The new issue of the Church of Ireland journal, Search, anticipates the millennium with articles by the Archdeacon of Dublin and Dr Denis Carroll.
The Ven Gordon Linney contributes a wide-ranging article which asks searching questions about the church in general and the Church of Ireland in particular, while Dr Carroll considers the impact and significance of millennium thinking.
Contemporary and historic aspects of inter-church relationships are also topics for articles. The Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, offers a considered response to One Bread One Body, while Patrick Comerford reassesses Edward Nangle and the Achill Mission.
Finally, the Rev Robert Dunlop has provided a sketch of the life and work of the late Desmond Bowen, whose publications on the church in Ireland in the 19th century made a distinctive contribution to Irish ecclesiastical historiography. Search is available from the Religious Education Resource Centre, Holy Trinity Church, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin.
Today St Ann's Church in Dublin will hold a mini-market in the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, from 10 a.m., while in Christ Church Cathedral there will be an attempt to set a world record at the first public ringing of the newly augmented peal of bells.
Tomorrow morning the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, will preside at the Annual Citizenship Service in Christ Church Cathedral, where the preacher will be the Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh.
In St Patrick's Cathedral, in the afternoon, the preacher at the Annual Huguenot Service will be the former Dean of Vancouver, Dr Herbert O'Driscoll.
Ordained for the curacy of Monkstown, Co Dublin, Dr O'Driscoll is recognised as one of the great preachers of our day and was director of the College of Preachers in Washington.
In St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, the Diocesan Youth Council will hold a "Praise and Worship" service for the young people of the diocese, while in St Mary's Church, Navan, the Bishop of Meath will be the speaker at the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society meeting.
On Thursday the Bishop of Limerick, the Rt Rev Edward Darling, will chair the tercentenary meeting of the Irish USPG Committee.
In Trinity College, Dublin, Dr Donald Bruce, Church of Scotland Scientific Board, will speak on "Genetics and Biomedical Ethics" in the "Theology at the Turn of the Millennium" lecture series.
Friday is the feast of St Begnet, who is closely associated with Dalkey, Co Dublin, and this will be marked by an ecumenical act of worship for the local community. This will begin in the Church of Ireland at 8 p.m., move to the Roman Catholic Church, and conclude around the old Church of St Begnet.
Mrs Elizabeth Aalen, education adviser of the Bishops' Appeal, represented the Church of Ireland at the recent assembly of the European Christian Environment Network in Germany.
The assembly's proceedings, entitled "Towards Sustainability in Europe", were conducted against a background of a scientific consensus that a 60 per cent reduction is needed in greenhouse gas emissions. The assembly challenged European citizens to reduce energy use by adopting simpler lifestyles and urged churches, and their members, to examine their own practices.
The RCB Library's exhibition "Dublin City Churches Revisited" in the Dublin Civic Museum closed at the end of October after its run had been extended for an extra month.
The exhibition, which was supported by the Heritage Council and the Ecclesiastical Insurance Office, was seen by many Dubliners as well as visitors from 27 Irish counties and 37 countries.
The positive reaction to the exhibition revealed an unsuspected degree of interest in the architectural and historical dimensions of the Church of Ireland and indicated the considerable, but largely unexploited, tourist potential of the Dublin city churches.