The Rector writes…
Why do you bother to go to church at Christmas? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Last summer I read called God’s Belongers: How people engage with God today and how the church can help. It was written by David Walker, the Bishop of Manchester. One of the interesting aspects of this book was his research, through surveys, into people who attended cathedral carol services in Worcester and Lichfield. He writes ‘the phenomenon of going to church at Christmas has long fascinated me, and this study allowed me to put a whole range of questions to a group of people, almost half of whom admitted to coming to church no more than a handful of times a year.’ He states that ‘these responses build up a consistent picture of a group of people who want to enter into the Christmas story…Occasional churchgoers at the carol service put more weight on the mystery than the history.’ Three-quarters of those who responded to his survey claimed to give to charity most at Christmas and so for them the ethical dimension of faith outranked the doctrinal. He concluded that ‘the Christmas story is heard as a narrative gateway to the mystery of God, rather than as coded doctrine.’ Perhaps that is why we like all the traditional aspects of worship in Advent and Christmas; the four Sundays in Advent, when we light a candle on the wreath in church each week and recite a special prayer as
we count down towards Christmas; the traditional service of Lessons and Carols; the school nativity plays; the brass band accompanying ‘Carols by Candlelight’ in Blackrock. Their timeless quality allows us all to enter into mystery and wonder. Of course, the Christian Faith is not just about nostalgia and a ‘fuzzy feeling’. Doctrine does matter, and it is worth reminding ourselves that we are celebrating an actual event in history and the birth of a man who changed the world for ever! But our encounter with God touches us all on many different levels, the intellectual as well as the emotional. Each of us is different and through the prism of traditional worship, we are encountering mystery, and a God of love, in our own unique way. So why are you coming to church this Christmas? Clearly there are lots of reasons, so whether you are a regular or occasional attender at church, or indeed if you have been absent from church for many years and want to give it a try this year, I hope you will feel welcome. It is important that you too have time to enter what David Walker calls, ‘the narrative gateway to the mystery of God’. I look forward to sharing with you the joy of the season.
Yours in Christ,
Adrian
COPING with CHRISTMAS
The Irish Hospice Foundation provides pastoral leaflets on a variety of subjects. A list of these can be found on their website www.bereaved.ie Recently I was sent a copy of one called ‘Coping with Christmas when you are bereaved’. It was full of realistic, simple and practical suggestions to help those who are dreading Christmas because they have experienced the death of a loved one within the past year. I have ordered extra copies of this leaflet which I will leave among the other pastoral resources that are available free of charge at the back of the churches. If you or someone you know would find this information helpful, please take a copy. A. Wilkinson
CDYC Christmas Dinner
For 20’s and 30’s
Dinner, music, reunion, treats and lots of chat
Friday 8th December 7pm €22 Munster Arms Hotel, Bandon
Confirmations Text 087-3642324
Christmas Tree Sale
This has become an annual tradition in the parish as people buy their Christmas trees in the grounds of the Canon Packham Hall in early December. The trees are prepared and netted individually for customers. We thank Mervyn Sweetnam for supplying the trees and Uwe Schiller and his helpers who will be working hard on the day. So please come, buy your tree on 9 December in Douglas 10am12.30pm. Netting facility free. All profits go to parish funds. For more information contact Uwe Schiller 087 2318099
Bishops’ Appeal for Overseas Aid and Development
In our mailing to parishioners this Christmas, you will also find a Bishops’ Appeal envelope as usual. This is your means to give a donation to the Bishops’ Appeal for overseas aid and development. In addition, you will find an information leaflet giving details of the projects supported over the past year. You can read more about the work by checking its website www.bishopsappeal.ireland.anglican.org The Bishops’ Appeal does not engage directly in development work itself, but channels funds through agencies and partner churches that are already in place in areas of need. It is particularly active in the areas of health care, sustainable agriculture and education projects in some of the world’s poorest countries. Please support this work by returning your envelope on the collection plate in church or by putting it in a stamped envelope and addressing it to one of the clergy or parish treasurers. We will see that it is included in our collection before the end of the year. A. Wilkinson
Christmas Lunch
St. Michael’s School are currently using the Old Schoolhouse as a classroom while works are being carried out on a new extension to the school and their temporary pre-fab classroom will not be put in place until the end of November. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for our special Christmas lunch on Wednesday, 13 December at 1pm in the Old Schoolhouse where a delicious hot home-cooked meal will be served followed by a wonderful raffle. So please make sure you mark this date in your diary and as this is usually a very popular lunch can you kindly phone or text Sharon Kerr on 086/8327653 to secure your place. If you know of any of your friends or neighbours who would like to join us for this lunch or any of the other lunches they would be more than welcome and we are always delighted to see new faces. After Christmas the Wednesday lunches will resume on the 31st January 2018 and we look forward to welcoming back new and old friends where we hope this monthly lunch will continue its very happy and social journey for many years.
