The Rector writes……
I’m writing this letter just before travelling to Dublin, where I have been invited to speak in Dublin City University at the launch of a review of ‘Come & C’, the Discipleship Project for the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough. In the last few years they have been undertaking a different, but not unrelated project to us in Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
In preparing for this event, I have been reflecting on three phrases in the Gospels; ‘Come and See’, ‘Follow me’, ‘Go and tell’. ‘Come and see’ from the calling of the first disciples in John 1 and the response of the woman of Samaria after her encounter with Jesus in John 4. ‘Follow me’ the invitation Jesus gives to Peter and Andrew in Matthew 4. ‘Go and tell’, from Luke 8:39 the instruction Jesus gave the Gerasene Demoniac after he had been healed. Go and tell what the Lord has done for you!
For any faith community, there are traditionally 3 priorities which tie in to these three phrases; worship, pastoral care and mission. I think the order is significant. When we encounter God in worship, we become part of a community of faith that is concerned with the pastoral care of all people and this motivates us to reach out to all in our community. All this springs from our worship of God. It is the foundation of everything.
This month our journey through the church year reaches it high point at Easter. I am delighted that Canon Alan Marley will be with us this year as our guest and guide through Holy Week. Alan will no doubt be known to many of our student parishioners in his capacity as a chaplain at UCC. Each evening in Holy Week, parishioners are invited to gather in St Luke’s Church at 7.30pm. Using the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, we will explore some key passages in the Gospels.
Alan writes, ‘Lectio Divina is a particular way of engaging with scripture. It goes back to the beginning of Christianity and its roots come from Judaism. It looks to read, reflect and pray on the Word of God. The scriptures were used, in this way, by the Church Fathers in the early centuries to help and teach the Christian faith. With the rise of scholasticism the study of scripture moved from communities to academic bodies. There has been a rediscovery of Lectio Divina in this different and ancient manner of relating to the Bible over the last fifty years.
Read – paying close attention to the context of the passages, their historical context, the detail of the text and what it was saying in the past.
Reflection – Drawing from the text things that might apply or be relevant to my own life today – is there is a resonance between myself and the scripture that I can apply to my own life
Prayer – Study of scripture naturally leads to prayer. A time to pray with the words of the gospel as they have ‘spoken to our hearts’ and caused us to see something of God in what we have read.
This will lead to a short time of worship using the words and music from the Taizé community’.
We hope that many will avail of the opportunity to journey together throughout Holy Week. We thank Alan for being willing to lead us on this most important week in the Christian calendar.
Yours in Christ, Adrian.
Lent Discussion Group
A group of parishioners continues to gather every Friday morning in the Old Schoolhouse in Blackrock to discuss and pray through the issues raised by the Diocesan Lent Course written by Dean Christopher Peters. The fourth and final session will be on Friday 5 April at 11.00am.
Parish Prayer Groups
Two prayer groups meet in the parish on a regular basis. One is hosted by a variety of parishioners in their homes and it prays for church, community and world needs. We thank both the hosts and the lay people who guide us in prayer at these meetings. The other group is more focused on the theme of healer prayer and remembers individuals who are ill or in need. Anyone who would like to have a name added to the list of those remembered by our healer prayer chain, is asked to contact the Revd Hazel Minion. All requests are treated with confidence.
St Luke’s Sch
ool Notes
Recently, we have had a great variety of interesting visitors to our school. David Reilly, author of Pluma came to read from his publication to our middle classes. Pat Speight, a master storyteller came on World Book Day and entertained us with his stories and bodhran playing. 4th Class were very excited to see Wesley Bateman of MEP Engineering, he is once more including us in the Engineering in a Box Programme. The 3rd Class parents visited their children’s classroom to see a display of their South American projects. We were delighted to welcome Amy Cronin back on TY work Experience. The School Choir did us proud once again at Feis Maitiú this year. Huge thanks are due to Ms Guinane and Dr Egner for their hard work and commitment to this very worthwhile school activity. Physical Education is a very important part of the curriculum today. 3rd Class were fortunate enough to be part of the Primary Schools Athletic Programme and 4th Class valued being part of the Cycle Right Programme. A huge thank you to everyone who supported our Book Fair. Our library will be updated with over 1,000euro worth of books as a result. Our very active Parents’ Association held a Valentine’s Day Raffle and raised over 600euro for school funds. The pupils are looking forward to their next event, The St Patrick’s Day Disco.
St. Michael’s School News
As usual we have had a busy few weeks in St Michael’s ! We have Liza and Steffi, two trainee teachers from Germany who are working alongside us as part of their Erasmus programme until Easter. The head teacher , Marie Emmnuel ,from our etwinning partner school in France also visited for a week and all of our pupils exchanged postcards. We have been learning all about France and Germany as part of our Blue Star Europe Project. It has been fun to see our new classroom nearing completion. and we look forward to moving in shortly ! We have been focused especially on ‘Gaeilge’ this term and had many fun activities for Seachtain na Gaeilge including drama ,art ,music and quizzes. Some classes even created books for the ‘Scríobh leabhair’ project run by Cork Education Support centre.
