The Rector writes……
I take this opportunity to write a thank you letter to you all. On 9th June I marked the silver jubilee of my ordination as a deacon. It was to be a quiet family occasion, but obviously the parish thought differently!
I was completely taken by surprise by the size of the congregation at St Luke’s Church that day, and by the fact that a number of parishioners attended the earlier service in Frankfield, only to slip into the congregation for the later ‘united service’ too. The reception in the Canon Packham Hall afterwards was a joyful occasion and I was overwhelmed by your generosity when I opened the gifts you presented to me. The beautiful engraved carriage clock sits proudly on the mantlepiece in our sitting room where you can all see it the next time we host something in the Rectory. The extremely generous ‘Blue Book’ vouchers will be put to good use over the summer I assure you. Looking through the catalogue of hotels, they are not usually within our price bracket and so having the opportunity to stay in them for a few nights will be a real treat! Thank you.
The 9th June is usually observed as St Columba’s Day, but this year due to the date of Easter, it was Pentecost. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not the preserve of the clergy but are given to us all. As I said in my sermon that day, ‘such milestones are not about me, but about us. This is particularly so at Pentecost, when we are talking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed among us all. It is a happy coincidence for me that today makes that point, it is about us and about what God, through the Holy Spirit, is doing among us in this place. Now that is something really worth celebrating!’
Thank you for your encouragement over the years to date, and for your ongoing support in the years to come as we continue to be God’s people in this place.
I hope you enjoy the summer weather and if you are going on holidays, please take the opportunity to attend Sunday worship in a church where you are staying.
Every blessing, Adrian.
Surprise Presentation
On Sunday 9 June, the rector received a surprise presentation at a special reception in the Canon Packham Hall after church services, on the occasion of the silver jubilee of his ordination. Normally, this date is observed as St Columba’s Day. On that date in 1994, the rector along with the Revd Edwin Hunter and the late Revd Avril Kingston, were ordained deacons in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral by Bishop Warke. This year the date fell on the feast of Pentecost. It was a happy juxtaposition as it afforded the rector the opportunity to remind the parishioners that while ordination anniversaries are important opportunities to pause and give thanks on the journey of ministry, the gifts of the spirit are not the preserve of the clergy. God’s Holy Spirit equips each and every Christian with the needful gifts of grace to inspire them in their ministry and calling. However, Archdeacon Wilkinson, once he recovered from the surprise, was profoundly grateful for the generosity showed to him by the parish on this occasion.
A Holiday Bible Club for primary school aged children will be held in the Ardfallen Methodist Centre during the month of July. It will run from Monday 8th to Friday 12th July from 11am to 1pm. They are also hoping to run a teens programme in the afternoon. For more information please contact Lucy Bateman on 086/8185690.
St Michael’s School News
St Michael’s School has had a super busy term – Our first new classroom is complete and we are excited that from September we will have 4 mainstream classes and also a special class for 6 children with an Autism diagnosis. We are thrilled to be able to welcome more pupils to our school and cater to their needs. This term has been very active -we took part in the Interschool sports in CIT and won many medals in athletics. We also had both a girls’ and boys’ team represent us as the schools Gaelic football blitz in St Michael’s G.F.C. Our swimmers also had a successful day out at the Inter-schools gala. After school soccer is run by the Parent’ Association every Monday. St Michael’s Tennis Club have generously allowed us to use their facilities for tennis lessons this term also. We held our own school sports day at the Blackrock Hurling Club. We were very proud to have three prize winning Irish language authors at the Scríobh Leabhar competition run by the Cork Education Support Centre -they received gold Foras na Gaeilge medals and attended a ceremony with Céilí dancing. All the students who wrote Irish books for the project received certificates also a 2018/2019 Plaque for Science and Maths excellence has arrived at our school -the assessors recognised that all our students have worked so well on these projects this year. Our school fete was well supported by families and community despite adverse weather conditions. The parents worked so hard to achieve a fun event that we still managed to raise €1,000 for the school IT fund.
