David Stancliffe. At Choral Evensong, when the cathedral will mark the publication of its new history, the preacher will be the Church of Ireland's most distinguished historian, the Rev Dr Adrian Empey MRIA.
Following Evensong the Taoiseach will officially launch Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. A History in the newly restored cathedral crypt. The history, which has been edited by the Church of Ireland historiographer, Dr Kenneth Milne, is the work of a small team of contributors who have been engaged on this project for five years, and it is published by Four Courts Press.
Tomorrow night Ceiliuradh, an international festival of Christian liturgy, begins in Christ Church and continues until Friday. The festival will be officially opened by the President on Monday morning. As well as academic and practical sessions, for which participants must register, there will be a range of public events. A series of lunchtime lectures will chart the evolution of the liturgy of the Church of Ireland from medieval times to the age of the computer.
There will be a Songs of Praise service on Tuesday night; a cello recital by Steve Doane on Thursday night; and a performance of the Rachmaninov Vespers by the cathedral choir on Friday night.
On Thursday the seven daily offices of the monastic church will be sung, beginning with vigils at 6.30 a.m. and concluding with compline at 9.45 p.m. Among the guest singers will be Schola Cantorum, the Cistercian Sisters of Glencain Abbey and the Benedictine monks from Glenstal.
Today the Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, Dr Robert MacCarthy, will have his annual Gift Day, while this evening the cathedral choir will sing in St Nicholas's Church, Dunlavin, as part of the local arts festival.
Tomorrow RTE will broadcast Morning Prayer for Trinity Sunday from St Martin's Church, Ballymacarret, Belfast, where the rector is the Rev Ivan Betts.
In Lisburn Cathedral, the Bishop of Connor will ordain Christopher Bennett, William Nixon, Louise Stewart and Alice Stewart to the diaconate, while in Belfast Cathedral the Bishop of Down and Dromore will ordain as deacons Melanie Lacey and Daniel Owen.
In St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will ordain Michael Johnston to the diaconate, while the Bishop of Kilmore will raise the Rev William Stafford to the priesthood.
In St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, there will be Festival Evensong for the Friends of the Cathedral, when the preacher will be the Dean of St Albans, Dr Christopher Lewis. At the same service the Rev Paul Houston, rector of Clondalkin, will be admitted as a minor canon.
There will be a Feast of Sacred Music in St Patrick's on Monday night, when the cathedral choir will be joined by the choirs of the Pro-Cathedral and St Bartholomew's Church, Dublin. The programme will include a rare performance of Thomas Tallis's 40-part motet, Spem in Alium.
On Tuesday the chaplain of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Alan McCormack, and the chapel choir will be received by the President at Aras an Uachtarain before their tour of New York, which begins on June 28th. The Standing Committee of the General Synod and the Representative Church Body will meet in Church of Ireland House, Dublin.