Third and fourth class have begun working on their Marine Explorers Science project with the Lifetime lab UCC and will be presenting these shortly.
Fifth and sixth class were doing some very deep thinking during visits from Mr Salice, a philosophy lecturer from UCC. All classes are attending Gaelic Football training every week with St Michael’s Gaelic Football Club and first class upwards also have hurling coaching with Blackrock Hurling Club. World book day was fun ! All pupils (and some teachers! ) dressed up a favourite character and told us all about their books. The junior room are very fortunate to have Ms Florence Binions visit every Thursday morning for singing lessons. We are always appreciative of the support our school receives from our families and parish community.
Welcome
We look forward to welcoming the Revd Gary Paulsen into the Diocese. He will be instituted as rector of Fermoy Union on Sunday 7 April. We hope he will be very happy in his new ministry among us.
Easter General Vestry Dates
The Easter General Vestry for Frankfield will be held in the Sunday School Room in Frankfield on Thursday 11 April at 8pm. It will be preceded by a celebration of the Holy Communion in Holy Trinity Church at 7.30pm.
The Easter General Vestry for Douglas Union will be held after Easter on Thursday 2 May at 8pm in the Canon Packham Hall. Holy Communion will be celebrated in St Luke’s Church before this meeting at 7.30pm. We hope there will be a good attendance at these annual general meetings of the parish.
Palm Sunday
This year the format of our ecumenical witness during Holy Week will take a slightly different form. As usual we will meet in the Community Park in Douglas at 3pm on Palm Sunday. However, plans are in preparation to have a dramatic presentation in costume of the Palm Sunday readings. Then we will walk to St Columba’s Church, St Luke’s Church and Ardfallen Methodist Church via Douglas Village Shopping Centre. All are welcome to join us for this ecumenical walk of witness.
Easter Day Services
Holy Communion will be celebrated at all services on Easter Day as usual. It is also hoped that there will be baptisms at two of these services. Easter Day is a traditional day for baptism.
Gene Barry, an international speaker on living alone and loneliness, will be giving a FREE talk to the CPR class in the Supper room of the Canon Packham Hall at 7:00pm on Tues the 9th of April 2019, CPR class will follow. Anyone interested in attending should phone or text John Clifford at 087 2462629 to secure a place.
Confirmation
This year our confirmation group is made up of eighteen of our younger parishioners. They are Jamie Aloo, Fionn Creedon, Alastair Dunne, Aidan Figueredo, Adrian Frank, Ethan Hay, Stefany Ibebugwu, Alisha Kinnear, Liam McCarthy, Freddie McDaid, Noah O’Callaghan, Kieran O’Connell, Liam O’Neill, Peter Spiller, Fushia Sutton, James Taylor, Amy-Jane Zady-Pittaway and Aisha Zady-Pittaway. We pray for them as they approach the service which will be held in St Luke’s Church on Sunday 28 April. We hope that for each candidate, it will be an important step in their faith in Jesus Christ and a deepening of their involvement in the life of the church and their service to others.
Douglas Union of Parishes with Frankfield Golf Outing
Due to a clash with the St. Luke’s Home Golf Classic, we will be postponing our Parish Golf Outing. It will take place instead, on Friday 20th September in Blarney Golf Club. Apologies for any inconvenience caused, but the committee decided that it was best to reschedule. We look forward to a really nice day out in September and hope that we will get a good turnout for what promises to be a great event.
Eco Notes for Lent, continued
What does sustainability mean for us? So how can we sustain, support and nourish our natural resources right now? This is the question we have to ask ourselves this Lent. What can we do every day until Easter? We can start in small ways. For instance, stop buying polyester wipes. They don’t break down for decades, they block up the sewage system and many end up on our beaches and rivers. They come in many forms: wipes for cleaning furniture, car interiors, sinks and bathrooms, disinfectant wipes for kitchens and floors. Wipes to remove make up and clean up babies and young children and toilet wet wipes that are not biodegradable.
So what to use instead? You can buy cotton or bamboo cloths that can be washed and used many times. For children use a face cloth, for babies a large roll of cotton wool, when dampened with water it will do the job and can be safely flushed down the loo. We can also make our own dusters and cleaning cloths from old pyjamas etc. so long as they are cotton. Just cut them up, remove buttons and elastic and you have a free wipe. The good news is that you will save money, reduce plastic use and sustain the Earth as well.
Another way to REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE.
www.bishopsappeal.ireland.anglican.org/pennies4plastics) Gay Elmes
CHURCH SERVICES APRIL 2019
