The new chief officer designate of the Representative Church Body, David Ritchie, has begun work in Church of Ireland House, Dublin, where he will succeed Adrian Clements as secretary general and chief officer following Mr Clements’s retirement in June.
Mr Ritchie is a civil engineering graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He holds a master’s in business administration from University College Dublin and served as executive director of De Lage Landen Ireland where he was responsible for developing new markets and finance product development.
He has a keen interest in overseas development and is a non-executive director of Concern Worldwide. He previously worked as an engineer for Concern in Cambodia and Rwanda, where he helped to manage the construction of refugee reception centres. Mr Ritchie has a qualification in applied theology and is an active member of St Catherine’s Church, Dublin, where he assists as a Sunday school teacher.
Beginning this month the liturgical round in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, will be augmented by a service of Sung Compline by the Cathedral Choir on Saturday evenings at 5pm. Details of this and other services may be had from the cathedral website: christchurchdublin.ie.
Tomorrow at 10.15am Radio Ulster will broadcast Morning Prayer from St Mark’s Church, Ballymore, Co Armagh, where the rector is Canon Shane Forster. At 12.30pm in St Bigsaech’s Church, Kilbixy, Co Westmeath, there will be a Service of Thanksgiving to mark 70 years of consecutive service on the select vestry by Mr Watson Mills.
Commemorate
In St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, tomorrow evening David Leigh will present the second in a series of organ recitals to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Max Reger. The recital, which begins at 8pm, will feature works by Reger, Karg-Elert and Sokola. St Patrick’s will also be the venue for a lunchtime lecture next Tuesday at 1.10pm when Dr Kerry Houston, from the DIT Conservatory, will talk about the cathedral’s post-restoration music.
Next Tuesday afternoon the Dublin and Glendalough Retired Clergy Fellowship will meet in the Glenageary Church Centre where Canon Maureen Ryan will talk on The Point of Being a Minority.
In St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, next Wednesday the Shannon Golf Club Choir will give a lunchtime recital of works by Sibelius and Dvorak.
At 7pm in the boardroom of the Church of Ireland College of Education, the agm of the Church Education Society will be held. In Kilternan Parish Church at 8pm the Archbishop of Dublin will institute the Revd Rob Clements as rector.
The Dublin and Glendalough Theological Circle will hold its annual lecture on Thursday evening in Christ Church Cathedral following Evensong which will be sung by the Cathedral Choir at 6pm. The speaker will be the Revd Dr Kieran O'Mahony, an Augustinian who is an ecumenical canon of St Patrick's cathedral. He will talk on Was Paul a Lutheran?.
In St Columba’s National School, Tullow, Co Carlow, at 7pm, writer and historian Turtle Bunbury will give a talk on the cast of people involved in the events of Easter 1916.
On Friday evening in Howth a history of the parish, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the present parish church and the 200th anniversary of the consecration of the original church on the present site, will be launched.