Biodiversity was an important theme this term and we worked with Niamh from the Heritage Council to explore the nature on the Blackrock walk. Children have also planted wildflowers around the school and made bug hotels to attract bees and insects. All classes also travelled various routes around Blackrock for our annual sponsored walk.
Ms Chow taught choir this year and prepared a small group of students to sing at the cork Choral Festival. We have enjoyed having Ms Chow in our school and wish her well as she moves on to her next position. We are especially grateful to Florence Binions for volunteering her time for singing lessons with our junior class – they really enjoyed the songs.
We will hold our end of year service on the 26th June and say Goodbye to Alec, Ryan and Liam as they all move on to Ashton. We will be welcoming 13 new junior infants in September.
Congratulations
On Friday 17th May, Mervyn Kerr was awarded honorary life membership of Cork Church of Ireland Hockey Club. Mervyn has been president of the club on three occasions, club captain of the men’s hockey section and has served on the club management committee for 22 years. He captained the winning Irish Junior Cup team in 1984 and managed the winning team in 1992 as well as coaching numerous teams in the ladies’ section. Mervyn attends St Mary’s Church in Marmullane and so the parishioners there join in their congratulations for this well-deserved award.
Condolences
We extend our sincere sympathy to the family of Meredith Talbot, who died unexpectedly but peacefully at his home in Carrigaline on 16 May. Meredith was a very faithful parishioner in St Mary’s Marmullane, where he sang in the choir and served for a time as rector’s churchwarden. He was also very involved in Kinsale Golf Club. The funeral was held in St Mary’s Church in Killarney on Monday 20 May and he was buried in a family grave in Aghadoe graveyard afterwards. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
The funeral of Dorothy Macilwraith took place in St Luke’s Church on Thursday 13 June. She was a quiet but nevertheless very active parishioner for many years. A member of the Friendship Club, Mothers’ Union and church flower rota, she also contributed to the wider community in practical ways as a volunteer at the Gorta charity shop and through Meals on Wheels. In recent times, when she had to give up driving, she became a regular and very appreciative home communicant. We extend our sympathy to her son Melven, daughter in law Claire, granddaughters Emily and Alice and the rest of the family circle.
Eco-congregation award
On Rogation Sunday it was good to have the Revd Andrew Orr with us for services in Marmullane and Douglas. After the service in Marmullane he presented Gay Elmes, our parish eco-congregation representative, with an Awareness Award Certificate for the parish. This was to encourage us to continue to make progress in reducing our negative impact on the environment.
Departing Clergy
Over the summer months both the Revd Stella Jones will retire as rector of Kinneigh Union and the Revd Canon Eithne Lynch will retire from Mallow Union. We wish them both every blessing and we are grateful for their ministry among us. Also, the Revd Sarah Marry will move to Edenderry in the Kildare Diocese as she takes up the incumbency of Clonsast Union. We wish her well as she ministers in new surroundings.
The Revd Hazel Minion writes
On 8th – 21st July I will be visiting Kitwe in central Zambia (the Copper Belt), along with three others from Antrim and Down. We are visiting Dr Keith and Lynne Scott, mission partners of Douglas Union, who, supported by CMSI, teach in St John’s Anglican Seminary. We hope to meet and have conversations with the ordinands. It will be interesting to compare ministry there and here, the joys and the challenges in very different places. We hope also to visit some parishes, schools and Mothers’ Union branches, and see a little of life in Zambia. We hope also to meet Most Rev’d Albert Chama, Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Zambia and his wife, Ashela. Along with his duties there, he is also the Archbishop of Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi, a huge area. Zambia alone is about 9 times the size of Ireland. Looking forward to visiting another part of God’s church, in a part of the world that is very different, is exciting. Thank you to all in the parish who are joining in that excitement; I will be taking your greetings to all the people we meet. Pray for us. You will hear lots more after we come back!
Please click on link below for July Church Services timetable.
