Sunday Services
10.00 Eucharist, St Audoen, Cornmarket (free parking, Francis Street, on Sundays).
11.30 Eucharist, St Catherine & St James, Donore Avenue (Service of the Word Second and Fourth Sundays), and Sunday School, in term time.
The Commissioning of Lay Ministers and Parish Readers
On Sunday 2 September 2012 at Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, the Archbishop welcomed Helen Gorman (of the Parish of Grangegorman, who attended Blackquire Bridge National School (built 1822) with the Vicar) and David Reynolds, who were commissioned as Parish Readers; and Gillian Dean, Brendan Sheahan, Shona Rusk and James Kilbey who were commissioned as Lay Ministers. An extract from the form of service follows.
Archbishop; N, I commission you as a Lay Minister in the Church of God and to exercise that ministry in these United Dioceses. Receive this badge and wear it as a sign of your ministry.
You are bound to Christ, who promises you his perfect freedom, so we call you to give yourself wholeheartedly to the task he gives you. The ministry to which God calls you to fulfil, is part of the ministry of all baptized people. So we invite you to seek the support and prayers of those who share with you the ministry of God. We commit you to God’s care.
Relying on the mercies of God, and following in his ways will you do your best to fulfil the calling you accept today? With the help of God, I will.
Seeking to preserve the unity of the church, and the honour of Christ’s name will you submit yourself to those placed over you in this work? With the help of God, I will.
Knowing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, will you work in his strength and witness to Christ’s love in the way you serve? With the help of God, I will.
Almighty God, You have chosen these your servants to be Lay Ministers in your church; give them the will to undertake this task the strength to perform it, so that they may complete the work which you have begun in them through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Holy Baptism
We welcome into the body of Christ, with all his faithful people, and into the Church of Ireland and the fellowship of our congregations, Abbie Rosemary Lilian, daughter of Kenneth and Karen Jordan, by the Revd Charles Baker (while the Vicar was at a family wedding in Yorkshire), and Holly Patricia Emma, daughter of Thomas and Natalie Malone of St Catherine’s National School, Baptised at the Parish Church of St Catherine and St James Donore Avenue, and Dylan James, son of Lawrence and Emily McFarlane, of Ussher’s Island in the Parish of St Audoen, in the Parish Church.
Malpas St
The Baptism of Adriana Eleanor, daughter of Drew and Clare Smart of Malpas Street (off Clanbrassil Street) has also taken place. Clare is a midwife in the Coombe Hospital.
From ‘Dublin Street Names’, by Paul Clerkin, 2001. ‘It is uncertain whether this was named after Robert Malpas, merchant, who died in 1617, or alderman Patrick Malpas, who died in 1635. Both were buried in St Audoen’s Church in High Street. Malpas Street still contains buildings that date from the time when the area was noted for light industry such as weaving and distilling. Several kiln houses survive and have been redeveloped as an enterprise centre.’
Diary dates
‘Church Coffee’ as the Lutherans call it (our neighbours in Adelaide Road), will resume on Sunday 14 October, on which day we will give thanks for the blessings of Harvest. This should not be confused with American Thanksgiving, which celebrates something else. The decline of ‘Harvest’ in importance is noticeable in the city, and this year there will be no such festival in St Patrick’s Cathedral. No doubt ‘Thanksgiving for the Harvest’ as it is described more than once in the old Book of Common Prayer, will continue among the agricultural community, on which all other communities depend for their sustenance! Church Coffee will be provided by a rota of volunteers, to whom we are most grateful, on the Second Sunday of every month until June. On Sunday 16 December the Sunday School childrens’ Christmas service will be combined with the Parish Carol Service, and mince pies will be provided afterwards.
Merchants Quay Ireland
The Vicar and the Precentor of St Patrick’s Cathedral have been invited to a number of recent events at Merchants’ Quay by the Franciscans of the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, ‘vulgo dicitur’, ‘commonly called’ (to quote the XXXIX Articles) ‘Adam & Eves’, but in more recent times more generally known as ‘Merchants’ Quay’. They are called OFM, the order of the Friars Minor, along with other orders of friars. The tiled floor of Christ Church Cathedral, and the ‘foxy friars’ depicted there, remind us of the time when the sedate Augustinian Canons of Christ Church looked down on the more popular friars, whose poverty and concern for the poor commended them to the populace at large and earned them the affection of the common people. So today, the nearby Parish and Cathedral Churches of the Church of Ireland continue to support the work of our Franciscan neighbours. Regrettably the financial contribution of them both is not acknowledged in the annual report, launched (at the time of writing) today, by Miriam O’Callaghan of Radio Telefís Éireann. The buildings located between the Quay and Cook Street, under the shadow of the two St Audoen’s Churches, have been largely reconstructed to provide a suitable friary for the brethren, as well as welcoming and (as Miriam O’Callaghan observed) colourful premises for the vital and valuable work of caring for, and meeting the needs, of others.