Bible Reading
Do you know that with the newly extended length of the number of characters in tweets that 90% verses in the Bible are tweetable! Yet, verses on their own can lose much of the understanding of the story. If you would like Bible notes to help you read parts of the Bible over the coming year do contact Jacqui Wilkinson at The Rectory to find out about some of the notes available (from children to adults). Some guides are also available online as apps from the App Store eg Daily Bread- Daily Bible reading guide which you can try and then purchase a 3 month subscription for £4.49 or a year for £9.99. A recommendation for 8-11s is a tablet game called Guardians of Ancora. Produced by Scripture Union it is a free game of Bible stories set in a virtual world. ‘Children enter this virtual world as Guardians of the city, called Ancora, and their challenge is to find the Bible stories that have been lost’.
Sunday School (Douglas)
We have had a busy term so far. Every few weeks we have a DVD Sunday with a movie and popcorn. Other weeks we have sessions based on Bible stories with crafts and games. We made prayers for display at Harvest and planted bulbs to remind us that as the harvest is celebrated people are planning ahead for sowing the next crop. We will give out next term’s calendar after Christmas but as a rule we have Sunday School on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Sundays in the month during term time. We leave during the 11.15 am service in Douglas. All primary age children welcome, preschoolers must bring a parent. If you want to know more or would like to find out how to get involved as a helper please talk to one of the clergy or the leaders. Jacqui, Stabile, Dawn, Judi, Lindy, Emma, Maria, Gillian and Rhoda
Whist Drive Christmas Whist Drive.
Whist players can look forward to a special Christmas Whist Drive which will be held on Saturday 16 December in the Canon Packham Hall in aid of Holy Trinity Church, Frankfield. We thank both Olive Burns and Susan Colton who have volunteered to organise this again this year. We hope it will be well .
Mulled Wine and Mince Pies
All choir members from our four churches in the parish are invited for ‘Mulled Wine and Mince Pies’ at the Rectory on Friday 15th December at 8pm. Our choirs have been busy this year singing in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral for Evensong in November, as well as featuring on a TV broadcast last July. The choir in Passage was joined by others from the parish for the special service on 26 November when the organ was re-dedicated by the Bishop. We appreciate all our organists and singers do throughout the year to enhance our worship. This is the rector’s way of saying thank you!
