August, the only month without church festivals, has traditionally been a time for clergy and committed laity to take a break from the ecclesiastical round. It is a time when academic research flourishes, the students have gone and the prospect of uninterrupted work beckons invitingly.
These phenomena have witnessed a further outbreak in research into the church's past as the contributors to a history of the laity of the Church of Ireland invade libraries and archives. It will be published by the Four Courts Press in 2001 and promises to be a timely corrective to existing studies of the Anglican presence in Ireland which have been largely institutionally based and have had a marked clerical focus.
Just as this new study will concentrate on the laity, so, too, the team of researchers is predominantly lay. Among the professional historians who have agreed to take part are Raymond Gillespie and Jacqueline Hill, NUI Maynooth; David Hayton, Queen's University; John McCafferty, UCD; and Toby Barnard, Oxford.
The historiographer of the Church of Ireland, Dr Kenneth Milne, will be a contributor, also The Irish Times journalist and theologian, Patrick Comerford.
The clerical ensemble will consist of the Dean of Christ Church, Dublin, the Very Rev John Paterson; the secretary of the Church of Ireland Historical Society, Dr William Neeley; and the Precentor of St Patrick's, Dr Adrian Empey.
This evening in Dublin the choir of Christ Church, Chelsea, will give a concert in St Werburgh's Church at 7.30 p.m. under the baton of their distinguished director, Jeremy Summerley. The choir's recordings of early music with the Oxford Camerata are available on the Naxos label and are frequently in the classical charts. The choir will earlier sing Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where they will sing the services tomorrow.
Tomorrow RTE will broadcast a celebration of the Eucharist from St Columba's parish church, Omagh, where the rector is Canon Charlie Leeke. This will be the first anniversary of the Omagh bomb tragedy and the celebrant and preacher will be the Bishop of Derry, Dr James Mehaffey. BBC Radio Ulster will carry Morning Service from Holy Trinity Church, Ballywalter, Co Down, conducted by the RevJohn Bowley. At the historical site of Clonmacnoise there will be a celebration of the Eucharist in Templeconnor Church at 4 p.m.
On Wednesday the Bishop of Tuam, Dr Richard Henderson, attends the opening of the Humbert Summer School in Killala. It will continue until Sunday, August 22nd, when the former archbishop of Dublin, Dr Donald Caird, will deliver the annual Bishop Stock Sermon.
The St Barrahane's Church Festival of Classical Music in Castletownshend, Co Cork, closes on Thursday evening with a recital by pianist Hugh Tinney and the RTE Vanburgh String Quartet.
A historical perspective on the recent eclipse is recorded in the parish register of Geashill, Co Offaly, which is preserved in the Representative Church Body Library, Dublin. On June 29th, 1927, the then rector, the Rev C. R. Kitching, noted "I rose at 5.30 a.m. A very wet morning with no view of sun. At 6.24 a.m. darkness came on for almost half-a-minute. I trust that in 1999 whoever may be here will get a better view." It is not known if Kitching's successor as Rector of Geashill, the Ven Patrick Lawrence, witnessed the 1999 eclipse and recorded his impressions.