The Parish of Saint Catherine & Saint James with Saint Audoen
Canon Mark Gardner (Editor) Tel: 01 454 2274 Mobile 087 266 0228
Email: markgardner@eircom.net
Review Distribution: Margery Bell Tel: 01 4542067
Website: cja.dublin.anglican.org
Organist: Derek Moylan
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)
Diary Dates (subject to change)
17 December (morning) SS Cath & St Jas, Carol Service (Scouts in attendance) & mince pies
24 December (morning) St Audoen’s, Eucharist and Holy Baptism
31 December (afternoon) St Audoen’s, the marriage of Garry Gouldthorpe and Laura Moore
Terry and Mary Ferry
Best congratulations and good wishes to our old friends and neighbours in St Catherine’s Avenue on the birth of a baby boy, Miles, their first grandchild. ‘Everyone well and happy!’
Condolences
We have learned with deep regret of the sudden death of Charles Benson, of Victoria Street and Trinity College Library, and offer profound and prayerful sympathy to Gillie, and their two children Ralph, of Clarence Mangan Road, (baptised in St Kevins in 1980) and Caroline (baptised in St Catherine & St James in 1984), now resident in New Zealand. We also offer our prayers and sympathy to John Maguire of St Audoen’s on the loss of his dear Mother, after a long illness bravely borne, much of it spent in St James’ Hospital, where the Rector is one of the Church of Ireland Chaplains.
Remembrance Sunday
Family Service on Remembrance Sunday was attended by the Scouts, who provided not only a bugler, who played the Last Post, but also a piper, both of whom played very effectively at the Act of Remembrance. Mementoes of the First World War were brought and displayed, and a laurel wreath was laid by one of the young people. Another one read a lesson, followed by a reading by an ex-serviceman. As well as the members of the scouts there were many children present, so the service was suitable short, but complete. Those present felt it was very moving, and they also enjoyed tea and coffee afterwards, with nice things to eat, kindly provided by a team of willing volunteers. A service on a much larger scale took place that afternoon at St Patrick’s Cathedral, where old and young gathered in large numbers for Evensong and the laying of wreath at the act of Remembrance by the President and the Earl of Meath, who is also a trustee of the Ancient Parish of St Catherine, which still exists in the form much like a charitable fund, supporting the modern Parish of St Catherine & St James with St Audoen.
St Audoen’s works
The long anticipated and major alterations to the surroundings of St Audoen’s Cornmarket have commenced. The contractor expects to finish in mid-February. Already, the park has been surrounded by a hoarding, enclosing the steps and the OPW garden as well. Gates and railings, walls and steps, have all been dislodged, and some trees cut down. The original plan has been simplified and the terrace intended to take the place of the steps alongside Bridge Street will not be constructed, at least, not this time. Fr Stanislaw Hajkowski of St Audoen’s High Street hopes that the plan to open a pedestrian way from his grounds across St Audoen’s Arch and into the park will be executed, which will open up some aspects of the historical site which at the moment no-one every sees. The principal aim, of discouraging anti-social behaviour in the vicinity, has yet to be realised.
Ethel Rhind
If you search for Ethel Rhind on Google you will find many images of her work in stained glass and coloured tiles, an art form not called mosaic, although that’s what it looks like, but rather opus sectile, which sounds like dry work. The published gazetteer of her output lists a panel depicting Charity, formerly in St Peter’s Church Aungier Street, but this memorial is described as missing, presumed destroyed, when the Church was demolished in the nineteen seventies. David Caron, formerly of NCAD, recently visited the Church of St Catherine & St James Donore Avenue. He has himself published articles on the four stained glass windows in the Church by Michael Healy or Kate O’Brien, very fine examples of their artistic achievements.
While we were standing by the Font, looking up at the monument, by a trick of the light, my eye was caught by a tiny signature on the corner of a tile, which I had never noticed before, in all the many times I have studied the figure, which is in fact not Charity but Phoebe, a Deaconess (if not a Deacon) of the early Church. She is shown giving alms from a purse and carrying a basket of what looks like loaves and fruit. So the lost monument is found to have survived, removed from St Peter’s and stored for many years in a shed at St Catherine & St James, like the War Memorial, only recently restored and erected in the Church. A remarkable discovery indeed.
Mark Gardner