You are invited to a
Christmas Coffee Morning
at the Rectory on
Friday 15th December
Just pop in anytime between 10.30 and 12.30pm
All proceeds in aid of Christian Aid
St. Michael’s National School
St Michael’s pupils are very busy preparing for their Christmas performance ‘The Magical Christmas Jigsaw’. Pupils are constructing sets ,learning script and songs, it will take place on the 10th December at the church. We extend a warm welcome to everyone. Darragh ,Felix and Freya from 6th class recently represented our school at the Concern debating contest and gave clear ,confident speeches. The senior room pupils have been taking part in indoor rowing for several weeks and have a blitz competition coming up in the Neptune stadium. All classes continue to have athletics training with Sheldon and will be well prepared for the inter-school sports. Work has started on installing our temporary accommodation for our 3rd classroom and we are assured that the main build will soon begin also. We are all looking forward to a big celebration when it is completed. The pupils are being very patient with their restricted play space. We are very grateful to the parish for allowing us to use the old school house in the meantime. We had a fantastic Science week at the school with special science visitors and workshops for each room. Infants were using coding to move robots and the older classes worked as scientists. We had visits to Blackrock castle and UCC. All classes are preparing Christmas greetings for schools around Europe as part of our Bluestar European/eTwinning projects. The postman is sure to deliver some to us in return! Our Parents association have designed a calendar featuring all St Michael’s pupils as a fundraiser for the school. Thanks to Daria’s mum Alex for taking the photographs. These will be on sale at the school for €15.
Supper Theatre Evenings
I would like to thank so many people who made our Supper Theatre Evenings in November such a success. It took a great joint effort for so many people both from Douglas Union of Parishes with Frankfield and Carrigaline Union. It is heartening to see the bonds with our neighbouring parishes being strengthened and our relationship developing. It was great to see so many people enjoying themselves, people of all ages from all corners of the parishes involved and even some who are not parishioners. We provisionally made a surplus of €6,600 to be divided evenly between both Douglas Union with Franfield and Carrigaline Union, which I feel is a great result. More important than that though, was the great fellowship that I believe we all felt cast, crew audience and everyone involved throughout the build up to the weekend and on the three nights. Many thanks to all involved and for all your support! David
Parish Book Club
The Book Club continues to meet monthly and since September we have discussed Graham Norton’s novel ‘Holding’ and had a lovely conversation about the recently published debut novel by Gail Honeyman ‘Elinor Oliphant is completely fine’. With such movies such as Paddington 2 in the cinema, we decided each member of the club would choose from a list of children’s classics to read for December. It will be interesting to see what books people have chosen from the long list which includes Black Beauty, Winnie the Pooh, The Little Prince, Heidi, Little Women and Pippi Longstocking amongst others. We anticipate some great nostalgic conversation on 12 December in the Rectory. We will then pick our books for January and February so people can get reading over Christmas. New members are welcome. Contact Jacqui (0876404724).
Confirmation 2018
The Rector is looking for expressions of interest from young people in the parish who are considering taking this step in their Christian faith. Already he has been approached by several candidates. Please contact him as soon as possible if you would like your name to be added to this list. A meeting for the parents and all the candidates will be held on Tuesday 9 January at 8pm in the Canon Packham Hall when the arrangements for classes will be outlined. A. Wilkinson
Carol Services
The first of our parish carol services takes place in St. Mary’s Church, Marmullane on Sunday 10 December at 7.00pm. We anticipate having the usual variety of seasonal music as well as ecumenical input from the Passage West Folk Group. It is always good to welcome many members of the local community to this service each year. On Sunday 17 December there will be morning carol services in Holy Trinity Church Frankfield at 10.00 and in St. Luke’s Douglas at 11.15. A service of ‘Carols by Candlelight’ will be held in St. Michael’s Church, Blackrock at 7.00pm. Again this year the music will be led by the St. Nicholas’ Brass Band. They will be joined by the Dundanion Singers and the Parish Folk Group from our sister church in Blackrock. This service has grown in popularity in recent years with its festive lighting and evocative setting. All are welcome at any of these services.
