Parish Matters March 2017

The Rector writes……

There was a time when people would ask you ‘what have you given up for Lent?’ It was a season in the church calendar that people took seriously, even if they didn’t always manage to keep to their resolve for the full period between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day.

This Lent I want to ask you a different question, ‘what are you taking up for Lent?’ As you think about this question, let me make a suggestion. Why not read something that will help you deepen your Christian faith and understanding? I appreciate by the time you see this newsletter, Lent will have begun, but it is never too late to start.

This year I have bought a number of copies of Lent for Everyone written by Tom Wright. Unfortunately, my order arrived on the day after Ash Wednesday but now they are available in all the churches! Wright was for a time Bishop of Durham and is a biblical scholar who is currently working in the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His great gift is that he can write about the Bible in exciting and accessible ways that relate to you and me. This book traces the story of Jesus’ life and ministry through the eyes of Matthew’s Gospel. (This is the gospel we will be reading in church for much of this year.) Each day there is a short passage printed in the book, as well as a reflection on it and a prayer. On Sundays, we take a break from Matthew and a short psalm is provided instead. To read it will only take a few minutes of your time each day. Copies of this book are available in all four churches in our union. All I ask is that you put €4 in the jar beside the books to cover costs for each copy. I hope you will enjoy the challenge and take up reading this book in Lent.

Additional church services will also be held in Lent in St Michael’s, Blackrock on Monday mornings at 11.00. As always, we will have Holy Communion on Wednesdays in St Luke’s at 11.00. However, every second Wednesday we will offer the opportunity of having prayers for healing using the Service of Wholeness and Healing from the Book of Common Prayer. Each Friday morning, a Lent Discussion Group will meet upstairs in the Canon Packham Hall at 11.00 for about an hour. This year we will be looking at the Lord’s Prayer using material from the Emmaus Course. I’m sure if you had a cent for every time you said the Lord’s Prayer, you would be very wealthy by now! But have you ever stopped to think about it phrase by phrase? This course will help you do just that. All are welcome and no prior knowledge or expertise is required. Just come for the coffee, learning and fellowship.

Yours in Christ, Adrian.

Douglas Churches Together

The meeting that was postponed from 14th February has now been rearranged as follows: Tuesday 21st March at 11.30 am in Douglas Library, with coffee served from 11 am. Dr Anne Francis will facilitate a discussion on the topic: The Church – Is it relevant? This meeting is open to all, church-goers and non-churchgoers alike. Dr Anne Francis is an independent researcher. She is a tutor and supervisor at the Cambridge Theological Federation where she has recently completed a term as Director of Pastoral Studies at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology. She has worked in Christian ministry for over thirty years and lives in Co Cork where she works in pastoral consultancy and formation. Please spread the information and encourage others to come.

The Coeliac Society of Ireland, Cork Support Group will hold the following meeting on Tuesday 7th March 2017 in the SMA Center Wilton at 8pm. Topic is a cooking demonstration and also a discussion on upcoming events, future events, feedback sessions etc. A dietician will be in attendance. All welcome. Entrance fee of €5.

Visiting Preacher on Sunday 5 March, the Revd Roger Thompson from CMSI will be a guest preacher in the parish. After services that day the confirmation group will host their annual Soup and Rolls Lunch in the Canon Packham Hall. The proceeds of this event will go to CMSI. Later that afternoon Roger Cooke from the same mission organisation will host a road show called IMPACT in the Canon Packham Hall at 3pm. This event will include an introduction to the new CMSI Children’s resource, ‘Growing in God’. The programme will also feature stories form CMSI’s Global Partners and an update on the wider work of the society. The presentation will last about one hour and there will be plenty of time for tea and conversation afterwards. All are welcome.

