The Rector writes……
We are fortunate to have the Bishop with us in the parish, a number of times, over the coming weeks. Firstly, he will be leading us through Holy Week. This starts on Palm Sunday when we will have a special service and Palm Sunday procession in St Luke’s Church. Please note the reduced schedule of services that day. While there will be the usual 8.30 Holy Communion service in Blackrock, as well as a very much shortened service in Frankfield, the main service will very definitely be in Douglas. All parishioners are asked to assemble in the Canon Packham Hall by 11.00am and from there we will process though the churchyard and into the church for the start of the service at 11.15. You will see elsewhere in this issue of Parish Matters an outline of the Bishop’s theme and programme for the week. Please note there are a number of changes to the usual pattern. All evening services will be in St Luke’s Church this year and they will begin at 7.30pm. The list of all services for Holy Week and for other days this month is on the back of this newsletter as usual.
Secondly, the Bishop will be with us for the Confirmation Service on Sunday 30 April. This year twenty-three of our younger parishioners will be confirmed. While this is a larger than usual number, please do not think that everyone else is to avoid coming to church that day out of a concern that they may not get a seat! From experience in recent years, no one has ever been left standing throughout a confirmation service. In fact, in many ways it is important that the rest of the usual congregation is there to support the candidates and their families on this very important day of celebration. You will see the names of the candidates listed elsewhere in this newsletter. Please pray for them this month and in particular, on the morning of the confirmation.
Last month a training evening was held for all those who act as lay assistants at the Eucharist. This year, while one or two people have opted to stand down, a number of new people have accepted my invitation to be involved in this ministry and so have been added to this list. They will be commissioned at our Sunday morning services on 23 April and after that have the Bishop’s permission to act in this capacity for a period of three years. I thank all those who have or continue to exercise this ministry in the parish.
Finally, our Easter General Vestries take place in Frankfield on 5th April and in Douglas on 6th. These are our annual general meetings of the parish and it is important that there is a good attendance. This is also a triennial year and so representatives to the Diocesan Synod as well as parochial nominators will be elected in addition to the Select Vestry. It is vital that as many parishioners as possible attend these meetings and vote. If for some reason you cannot be there but are happy to let your name be considered for any position, please let one of the churchwardens know. Then your name can be put on the ballot paper and we know that you will serve if elected. I take this opportunity to thank the outgoing vestries for their work on your behalf over the past year. We really rely on such volunteers to look after matters of finance, church fabric and other practical issues. If they were not willing to be involved, this parish would simply grind to a halt and we would have to shut down! The select vestry facilitates the mission and ministry of the parish as clergy and lay people work together. We are all called to serve Christ by virtue of our baptism. Don’t leave it to others, come along, vote and make your contribution to the parish. No one has to be elected to any committee or position unless they wish to, but please don’t leave it to others if you have the time and interest to contribute.
I wish you all a good Holy Week and a very happy Easter on 16th April.
Yours in Christ, Adrian.
St Luke’s School Notes. All the pupils in St Luke’s School are really enjoying our Active Flag activities. The committee organised the “Operation Transformation” inspired “10 @ 10” on 10th February. Pupils were active for 10 minutes doing obstacle courses, sprints, skipping, playing running games and basketball.
Many of our pupils also took part in
our recent Swimming Gala organised by our active Parents’ Association.
Chess has become a very popular activity in school. The Student Council are currently organising a Chess Tournament during lunchtime. Well done to our 6th Class debating team who took part in their first formal debate on the motion “Children should have TVs in their bedrooms”.
World Book Day was celebrated in style in St Luke’s. Pupils and many teachers dressed up as their favourite character form a book. We had Harry Potter, Mr Strong, Gangster Granny and many more unusual characters on roll that day. Our Book Fair was a huge success that week also. We obtained over €1000 worth of books for our school library and classrooms.
We were very happy to welcome back some of our past pupils on Transition Year work experience. Shirley Bailey, from Midleton College and Kirsty Coombes from Regina Mundi both spent a week with us. Emma Egan and Alex Looney come to us every week from Ashton as part of their Community Action Program.
The Parents’ Association organised a ‘Coffee to Go’ morning recently. Thank you to all concerned for their on-going support.