St Luke’s National School
2017 proved to be a really “Active” year for pupils and staff in St Luke’s School. An amazing amount of sporting activities were organised during the year. We had tag rugby, wake up, shake up routines, badminton, cricket, orienteering, basket ball, athletics, dancing, soccer, gymnastics, skipping, walking, GAA and much more. We are now very proud to be flying our Active Flag! This year was the year in which we were involved in our triennial performance “Destination Imagination”. Our pupils entertained full houses of parents, grandparents and friends in the Canon Packham Hall for two nights with a variety of song, dance, drama and poetry. Debating was a new activity introduced into the school this year and was enjoyed by our 6th Class pupils. Education outside the classroom is a very important part of life in St Luke’s. Our pupils visited such places as the Lifetime Lab, Charles Fort, Rumley’s Farm, Crafty Hands, Douglas Library, Zipit, Cappanalea, and Ballyhass Lakes. Visitors who share their experiences with us are always welcome at St Luke’s. This year Rob Heffernan, Sinead Kane, Claire McCarthy, Cllr Tony Fitzgerald, Wesley Bateman with his STEAM engineering projects and the London Brass Quintet all called to see us. We are very appreciative of our hard working Parents’ Association in St Luke’s. They are always willing and able to help. They organised a Halloween Disco, Coffee to Go Mornings, a Summer Barbeque, a Christmas Fair and the ongoing sporting activities. Jane Willis was with us on Teaching Practice in the Spring term. We continue to be very thankful to the Ashton students who come to us every Tuesday as part of their Community Action Program. We love to see our past pupils returning on TY work experience. Everyone is now very busy preparing for the festive season practising carols and preparing for the Christmas Fair. Dates for your Diary Sunday 3rd December – Christmas Fair in the Canon Packham Hall, 12.30pm Tuesday 19th December – Senior Carol Service, 7.30pm Wednesday 20th December – Junior Carol Service, 12noon
Merry Christmas from The Boys’ Brigade – 1st Cork Company
Anchors: 4-7 years 6-7pm Juniors: 8-11 years 7.15-8.30pm Company: 11 years plus 7.15-8.30pm
Every Boy and Girl welcome! Every Thursday evening at Canon Packham Hall, Douglas ‘The adventure starts here’
The Royal British Legion Earl Haig Poppy Appeal
Having organised the poppy collection for many years, I would like to thank the parishioners for their generosity. It is much appreciated. The collections were Douglas €306.55, Blackrock €147.49 and Frankfield €931.50. Many thanks to John Wolfe and Keith Dawson for their help. Cecil Locke
ECO-CONGREGATION IRELAND
It was very interesting listening to Rev Elaine Murray last month describing how she came to hear of the Eco-congregation Ireland movement and how she has introduced the concept into the parish of Carrigaline & Monkstown. In response to this I have been asked to outline some aspects of this approach so we can discuss this idea in our parishes using the website http://ecocongregationireland.com as a source. Eco-congregation Ireland states their vision as “to see churches throughout Ireland adopt an eco approach to worship, lifestyle, property, finance management, community outreach and contact with the developing world.” There are four areas where their aims can be achieved and they supply an environmental checklist as a guide for the congregation and clergy to consult. 1.Spiritual 2.Practical 3.Community 4.Global As this is an all Ireland ecumenical movement there are examples on the website of many parishes and Faith communities who have achieved the award plus two dioceses that have gained the Eco-congregation Ireland award: the C of I diocese of Cashel, Ossory and Ferns and the Catholic diocese of Kerry. Last month the parish of Shandon led by Rev Sarah Marry joined Eco-congregation Ireland and the “Shine a Light on Climate Justice” initiative. This was launched at the National Ecumenical Prayer Service for COP21 in the presence of President Michael D Higgins in November 2015. The light is symbolised by a large easter candle with “Climate Justice 2015” written on it. It has passed from parish to parish across Ireland since 2015 and has just spent several months in Carrigaline and Monkstown. Rev Elaine Murray formally passed it onto Rev Sarah Marry after the Eco-congregation Ireland talk in Douglas library. If you have a moment please check out the website. It is easy to navigate and has a wealth of interesting information. Finally here are 2 eco tips for the Christmas season. 1.Did you know that aluminium can be repeatedly recycled without any degradation of the metal? So please soak your aluminium food trays overnight after baking and wash them out, fold over and put them in the drink can recycling bins. 2. Ordinary paper can be recycled into more paper only 6 times. Glossy printed paper cannot be recycled due to the inks and newspapers cannot be used to make more paper at all but they can be converted to cellulose house insulation. So please keep recycling! Gay Elmes
