As many as 22 ecumenical services involving Christian churches will be held in the Dublin area alone to mark this year’s Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity which begins tomorrow. Other such services are planned for parishes in the city and across the island.
Representatives from all the major Christian churches will be taking part along with those from smaller Christian congregations, including the Indian Orthodox congregation. This year will see continuation of the partnership with Christian Aid, in the relief of poverty and advocacy of justice.
The week in Dublin will begin with an interdenominational service at 8pm in the Indian Orthodox church of St George and St Thomas on Cathal Brugha Street where the preacher Rev Dr Frederick Bliss SM, Professor of Ecumenical Theology at the University of St Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome.
At 11.30am. on Sunday in St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland Church Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, local Catholic parish priest Fr John Wall will speak at a “pulpit sharing ecumenical service”. Later that evening, there will be a Choral Evensong at 6pm.in St. Bartholomew’s Church of Ireland Church on Dublin’s Clyde Road with members of the Constantinian Order, the Order of St. Lazarus, Order of St. John, The Papal Knights, Order of the Holy Sepulchre and Order of Malta all taking part.
On Wednesday next at 7.30pm, beginning at the Quaker meeting house in Monkstown, participants are invited to walk from there to the local Catholic and Church of Ireland Churches, with an opportunity to explore prayer in each the different traditions. The Trinity College Chaplaincy team is planning a Choral Evensong as an Ecumenical service in TCD on Thursday 24th January at 5.15 p.m., with Rev Dr Katherine Meyer of Sandymount Presbyterian Church as the main speaker.
As the week comes to a close on Friday 25th, two special events will be held – a Taizé Prayer around the Cross takes place at 7.30 p.m. in the St. Paul’s Church on Dublin’s Arran Quay, while in Christchurch Cathedral at 8 p.m. the Church of Ireland Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise and the Catholic Pobal an Aifreann will jointly host an Interchurch service in Irish, with a reception afterwards in the crypt.
