On Sunday 5th October a large congregation gathered in Saint Canice’s Cathedral for ‘A Celebration of the Shared Life and Witness of our Diocese’. The service was led by the Bishop, and the preacher was the Very Reverend Dr David Monteith, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral. The Dean began his sermon by bringing to the Diocese the warm greetings of the Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral and of the Archbishop-Designate of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullaly who, the Dean said, knows the Kilkenny area well from family holidays. Speaking on the healing of the man born blind in John 9 the Dean challenged the Diocese to use wisely the gift of spiritual sight we have been given through Jesus.
In the service the rivers which flow through the six ancient sees in the Diocese were lined to the prayer and faith which flows through our shared life. After the sermon children from across the Diocese brought water from some of the rivers which flow through the Diocese – the Suir, Blackwater, Nore, Slaney, Barrow and Bann – and carrying it in the ewers used to fill the fonts for baptism in each of the six cathedrals in the Diocese, the water was poured into the font in Saint Canice’s. After the water was blessed by the bishop the congregation renewed their baptismal promises as a sign of our shared faith and renewed commitment to God’s Kingdom in this See.
Earlier in the day the Dean had also preached in Saint Canice’s at the Choral Eucharist when he spoke of his time as Dean of Leicester when he had been responsible for the burial of King Richard III, noting that the King was now buried under a sizeable piece of Kilkenny Limestone.
The Dean is in the Diocese this week at the invitation of the Bishop and will be the keynote speaker at the Clergy Conference being held in Dungarvan.
📸 Photographs by: Shane Reynolds, Diocesan Communications Officer