The Curate writes…. A thought for Advent
Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus which means coming. It is a time of preparation and reflection focused on the coming of Christ. Anticipation is always for me a time of great excitement. Quite often I think, anticipating something is nearly as good as the actual event itself. The anticipation and preparation for a summer holiday is nearly as good as the holiday itself. In today’s society I know that one of my bugbears is the fact that Christmas decorations are nearly up before Halloween! We pretty much seem to celebrate Christmas from sometime in November instead of savouring the anticipation during Advent. It is getting ahead of ourselves and I think that it in some ways dampens Christmas when it finally comes. I was in a shopping centre only today and heard Christmas music being piped in at full blast. Some might say that I am being a bit of a humbug! The fact that I won’t put up Christmas decorations until at least the 1st of December, despite the pressure that my children put me under! Christmas is a wonderful time and I love it and look forward to it. A real part of that anticipation is encapsulated in the season of Advent. It is whetting our appetite for the coming of Christ. Why lose all that and jump into Christmas too soon? It will be here soon enough, so let’s just enjoy Advent too! It is part of what makes Christmas so really special, the fact that we have prepared properly, prayerfully and reflectively and are in the right frame of mind to really enjoy Christmas at Christmas! Happy Advent! David
Follow us on Twitter!
The parish is now on twitter. For those who want to be kept up to date you can follow us @DouglasUnion
Hymn Singing
Would anyone enjoy singing hymns around the piano every month or two months? We could use the Church Hymnal, Thanks and Praise, Songs of Fellowship or other suggested music. Please contact me if interested. Florence Binions 0861604544
Carols at Carol’s
Bible Study Fellowship Night in Carol Boylan’s home at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday 13th December
Knitting
“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit either.” – Elizabeth Zimmermann
Thank you to all the energetic knitters who have been making woolly hats since we launched the campaign at the Marmullane Sea Sunday service. A goodly number have now been donated and they are being forwarded to the Mission to Seafarers Centre in Dublin Port for distribution amongst seafarers. They will be put to good use!
Pray for me….
How has the year 2017 been for you? A great year? Or a mixed bag of celebrations and challenges, losses and achievements? In the Parish Prayer Chain it is our privilege to support some of you in the tougher times: illness or grief, depression, loss, despondency or unemployment, accident, loneliness or misunderstandings… Suffering, either our own or of those we love can be particularly poignant at this time of year and Christmas can be a time of feeling more isolated, alone and out of step… Throughout the season we will continue to pray daily for those who have asked us. If you have a particular request, simply write it down and post it in the designated box in your church, or pass it on via any of the parish clergy for inclusion in our prayers, daily for at least a month. All matters are treated confidentially. Likewise if there is something for which you want us to thank God with you, send us a note. May God enable us all to find the hope and peace of Christmas that are at the heart of Jesus’ Incarnation. HM.
Bible Studies
In our Bible studies, we are continuing our tour of the Old Testament. It is interesting to re-visit major characters and events, many of which are familiar, but the details have been forgotten. It is fascinating to see how they are connected to other areas of the Old Testament, and how they point forward to the New. All are welcome at any time, and the summary at the beginning of each study enables everyone to understand where we are going. Venues: Joan Miller’s home, Ballintemple: Wednesdays; 2.30 – 4.00 p.m. Carol Boylan’s home, Moneygourney: Thursdays, 7.30 – 9.00 p.m. January dates to be confirmed. Further information: Florence Binions 0861604544 or any of the clergy