Ms Guinane and Ms O’Toole continue to work very hard with our school choir. They enjoyed taking part in Feis Maitiú and their bowling trip afterwards.
St Michael’s School Notes. We have all been busy bees this term in St Michael’s. In February, we celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as characters from our favourite books, making a music video ‘All About them Books’, shared reading between classes and invited some parents in to read with us. One family even made an amazing life size time machine for the event, all of the teachers wanted to go back to the 80’s for a day!!
Senior room pupils visited Blackrock Castle and the Glucksman Gallery,UCC to take part in workshops and the junior room attended the Cork Pops event in City Hall. We are very proud of the teams who represented us in the Credit Union Quiz and the Concern Debating Competitions so far. Our senior girls’ choir took part in the Come Sing Event at St Finbarre’s Catherdral and were wonderful as usual! We are all really enjoying Mr Stobart’s weekly singing lessons.
At St Michael’s we just love S.T.E.M. -so Engineering Week is a big event. Lots of fun challenges took place- building launchers, constructing bridges, testing fabrics, using Minecraft to design classrooms, making electrical circuits, scratch coding -the list goes on.
We had a fun day when photographers came from Kidzone to make a feature about our school a few weeks ago-keep an eye out for us in the Echo.
Faoi láthair támíd ag baint an-taitneamh ar fad as Seachtain na Gaeilge-trath na gceist, drámaíocht, karíokí ,comórtas cartúin srl. Chuireamar Feis Scoile ar súil i Halla na Rockies. Bhí rince , dánta ,ceol agus cluichí. Bhíomar an bhrodúil as na páistí go léir agus bhí árd-chaighdeán ar gach leiriú! Bhronnamar an chéad duais ar Darragh toisc gur chum sé a dhán féin a bhí tharr bharr!!
Classes have been working hard to keep our school looking beautiful. Have a look at our colourful pots of flowers at the front of the school-well done to all the green fingered pupils.
Lent Men’s Breakfast. It was good to see 110 men of all ages, including many fathers and sons, at the recent Men’s Breakfast in Bull McCabes Pub early on a Saturday morning in Lent. We thank our guest speaker this year, Professor Desmond MacHale, for his thought provoking and very 
entertaining talk on the role that humour plays both in daily life as well as in matters of faith. We also thank Derek and Howard Dunne and their staff for their hospitality on the day.
Departing clergy. Over the next couple of months, we will see the departure of two clergy with whom this parish has had a warm and close working relationship. When the Revd Bill Mullally ends his term as President of the Methodist Church this summer, he will not be returning to Ardfallen, but instead moves to the UK to pursue further academic and pastoral work there. We wish Bill and his wife Val, God’s blessing as they move to pastures new. It is good to note that Bill’s successor as President for the forthcoming year will be the Revd Lawrence Graham, who served in Cork a decade ago before moving to Killarney. We pray for him as he prepares to take office. We also look forward to welcoming Bill’s successor as minister of Cork Methodist Church and hope that under the Church of Ireland and Methodist Covenant, we will continue to work closely together and share all that we have in common.
On Friday 31 March a special service will be held in Trinity Presbyterian Church to give thanks for the ministry of Revd John Faris. John’s ministry in Cork spans three decades and as a result, at a time of increased clerical mobility in other denominations, he was a regular representative of the Presbyterian Church and so was well known in the city and county. We wish John and his wife Heather every blessing as he retires and moves to Northern Ireland.
Easter Vestry Dates. Parishioners are asked to note the Easter General Vestry for Holy Trinity Church in Frankfield will be on Wednesday 5 April at 8pm. The meeting for Douglas Union will be at 8pm the following evening in the Canon Packham Hall. Both meetings will be preceded by a celebration of the Eucharist at 7.30. As this year is a triennial year there will be additional elections for Diocesan Synod representatives and parochial nominators as well as for the Select Vestry. W
e hope for a good attendance at both meetings.
Holy Week. This year we very much look forward to having The Bishop with us for our services from Palm Sunday and throughout Holy Week.
