The Parish of Saint Catherine & Saint James with Saint Audoen
Canon Mark Gardner (Editor) Tel: 01 454 2274 Mobile 087 266 0228
The Revd Martha Waller (Curate-Assistant) Tel: 01 868 1655
Email: markgardner300@gmail.com
Review Distribution: Doris Brooks Tel: 01 453 0887
Website: cja.dublin.anglican.org
Service times every Sunday
10.00 Eucharist, St Audoen, Cornmarket. (Parking in Francis Street is free on Sundays)
11.30 Eucharist (and Sunday School, in term time) St Catherine & St James, Donore Avenue. (Family Service and Church Coffee, usually Second Sundays, but not in November)
Sunday School
Family service in November will move to Sunday 22, Christ the King.
First Wednesday of the Month
10.30 Service of Wholeness and Healing, with Laying-on of Hands and Anointing.
Harvest
Many thanks to those many volunteers who decorated St Catherine & St James’ Church for Harvest, and provided tea, coffee and lots to eat after Family Service with the children of the Sunday School, and the theme of thanksgiving. Flowers and fruit were promptly parcelled up and taken away, some to those unable to attend, who were very glad to be remembered in this way.
Holy Baptism
On Saturday 31 October, at the Church of St Catherine & St James, Poppy Elizabeth, daughter of Keith Turner and Róisín Stapleton. Godparents, Fionán Stapleton, who led the singing of Morning Has Broken and Give Me Joy in My Heart, and Veronica Doran.
Remembrance Sunday
The Archbishop will visit the Parish on Sunday 8 November to dedicate the War Memorial from St Matthias’ Church now transferred to St Audoen’s from Christ Church Leeson Park, by kind permission, and the War Memorial from St Peter’s Aungier St which has been reassembled and restored, and placed in the Baptistery of St Catherine and St James’ Church, along with a memorial to Elizabeth Fryer, a Deaconess in St Peter’s Parish, who died in 1927. These last two memorials are in the style known as opus sectile, mosaic in appearance, almost identical to the War Memorial of Christ Church Leeson Park which remains in situ. A very similar panel signed by Ethel Rhind is fixed externally to All Saint’s Church, Grangegorman.
At the annual ceremony for the choristers of St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Saint Peter’s Medal for the best all-round musician, combining good singing and instrumental playing, was awarded to Travis Yusif. This silver medal also serves to perpetuate the memory of St Peter’s Parish, which originally presented it to the Cathedral.
A wedding and a funeral
After the death of Leslie Taylor, his family asked me to speak at the Requiem at Christ Church Cathedral where he had for so long been ‘master of the bells’. Leslie first came there at the age of eight, and his wife Ann said of him that ‘Christ Church was his home, and Claremont was his rest’. One of the worst aspects of motor neuron disease is that the mind remains only too clearly aware of the loss of physical power and its inevitable outcome. Still, Leslie got his wish to remain in the family home, in the care of his family and others, and died there peacefully, surrounded by them. It was strange that the failure of the supports for the floor of the ringing chamber meant that the bells could not be rung, but someone told me that Leslie had indicated that he didn’t want any outward show.
The same day there was wedding at St Audoen’s, a rare event. The family had promised that there would be good Methodist singing of the hymns, and there was. The bride and groom wanted no video or flash photography, and the ceremony was graced by the exchange of the sign of peace and a chosen period of silence before the solemnities began. Smartly but soberly dressed, everyone seemed happy that there was no fuss. A particularly nice touch was the throwing of lavender rather than confetti or rice, which lay on the pavement outside and was still fragrant the following morning as we were coming to Church.
Homeless or hopeless?
A student friend of mine has been living in Maynooth, sharing a room with two others who are paying a very high rent. The College is busy building more student accommodation but in the meantime there is a chronic shortage. In addition to the general problem of homelessness, students in particular seem to be vulnerable to extortion, and will put up with cold damp expensive and over-crowded conditions knowing that in time they will be able to move on.
St Catherine’s Rectory is a very large house, and currently accommodates two students, three clergy and a man from Portugal. Three of these men are separated from their wives and families by economic necessity. I’m glad to be able to offer this kind of support to them. The dining room is useful for meetings of up to eight people, such as St Catherine’s NS Board of Management.
Another friend of mine is hoping to return to Dublin from abroad for urgent medical treatment. He has so far found it impossible to find accommodation. He sought help from a well-known person who knows more about homelessness that just about anybody else in Dublin, who has replied to my friend as follows.
R-, thanks for your emails. I don’t know what to say – the accommodation situation here is chronic, there is a dire shortage of accommodation of all types and you will probably end up homeless, sometimes in a homeless hostel full of drugs, and sometimes you will be told there are no beds left and you will have to sleep on the street! It is almost impossible to get private rented accommodation or room sharing, only one landlord in a hundred is accepting rent allowance and there are forty people queueing to look at it. As you make a decision about coming back or not, you need to be aware of the situation here. Let me know if I can help in any way, but I can’t get you accommodation. P- McV-
