Tomorrow in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, will be the preacher at a Service of Thanksgiving to mark the centenary of the foundation of the cathedral. The service will also be a thanksgiving for the completion of a £2 million refurbishment programme which included landscaping the precincts, repairs to the windows, rewiring, and the laying of a marble pavement in the quire.
St Anne's Cathedral is in many ways a mirror image of Belfast City Hall, testifying in stone to the social and economic development of Belfast in the late 19th century. It was built on the site of the late 18th century parish church of St Anne, which continued as a place of worship as the new cathedral was erected around it. The foundation stone was laid on September 6th, 1899, and by the end of September 1903 the work was sufficiently far advanced to demolish the old parish church.
The style of the new cathedral is Hiberno-Romanesque - thought to be compatible with building in stages. And so it was to be - the nave was completed in 1904, the west front in 1927, the apse and ambulatory in the 1950s, and the transepts in 1974 and 1981.
In Arklow today the Centenary Flower Festival in St Saviour's parish church continues. It will close tomorrow with an Ecumenical Harvest Thanksgiving Service at which the preacher will be the Archdeacon of Glendalough, the Ven Edgar Swann.
Tomorrow BBC Radio Ulster will broadcast Morning Service conducted by Canon Noel Batty, Rector of St Finian's Church, Cregagh, in Belfast, while at 6 p.m. on the Dublin South Community Radio (FM 104.9) programme Vision there will be an interview with the Dean-elect of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dr Robert MacCarthy. In Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the cathedral choir, under the direction of Mr Mark Duley, returns after a summer break which included a successful trip to New Zealand. There will be an open day at St Patrick's Church, Enniskerry, with worship, music, talks and exhibitions.
In Belfast on Tuesday the Archbishop of Armagh will address a meeting of Anglican communication officers from Britain and Ireland in Queen's University. On Wednesday he will be in Dundee to preside at a meeting of the Anglican Communion Finance Committee.
On Thursday the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, will be at St Deniol's Library, Hawarden, north Wales, to speak at a five-day course on "The Future of the Church - Anglicanism in a Post-modern World". The title of Dr Clarke's lecture will be "Lambeth, Virginia, and the Anglican Image".
Monday is the beginning of National Heritage Week, when there will be much on offer from the Church of Ireland. The two Dublin cathedrals, together with those in Leighlin, Killaloe, Cork, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Ferns will offer guided tours. There will be exhibitions in Marsh's Library in Dublin and the Bolton Library in Cashel.
In Dublin there will be a series of events highlighting the role of St Audeon's Church in Cornmarket, and the Vicar of St Audeon's, Canon John Crawford, will give a talk in St Patrick's Cathedral on Wednesday evening on "The Parishes of St Patrick's Cathedral".
In the Dublin Civic Museum, 58 South William Street, the Representative Church Body Library's exhibition, "Dublin City Churches Revisited", which celebrates the history of the Church of Ireland parish churches in the inner city, continues. The Dublin Civic Museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday. Admission is free.