He writes … my overarching theme will be: ‘Hashtag # Holy Week: Exploring the trending words and events of life’s key story’
Holy Week, known from the earliest times to Christians as ‘The Great Week’, is a time to change pace. The Bishop asks that, just as we resolve to give up things for Lent or make some other determined resolution, that we set out deliberately to follow in the steps of Christ in this special week of the year. We will start on Palm Sunday and retrace, with Christ, his entry procession into Jerusalem. (In Douglas the Service will begin in the Canon Packham Hall – Please be there no later than 11.00am and the opening procession will wind its way from the Hall, through the churchyard to the Church. Those who feel the walk would be too much are invited to go directly to the Church where the procession will arrive shortly after the usual 11.15 start time of the Service).
The Services on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week will be at 7.30 p.m. and will be deliberately short to make it possible for everyone to attend and also to go on afterwards to other evening commitments. On Maundy Thursday, the journey intensifies as we recreate those final moments in the Upper Room. On Good Friday the Service will be repeated in three locations: … The liturgy of the day is stark as we contemplate the cross and the story that dares us to call this Friday of all Fridays, ‘Good’.
Douglas Churches Together Palm Sunday Procession and Easter Sunrise Celebration. We continue our ecumenical programme of activities and
worship in Holy Week with those of other Christian traditions. As usual we will gather in the Community Park in Douglas at 3pm on Palm Sunday as we walk between the churches and open our resource stands in the two shopping centres in Douglas. We hope that as usual many of our parishioners will be involved this year. Volunteers are needed to be with the stands in the shopping centres: details in St. Luke’s Church.
This year Cork Methodist Church at Ardfallen are hosting the Douglas Churches Together Easter early morning service. We are all asked to gather in the Bible Garden at the front of Ardfallen House on the Douglas Road at 7am. There, weather permitting, we will have a short open air service to celebrate the resurrection. Afterwards we are all invited to share in a hearty breakfast in the hall at Ardfallen. Please come and join with the clergy and parishioners of other local churches that day as we all share to the joy of Easter and the hope of resurrection. You will have plenty of time afterwards to get to your own churches for later services of Holy Communion.
The Parish Book Club. The Parish Book Club meets once a month in the Rectory throughout the autumn and spring period and finishes its regular meetings before
Easter. This year they ended by reading and discussing ‘Mistrust and Malice, a tale of sibling rivalry in 1920’s Ireland’. The author of this book is none other than our own parishioner William Bateman. All very much enjoyed reading his debut novel and could identify with the characters and dramatic plot. We congratulate William on this publication. The members agreed that it was a fitting read to end an enjoyable year.
Confirmation. This year our confirmation group is larger than usual with twenty-three candidates. They are Ethan Barry, Isabelle Coomber, Emily Cotter, Cian Dorgan, Zach Dunne, Leslie Ehizode, Hailey Figueredo, Dean French, Eoin Gallagher, Romy Hegarty, Christabell Ibebugwu, Samuel Johnson, Adam Kavanagh, Jack Kingston, Phoebe Haughton-Lynch, Julia McCarthy, Harry McDaid, Sophie Marry, Jed Zady-Pittaway, Lena Pujade, Abby Stanley, Luke Sweetnam and Simon Taylor. We pray for them as they approach the service which will be held in St Luke’s Church on Sunday 30 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.
St.Nicholas Brass Band with guests The Prison Officer’s Male Voice Choir will hold a concert in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral on Thursday, 6th.April at 8pm. Tickets from any Band member or on the door €10.00 (€7 concessions)
“St Mary’s Church Choir, Marmullane, Passage West. As the Henry Speechley organ is now almost complete, it is planned to re-instate our Church choir. A meeting will be held in the Church on Saturday 15th April at 12 midday, to chat about the new organ, monthly practices and music. All existing and new members welcome. Contact Roger Ellis on 087 053 9416″
The Church of Ireland Bishop’s Appeal has launched an emergency campaign in response to the crisis that is unfolding across Eastern Africa, Nigeria and Yemen.
There are currently around 16 million people in East Africa on the brink of starvation as a result of drought, famine and failed crops and urgently need food, water and medical attention. This is the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.
Access to some areas is limited but, through the work of Christian Aid, Tearfund and their networks, the Bishops’ Appeal is able to support humanitarian intervention in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen where millions of people are starving after years of conflict, displacement and drought.
Donate what you can today.
