Three new Canons will be installed during Choral Evensong at
Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin, this Sunday, February 25, at 3pm. One Ecumenical Canon, one Lay
Canon and a new Canon Treasurer will be installed and take their places
on the Cathedral Chapter.
The Romanian Orthodox Archbishop of Western and Central Europe, Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph, will be installed as Ecumenical Canon. He succeeds the Revd Lorraine Kennedy Ritchie of Clontarf Presbyterian Church and joins Fr Tom Laden SJ.
Annie Fletcher, Director of IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, will become the new Lay Canon. She succeeds former President of Ireland Mary McAleese who retired last year and joins Professor Jim Lucey, Inspector of Mental Health Services at the Mental Health Commission.
Canon Tom O’Brien will be installed as Canon Treasurer having been appointed 12th Canon last year. Tom is Minister in Charge of St James’s Church in Crinken, Dublin.
The new Canons were appointed by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson. He said: “I am pleased that the three new Canons of Christ Church will have a voice in the work and direction of the cathedral. Each brings something special to our community and to the mother church of our United Dioceses.”
The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, said that all three new Canons will bring different perspectives to the life of the Cathedral.
“I am delighted to welcome three new Canons to the cathedral. Both our Ecumenical and Lay Canons bring a different perspective to the life of the cathedral and its chapter,” Dean Dunne commented.
“Coming from differing and varying experiences and fields of work, the Ecumenical and Lay Canons will bring a richness to the life and mission of the cathedral in embodying its charitable role of Worship, Welcome and Witness. Canon Tom O’Brien will bring a new and different experience to the Chapter in his role as Canon Treasurer. Given his vast experience in his previous work in the Civil Service, Tom will bring to the role a freshness of approach that will ground the cathedral in the life of the city and further afield. Such experience is welcome in a time of change when charity governance is under scrutiny and where accountability is vital to the continual existence of the cathedral foundation,” he added.
Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph
Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph was born in Romania. He was ordained in 1994 at the monastery of the Cathedral of Alba Iulia. He went to France in the summer of 1994 to study at the Saint–Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris. Since arriving in France he provided the liturgical and spiritual service of the monastery of monastics Notre–Dame–de–Toute–Protection in Bussy–en–Othe, in Yonne. He was elected Archbishop in November 1997 by the Assembly of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western and Central Europe.
Annie Fletcher
Annie Fletcher is the Director of IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art. A noted International Curator, Annie joined IMMA from the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands where she was Chief Curator.Annie has extensive leadership experience in the contemporary arts. In addition to her role as Chief Curator at Van Abbemuseum she is a tutor at de Appel, Amsterdam, the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) and the Design Academy Eindhoven, and regularly worked with art institutions around the world including the SALT Istanbul, New Museum, New York, and L’Internationale network and De Appel Art Centre, Amsterdam. In 2012 she was Curator of Ireland’s Contemporary Art biennale EVA International and is regularly called upon to sit on major international juries, including the Turner Prize in 2014 and the selection committee for the Irish Pavilion at Venice in 2016. Born in Ireland Fletcher studied in Trinity College Dublin and started her career in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1994.
As a curator she is particularly interested in how an encounter with art can generate a shared civic space and how, in today’s world, contemporary art can address complex ideas of time, space and participation in order to achieve resonance with the public.
Canon Tom O’Brien
Canon Tom O’Brien has been Minister in Charge of Crinken in south Dublin since August 2023. Prior to that he was a Self Supporting Minister in the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and had supported ministry in a number of parishes including his home parish of Holmpatrick, St Mary’s in Howth, Kill O’ the Grange, and Raheny and Coolock. While engaged in Self Supporting Ministry, Tom held senior positions within the HSE.
About Ecumenical and Lay Canons
The Ecumenical and Lay Canons is an enterprise agreed by General Synod of the Church of Ireland which enables the cathedral to reach out into the wider community in an effort to open the cathedral to the city of Dublin and its people.
Ecumenical Canons are drawn from the different Christian traditions on this island. Currently, Fr Tom Layden SJ is from the Roman Catholic tradition whilst the cathedral’s new Ecumenical Canon is from the Romanian Orthodox tradition.
Christ Church’s existing Lay Canon, Professor Jim Lucey, will remain in place whilst the new Lay Canon, Ms Annie Fletcher, CEO of the Irish Museum of Modern Art will replace Mary McAleese who retired as Canon last year.
The difference between the Lay and Ecumenical Canons and the other members of the Chapter is that the Lay and Ecumenical Canons are on a fixed term of office whilst all the rest of the Chapter remain in office until they do not have a freehold incumbency or Archbishop’s licence to officiate. Other than that the Lay and Ecumenical Canons have all the rights and apeurtenances associated with members of the cathedral Chapter.
Canon Tom O’Brien is being installed as Canon Treasurer of the cathedral. Canon Treasurer is one of the four senior dignitaries of the cathedral and holds an ex officio position on the cathedral Board.