Services set to mark special 120th anniversary of Belfast's St Anne's cathedral

At the morning service, the Belfast Lord mayor and councillors will be joined by politicians, civic and community leaders from the world of commerce and the voluntary sector, together with representatives from Belfast's two universities, and other Northern Ireland church leaders.

This will be a choral service of morning prayer at which both the bishops of Connor and Down and Dromore the Revs George Davison and the Rev Alan McClay will be present.

Guest preacher at this service will be Church of Ireland primate Archbishop John McDowell, himself an East Belfast man.

Within the service there will be an act of dedication for 500 new cathedral chairs which are installed in the nave. These new chairs will replace the original, less than comfortable, wooden chairs which have stood the test of time for the past 120 years.

Many of the new chairs have been given in memory of those whose lives and faith have inspired and guided life at the cathedral and parishes across the Connor and Down and Dromore dioceses.

The new chairs mark the beginning of the BC120 Campaign to finance new developments which will secure the future of the cathedral.

Just as happened 120 years before on Sunday June 2, 1904, the clergy of every parish in the dioceses of Connor and of Down and Dromore are invited to join their two bishops for the afternoon celebration.

Each of the parishes has also been invited to bring up to 10 members of their own congregation to represent the parishes at the afternoon service.

To mark the importance of this day, a special anniversary communion setting has been composed by renowned young composer, Lucy Walker. Lucy, who is composer in residence to the St Martin's Singers, based at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in central London.

The new setting will be sung by the Belfast cathedral choir, under the direction of Master of Music, Jack Wilson, who commissioned the special to be written.

Belfast Cathedral was the first cathedral of the Church of Ireland to be planned, constructed and consecrated after church Disestablishment in 1870.

The cathedral was built to serve the great industrial city of Belfast and the province which the city served.

Since then, St Anne’s cathedral has witnessed 12 tumultuous decades, from the launch and sinking of the Titanic ship, to the slaughter of the First World War, from the creation of Northern Ireland and the funeral of Lord Edward Carson, to the German blitz of Belfast which came so close to destroying St Anne’s.

In the post- war era St Anne's cathedral witnessed the expansion of Belfast city, dividing of the Church of Ireland dioceses of Down and Dromore from Connor, visits from Royalty, and the three decades of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Across the years, successive deans succeeded in building the cathedral to become the iconic and spiritual space that it is today, crowned with the spectacular 'Spire of Hope'. And for the past 48 years across the generations, St Anne’s cathedral in Donegal Street has been known as 'the home of Black Santa' and the charitable Christmas appeal presided over by the cathedral dean.

"With these two anniversary services the congregation of St Anne's cathedral, along with the cathedral chapter of canons, and the cathedral's many friends will be joined by civic, church, political and community leaders to celebrate 120 years of ministry and Christian witness to the city of Belfast and across Northern Ireland which St Anne’s was built to serve," said a church spokesperson.