Dear parishioners and friends,
Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent and so you will find the recorded service on our Parish YouTube Channel from 5pm. The link to it and all our recorded services is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZDmEQt2VvcJI9ErW29vxPA/videos
Service of the Word (Advent 1 2020)
I’m sure you were following the announcement made by An Taoiseach yesterday evening in relation to the lifting of Level 5 restrictions, and more specifically about the reopening of churches for public worship. It is good to note that we will be permitted to have services in our churches again from 1st December.
I write to you to say that it is my intention to have all our churches open each Sunday in Advent (6th, 13th and 20th) with a limit of 50 people in total permitted at a service (including clergy/ organist/ churchwardens). The pattern will be as follows:
8.30 Holy Communion Blackrock
9.45 Service of the Word Passage
10.00 Service of the Word Frankfield
11.15 Service of the Word Douglas
In addition there will be a Wednesday Holy Communion at 11am in St Luke’s Church on 2nd, 9th, and 16th December.
I will be meeting the Select Vestry of Douglas Union this Thursday and consulting churchwardens in Frankfield. Among the matters to be discussed will be the Christmas schedule of services. It is my intention to circulate you well in advance of Christmas with a colour edition of the Parish Matters newsletter by email or in the case of those not on email, by post. This will give you all the information required about our Christmas plans.
Obviously with the congregations limited in size to 48, plus an organist and priest, not everyone will be able to be accommodated over this busy time of Advent and Christmas and so I will continue to put up a service each week on our Parish YouTube channel too.
I’m delighted to say that the sales of the Parish Cookbook are going very well. If you have not yet got your copy (copies), please contact me or call to the Rectory as soon as possible. Well over half our supply has been sold within the past week.
Finally you might like to read the piece below which the Revd Hazel Minion has written. I know many of you have missed attending church over the past number of weeks and in particular miss receiving Holy Communion. I hope this reflection will be a source of comfort to you.
A note from Rev. Hazel: One of the casualties of Covid 19 has been Holy Communion as we have known it. While we respect the necessary restrictions and appreciate the work and effort that goes into online services, many of us are missing the encouragement and comfort of sharing bread and wine together to remember Christ’s love for us. But reading the following has helped to give me a new perspective, as we look forward to whenever we can celebrate fully in the established way, so I share it with you.
The Russian author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) tells of a Eucharist he attended while a prisoner in the Gulag. In that place of utter hopelessness, a long-imprisoned Orthodox priest celebrated Holy Communion from memory without vestments or service books as if in the grandest of churches. When the priest turned and declared: “The Body of Christ. The blood of Christ,” Solzhenitsyn said he watched the tears of joy on the faces of the prisoners who held out grimy hands to receive what only the eyes of faith could see, and sip from an unseen chalice what only the soul could taste – for there was no bread or wine to be the body and blood of Jesus that day, and yet the miracle did occur. (Pádraig McCarthy)
Best wishes
Adrian.
—
Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
The Rectory,
Carrigaline Road,
Douglas,
Cork.
T12 A2RC
