On Thursday, the Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, will consecrate Canon Paul Colton to the episcopate in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The preacher will be the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke.
Canon Colton, who was elected Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross last month, succeeds the Right Rev Roy Warke, who has retired. The bishop-elect, although born in Derry, grew up and was educated in Cork where he read law in UCC. After training in the Church of Ireland Theological College, he was ordained for a curacy in Lisburn and subsequently served as vicar-choral in Belfast Cathedral. Since 1990 he has been rector of Castleknock.
Aside from his pastoral experience and, for a bishop, relative youth (he is 38), Canon Colton will come to the bench of bishops with a wide variety of perspectives - a profound commitment to ecumenism, much experience of other churches both in Ireland and on the Continent, a practical involvement in the increasingly important world of broadcasting, an informed involvement in liturgical revision, and perhaps most important of all, through his membership of the central councils of the church, a real knowledge of how the Church of Ireland works.
Today in Portadown the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will attend the conference of the Church of Ireland Youth Council. The Very Rev Maurice Carey will conduct a Quiet Afternoon in St Andrew's Church, Malahide, under the auspices of Affirming Catholicism Ireland: all are welcome.
Tomorrow morning RTE will broadcast a celebration of the Eucharist from St Nicholas's Collegiate Church, Galway. The celebrant will be the curate, the Rev Philip Heak, and the preacher will be the rector, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, Provost of Tuam, while the epistle will be read by the Mayor of Galway, Cllr Angela Lupton. On RTE Television there will be a Service of the Word with the parishioners of Howth, Co Dublin, where the Rector is Canon Cecil Hyland.
The Archbishop of Dublin will be in Bangor Cathedral for the launch of the second phase of the link between the dioceses of Dublin and Bangor, while the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory will be in Cashel Cathedral where the Ven John Murray, the Very Rev Peter Barrett and Canon Billy Beare will be installed as members of the chapter by the Dean, Dr Philip Knowles.
In Waterford Cathedral the services will be sung by the Chapel Choir of Trinity College Dublin, while in Belfast Mrs Thelma Mehaffey, All-Ireland president, wil be the speaker at the Connor Diocesan Mothers' Union Festival Service in St Anne's Cathedral.
In St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, in the afternoon, there will be a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Lord Dunsany, who died last month, and at 7.30 p.m. the annual Sportspeople's Service will be held.
On Monday the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev John Perry, who is chairman of the Churches' Council for Health and Healing, will visit Belfast to speak at the spring seminar of the Churches' Council for Health and Healing in Ireland. In the new hospital in Tallaght, the Adelaide Hospital Society will host another lecture on medical ethics. Dr Patrick Hanafin from the University of Sussex will speak on "Legislating the Right to Die".
On Friday evening the Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the Right Rev John Neill, will institute the Rev Bob Gray to the incumbency of Ardamine.