Celebrations in Armagh next week will see two major causes of celebration when both Church House and the Library will be officially reopened after extensive renovations.
On Wednesday, the Archbishop of Armagh will rededicate Church House which will then be declared open by Lady Eames. The building has been extensively renovated and modernised during the past year. Apart from redecoration, a new kitchen and elevator for the disabled have been installed while the diocesan office has been extended. The Primate's rooms have been renovated and the historic Synod Hall has also been renovated. This work has been financed by the diocese, contributions from the parishes and grants from the RCB.
On Friday the Library in Abbey Street, properly Armagh Public Library, where the Keeper is the Dean of Armagh, the Very Rev Herbert Cassidy, will be reopened. Work to restore the fabric of the building, largely financed by the Heritage Lottery fund, has been successfully completed. The Library was founded by Archbishop Robinson in 1771 and, like Archbishop Marsh's Library in Dublin, was established by act of parliament. The Keeper of Marsh's Library, Dr Muriel McCarthy, who is also a lay canon of Armagh, will perform the reopening ceremony.
Tomorrow, the Archbishop of Dublin will dedicate the restored organ in St Bartholomew's parish church in the context of Solemn Evensong at which the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will preach.
On Tuesday, the second part of the "Tuesdays in Autumn" lunchtime lecture series, jointly organised by Dublin Corporation and Christ Church Cathedral, begins. In the first in a series of talks on "2000 Years of Christianity" Prof Seβn Freyne (TCD) will speak on "The Birth of Christianity and the Christianising of the Empire".
In Taney Parish Centre, the Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan Synod will begin on Tuesday evening and continue on Wednesday. It will be preceded by the launch of "Clergy of Dublin and Glendalough", the latest in the series of published biographical succession lists of clergy based on the work of the late Canon J. B. Leslie. The volume has been edited by Ronnie Wallace, former Head of History in the High School, and is published by the Ulster Historical Foundation. Conceived as a millennium diocesan project it is a testimony to the endeavour of the editor and the determination of the united dioceses to memorialise the bishops and clergy who have faithfully served Dublin and Glendalough through the ages.
On Thursday the Cashel, Ossory, Waterford, Leighlin and Lismore Diocesan Synod will be held in Kilkenny. In Maynooth, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare will speak on the Church of Ireland in the "Our Common Christian Heritage" series of seminars while in St George and St Thomas's Church, Dublin, the lunchtime speaker in the "I Believe" series will be John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy Prison.
An Inter-Faith Service of Prayer for World Peace will be held in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, with representatives from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions. In the evening in St Michan's Church, Dublin, there will be a concert by the Wuppertal Police Choir from Germany in aid of the All Saints, Grangegorman Restoration Fund.
On Friday the Bishop of Meath and Kildare will institute the Rev Lynda Peilow, formerly curate of St Ann's, Dublin, to the incumbency of Clonsast union of parishes, Edenderry.