Church Review Notes January 2016

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)

First Wednesday of the Month
10.30 Service of Wholeness and Healing, with Laying-on of Hands and Anointing.

Diary dates
On Sunday 3 January, the Rector will be in Residence in Christ Church Cathedral
Wednesday 6 January, the Epiphany, first day of School term.

Holy Baptism
On Advent Sunday 29 November 2015 we welcomed Maximilo and Leo Noa, sons of Marina Sanchez (from Spain) and Jon Beer (from New Zealand), into the Church of God through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Their Godparents are Carla Morral and Albert Fernandez who travelled from Spain for the service. We keep Maximilo and Leo Noa and their family in our prayers and wish them every blessing as they begin their journey of faith.

Advent Carols
An Advent Community Carol Service was held on the evening of Advent Sunday 29 November 2015. The purpose of the service was to raise funds to further support the invaluable work in Merchant’s Quay Ireland’s Night Café. Our distinguished guest was Emma Murphy, Fundraising Department, MQI. We again welcomed Fr Cormac McNamara, St. Teresa’s Church, Donore Avenue and Fr Fergal Mac Donagh, Our Lady of Dolours Church, Dolphin’s Barn. We were delighted to welcome the Revd Ruth Noble, Rector of Crumlin and Chapelizod, on her first visit to hew new neighbours.
Other readers at the service were April Cronin, Principal, St Catherine’s NS, Margery Bell, from St Catherine & St James’ Church, and Cecil Pakenham, from St Audoen’s. Killian Farrell and Andrew Burrows led a fine group of singers, all volunteers. It was most generous of them to give of their time and musical talents to support our fundraising event. A huge ‘Thank You’ to everyone who participated or helped behind the scenes to make the Advent Community Carol Service so profoundly beautiful and memorable.
The amount of €700.00 has been forwarded to MQI and will go towards further enhancing the much needed services provided through the Night Café to its clients.
Martha Waller
What a wonderful result for the Night Café. Thank you so much, everyone, on behalf of Merchants Quay Ireland. This donation will provide for approximately 340 meals, served throughout the night, to the most vulnerable people on the margins of society. Thank you all for your kindness in helping the work, and for such a beautiful Carol Service, it was such a pleasure to be included.
Emma Murphy
News from St Catherine’s NS
Thanks again to everyone for your superb support of the Christmas Fair. We have lodged €5,700 and we haven’t included the “Coins Bottle” (well over €300) yet.
April Cronin
A petition to Dublin Bikes, to install a bike station at Griffith Barracks, has met with a good response. Nearly 270 signatures have been gathered, which is pretty good for a school our size. All these names have been passed on to Des Cox who is overseeing the petition. For those of you who didn’t see the email, or get a chance to add your names, please get in touch directly by email des.cox@gmail.com. We will keep you posted with any further developments, and thanks again for taking the time to respond.
stcatherinesns.net/Parents’ Association/Homepage.htm

The children of St. Catherine’s creative writing club (“The Right Write Club”) pooled their creative talents together once more and produced a second magazine just in time for Christmas. The magazine features stories from children across different classes and even a few inspirational quotes the children picked themselves to be included in the magazine too. The magazine was sole in the last week of term and sold out very quickly just as the last magazine did at Halloween. Thank you to all our supporters and if happen to find yourself holding a copy of this magazine over the holidays, I sincerely hope you enjoy it!
Donal Mac Con Iomaire
Young people embracing Irish
Protestant schools around the country, from Ashton School in Cork to Sligo Grammar School and Wesley College in Dublin are supporting the Irish language and the work of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (The Irish Guild of the Church). A wide range of activities and great imagination was shown in the applications submitted to the Bedell Competition, organised by an Cumann Gaelach, to encourage the greater use of the Irish language among young people in the our schools.
We commend all the teachers, students and parents who have participated and supported the work this year, and in particular, the choir of Wallace High School, Lisburn, for their singing at Harvest Thanksgiving in St. George’s Church Belfast and the Carol Service there on Sunday 6 December, with a repertoire of carols in Irish.

Walk of Light
This ecumenical Advent event has grown and grown. I cannot but be amazed at the great number of walkers as we handed out 360 booklets in total. On behalf of the Dublin Council of Churches I wish to convey our most heartfelt thanks to all of you and also to all stewards, banner and lanterns bearers.
Thanks to all who by their warm hospitality and work made sure we got a warm drink and some refreshments and to Lorraine Donohoe from the Women’s Refuge in Rathmines whose words opened our eyes and hearts. We have passed on €730 in total as a donation gathered in the door collections at our three stations. May it help to put a little smile on some faces in dire need of it! Please God, we may have another Walk of Light in 2016.
Revd Martin Sauter, St Finian’s Lutheran Church, Adelaide Road