A total of 54 students will attend the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) this weekend for the start of two further training courses.
Eighteen men and women from seven dioceses will be embarking on the one-year foundation course programme which is a requirement for those seeking ordination, while 36 will start the fourth cycle of Reader training which lasts two years.
The weekend, entitled Fit for the Purpose, takes as its theme a biblical and personal exploration of various matters to do with vocation. The main facilitators are Dr Christina Baxter, former principal of St John's College, Nottingham; Rev Dr Andy Angel, vice-principal of St John's; Jenny Corcoran, senior distance learning tutor at St John's; and Canon Maurice Elliott, director of CITI.
The weekend will also include visits to the RCB library which provides for the reading needs of those in training for ministry.
Today at 11am the Archbishop of Dublin will speak at a Memorial Mass for Fr John Sullivan in Gardner Street church.
Affirming Catholicism Ireland will have a Quiet Day at Eglantine parish church, where the leader will be Canon George Irwin, rector of Ballymacash. At 3pm in the Mageough Home, the Dublin & Glendalough committee of the church’s ministry of healing will host a Quiet Day led by the Revd Dorothy McVeigh, rector of Annaghmore in the Diocese of Armagh.
St Mary's cathedral, Limerick, will be the venue at 3pm for a talk on 1916 – Finding a Voice for the Church of Ireland by Canon Patrick Comerford from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. The Deputy Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Maria Byrne, and the Catholic Bishop of Limerick, Most Rev'd Brendan Leahy, will be present.
The lecture will be followed by Choral Evensong at 4.30pm, during which Canon Jane Galbraith will be installed as treasurer of the Joint Chapter of the Cathedrals and Canon Ruth Gill as prebendary of Inniscattery.
Tomorrow morning Canon Comerford will be the preacher at the Eucharist in St Flannan’s cathedral, Killaloe, Co Clare.
In St Patrick’s cathedral, Armagh, at 4.15pm there will be an organ recital by Emma Gibbons, director of music at St Woolos cathedral, Newport, Wales.
On Monday in All Saints' church, Belfast, at 7.45pm the Bishop of Down & Dromore will preside at the inaugural lecture in memory of Canon Clive West, rector of All Saints, 1984-2000. The Revd Ashley Null, from the Diocese of Western Kansas, will speak on The Faith at the Heart of the Book of Common Prayer.
A Clive West Memorial Fund will aim to provide support for biblical and theological training where no other major resources are available.
The final screening in the social justice film series in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, will be on Monday at 7.30pm. The 1966 film Cathy Come Home will be introduced by Mike Allen, director of advocacy at Focus Ireland.
On Tuesday evening in the Cassandra Hand Centre, Clones, Co Monaghan, the Bishop of Clogher will give the final talk in his Being an Anglican series.
On Wednesday evening in the Bracken Court Hotel, Balbriggan, the Lenten speaker will be the Very Revd Richard Sheehy.
Next Saturday, February 27th, the Mornington Singers will present Music for a While in St Bartholomew's church, Dublin, at 8pm. Among others there will be pieces by Samuel Barber, Ralph Vaugh Willams and James McMillan. Details: http://morningtonsingers.event brite.ie