The Rector writes……
This issue of Parish Matters is being posted to the homes of all parishioners in Douglas, Passage and Blackrock as these three churches make up Douglas Union. (Frankfield is a trustee church and as such manages its finances separately and has opted not to be involved in this mailing.) Included in your post is a financial letter from the treasurer John Kershaw, as well as a gift envelope. This is done at the request of the Select Vestry to provide you with information on the current state of our finances.
As of first importance, I want to thank all of you who have given so generously to the parish over the past year. Your support has meant that we have been able to cover our costs to date. Recently we did host a very successful and enjoyable ‘Murder Mystery Wedding’ over two nights and after expenses, this raised approximately €2900 for Douglas Union.
However, we do face a shortfall before the end of the year and if you would like to contribute or would be willing to make an additional donation to the parish please use the envelope provided and put it on the church plate or post it to John Kershaw. In addition, you are invited to attend a special ‘Songs of Praise’ where all the gift envelopes will be formally received. It is on Sunday 20th November at 11.15 in St Luke’s Church and there will be a slightly reduced schedule of services in the parish that day.
The Select Vestry would like me to emphasise that this initiative is necessary to balance our books at the end of the year.
I hope I will see many of you at the united ‘Songs of Praise’ service. This is the last Sunday of the church calendar and is the Feast of Christ the King. The service covers the whole Christian Year in 40 minutes. It gives an overview of the highpoints of our faith and so we will use some of the great hymns which focus on different aspects of the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. We will end with the great hymn ‘Crown him with many crowns’ which is particularly appropriate for the day. Come and enjoying singing some of the great classic hymns and enjoy fellowship afterwards as refreshments will be served in the Canon Packham Hall.
Yours in Christ, Adrian
St Luke’s School Notes. Our 6th Class represented the school at the Annual Diocesan Schools’ Service in Bandon recently. They really enjoyed the Rev Cliff Jeffers sermon and brought 305euro as a contribution from the school towards Maize Production in Burundi, the Bishop’s Appeal/Christian Aid project. A very successful Coffee Morning was held in Barry’s of Douglas. It was very well supported by parents and the local community. A total of €1,825 was raised for the soft surface extended play area, now called Inis Beag! Thank you to Suzanne Dennison, Belinda Wiliams, Annika Frank and Sue Doherty who worked very hard organising this event. 3rd Class are participating in a cycle safety training every Tuesday organised by Cork Sports Partnership. We are delighted to welcome Luke Lee and Robert Nash from Ashton School every Tuesday as they work with us as part of their Community Action Program.
St Michael’s School Notes – It has been a super term at St Michael’s. All the teachers are delighted to be back to school and have reported that the pupils are doing a great job this year so far. We are really proud of them. A few special highlights have been: Hurling with the Rockies for all classes, weekly choral singing with Mr Stobert from St Finbarr’s Cathedral, an engineering session with Heike (mum to Felix and Lena) as part of our science programme, soccer on the grass with Mr. O Sullivan (while the weather allows), the senior room visit to St Peter’s Church in Bandon to attend the annual diocesan service for primary school and a visit from community Garda Conor. All pupils continue to make great use of the computers gifted to us by UCC as part of the Boole celebrations – we are sure we have many future programmers in our school!
Public Lecture: Speaker Dr Anne Francis, on Thursday 17th November, 6.30pm for 7pm in Douglas Library. St Luke’s together with St Columba’s and the Methodist Church have arranged this meeting to hear from Dr Francis about the work and the experiences of the Cork Theology Forum. There will be an informal gathering at 6.30 with a cup of tea or coffee, followed by the talk. All welcome.
Parish Bible Study Group: Study takes place in the home of Joan Miller, Ballintemple at 2.30 pm on Wednesday, 2nd November, 16th November and the 30th November, 2016. Another group meets in the home of Carol Boylan in Moneygourney on Thursdays at 7.30 p.m. on the 3rd November, 17th November and the 1st December, 2016. The Christmas get-together will be on Wednesday, 14th December, 2016. Contact the clergy or Florence for more details.
Coffee Morning will be held in St Mary’s Church hall, Marmullane on Saturday 26th November from 10-12. €3 entry which includes tea/coffee and a homemade scone. Raffle, general sales table including the contents from a house clearance. Money raised will be used for hall restoration fund.
Anam Cara, the organisation that supports bereaved parents, is holding its next monthly Parent Evening on Wednesday 2nd of November from 19:30pm to 21:00pm in Brú Columbanus, Cardinal Way, Wilton, Cork. This event is open to all bereaved parents regardless of the age your child died, the circumstances of their death, or whether the death was recent or not.
Parish Census and Statistics – The preliminary parochial results for the Episcopal Visitation of 2016 have been issued and make very interesting reading. This information, largely collated and analysed by the Bishop, gives statistical information, as well as a very full picture of the diocese under a number of headings. In addition, this month the Church of Ireland will be carrying out a census of all worshippers who attend Sunday services over the four Sundays in November. Readers may remember that a similar exercise was carried out three years ago. Again, cards will be issued for each parishioners to fill in prior to the service. This information will be anonymous. The last time this exercise was carried out, the results made interesting but challenging reading for our church.
Women’s World Day of Prayer: A meeting for the Cork area, city and county, with the National President, Jean Kenny, will be held in Ardfallen on Monday 7th November 2-4pm. All who are interested are welcome.
Songs of Praise – We end the liturgical year on Sunday 20 November with the celebration of the Kingship of Christ. This is one of the high points of the church calendar. The title ‘Christ the King’ suggests a kind of triumphalistic fanfare! To that end, we are going to have a special united service in St Luke’s Church Douglas which takes the form of a Songs of Praise. At it we will use some of the great hymns which focus on different aspects of the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. We will review the church calendar in one service and appropriately end with the great hymn ‘Crown him with many crowns’. Parishioners will all receive a special invitation to attend this service, so we hope for a full church on the day. There will be no 9.45 service in Passage or 11.30 service in Blackrock that day however the 8.30 and 10.00 in Blackrock and Frankfield respectively will be held.
Advent Anticipation – On Sunday 27 November the first candle will be lit on the Advent Wreaths in our churches. Parishioners are reminded that there will be a celebration of Holy Communion each Wednesday throughout Advent at 11.00 in St Luke’s Church.
Music Matters – Since the notes for the last issue of this magazine were submitted, we have had several very successful musical events in the parish. The organ recital by Mark Slade in St Luke’s Church, as part of Culture Night on 16 September, drew a large audience over the course of the evening. This was the first time that this parish took part in the extensive programme of events and given the support we received this time, we hope to continue this involvement in 2017.
On Saturday 1 October St Mary’s Church in Marmullane was filled almost to capacity for a varied programme of choral and vocal music under the title ‘Harbour Sounds’. As expenses that evening were minimal, and the singers gave their time for free, the event itself raised almost €4000 towards the Passage Organ Replacement project. This was a truly outstanding result. Coupled with a grant from the Diocesan Organ Fund, as well as donations received to date, we are well on the way to having sufficient funds in place to carry out this work. The necessary permissions from both the Representative Church Body, Diocesan Council and the Heritage Officer from Cork County Council, have also been obtained so we hope that work will commence in the new year.
The Select Vestry will meet on Friday, 2nd December in the Canon Packham Hall at 8pm.
Cleaning St Luke’s Church: As a temporary cost cutting measure the Select Vestry is looking for parishioners to volunteer to clean the church. Generally, this only takes a couple of hours on a morning towards the end of the week so that the church is ready for Sunday services. We hope to employ someone to do this work early in the new year. If you are in a position to volunteer on an occasional basis, please contact the churchwardens.