Register of Vestrypersons Under diocesan rules, the annual review of the Register of Vestrypersons this year is to take place between 16 February and 16 March. For Frankfield the register will be examined in the church just prior to the penitential service on Ash Wednesday at 8.30pm. For Douglas Union the register will be read and updated at 7.45pm in the Canon Packham Hall, just prior to the meeting of the Select Vestry that evening. All parishioners are welcome to attend the updating of these electoral registers. All those parishioners who are over 18 are invited to have their names added to these lists. However, they must fill in the appropriate form, which is available at the back of our churches, so that we have permission to add their names.

The CPR course has been running for two years at Canon Packham Hall and to date 179 people have been trained to deliver Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, with some people going on to qualify as Community First Responders. This achievement has been made possible by virtue of the fact that the group has been given access to Canon Packham Hall by the Douglas Union of Parishes. Training continues on the second Tuesday of each month and beginners are very welcome to attend at 6.45pm. Those with experience attend at 8.00pm.

Lent Our traditional pattern of additional mid-week services throughout Lent will continue again this year and are listed on the back of this edition of Parish Matters.

This year in Lent we are focusing on the theme of prayer. On Friday mornings, (with the exception of St Patrick’s Day) we will meet upstairs in the Canon Packham Hall at 11.00 to explore why and how we pray. We will be focusing in particular on the Lord’s Prayer. All are welcome and particularly those who struggle to ‘say their prayers’.

Lent Men’s Breakfast In recent years, the parish has hosted a Men’s Breakfast during Lent and the venue has been Bull McCabe’s on the airport road. In the past, we have had as guest speakers Revd Michael Cavanagh who spoke about the Kenmare Men’s Shed and rugby pundit George Hook. This year our guest speaker will be Professor Des MacHale. While he may be a distinguished mathematician and biographer of the famous George Boole, he is also widely known as a collector of jokes and the author of a number of joke books. He has been interviewed on radio and other media on this topic. However, Des is also someone who is very involved in his parish in Blackrock and is a reflective but not overtly pious Christian. Appropriately his theme will be ‘religion and humour’. There is a danger in these times, when we see the rise of extremism in certain parts of the world, that people will avoid talking about religion at all for fear of offending or treat it like a rare and fragile plant that needs to be protected and preserved in special conditions. In the end, we need to remember that God is God and that God also created humour and wants us to enjoy life. Good religious humour can therefore be a wonderful antidote to the stilted and sterile as well as to outright bigotry. No doubt Des MacHale will have some wonderful religious jokes to share with us so that we don’t take ourselves too seriously! The Men’s Breakfast this year will take place at Bull McCabe’s on Saturday 11 March at 9am. Tickets are on sale through the parish from churchwardens as well as directly from Bull McCabe’s. The charge of €12.50 covers a full cooked breakfast and all are welcome.

Easter General Vestry Meetings As Easter is late this year, our Easter General Vestry meetings will be held just before Holy Week. The dates are Wednesday 5 April for Frankfield and Thursday 6 April for Douglas Union. Each meeting will be held at 8pm and will be preceded by a celebration of Holy Communion in the church at 7.30pm. Parishioners are asked to note the date in their diaries now.

St Patrick’s Day As always, our national day of celebration will be marked with a service of Holy Communion in St Luke’s Church at 11.00am. It is anticipated that some of the readings and prayers will be in Irish at this service as we remember our national saint.

Lay Assistants at the Eucharist We, along with all parishes though out the diocese, are reviewing our list of those who assist with the chalice at services of Holy Communion in our churches. We are grateful to those who currently are involved in this form on ministry and we look forward to adding some new recruits to those who are authorised by the Bishop to act in this capacity. A short training evening and refresher course will be held in St Luke’s Church for all those in this parish on Tuesday 21 March at 7.30pm.

Holy Week This year we look forward to having the Bishop with us for our services each evening during Holy Week. Full details of his theme and the times of the different services will be published next month.

Farewell and Welcome As the current editor of the Diocesan Magazine retires, we thank Dr Alicia St Leger for all that she has done in that role over the years. She was always understanding and helpful to this particular contributor! We are delighted to hear that one of our parishioners has been appointed as her successor. Anne Kennedy will no doubt bring her own considerable skills in the area of literature and publishing to the job.