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)
Fundraising
The relationship between the Parish and Scouting Ireland is of recent origin and is already greatly valued. One member of the Scouts, Adam Jordan, recently held a fund-raising event in the Church of St Catherine & St James, Donore Avenue, which raised in total €370 for the Seal Sanctuary, a very worthwhile cause. Best congratulations to Adam and his supporters on this fine initiative.
Sunday School
Many thanks to those volunteers who provided tea and coffee after Family Service in June, on the theme of St Columba. The attention of the children was drawn to the stained glass depicting him in the Church of St Catherine & St James, by Kate O’Brien of An Túr Gloine. Daphne Roycroft’s neighbour, Brian Lacey, who has a keen interest in St Columba, and alerted by Daphne, came to see the window. He identified the dog-like figure as a wolf, and the recumbent figure as the saint’s Mother, Eithne, who before he was born had a vision of an angel spreading a richly woven tapestry over England (red roses) Scotland (thistles) Wales (daffodils) and Ireland (shamrock), shown as dark islands in a bright sea. This wonderful fabric represented the influence of St Colum Cille (as he is named in the window) in these islands, with a message for hope in our own day. David Cameron paid tribute to St Columba when speaking at Stormont on 9 June 2011: ‘This is the feast day of St. Columba, who very specially symbolises the historic linkages and deep bonds between Britain and Ireland. Born a Prince in Donegal, exiled in Iona, and honoured today in the Central Lobby of the Palace of Westminster…his monks provided not just an Irish national treasure, the Book of Kells, but also a British national treasure, the Lindisfarne Gospels.’
Lost in Translation
Abbey Tours have been in search of places of worship for visiting groups, but a suspicion arose that they were charging the pilgrims for the use of a Church which the parish was providing without asking for a fee. When recently we were asked for the use of St Audoen’s, questions were asked, and it soon became clear that the tour guides were honest people and the pilgrims were genuine. Valerie Raitt, Churchwarden, kindly agreed to facilitate a Lutheran group from Bavaria (Bayerisches Pilgerburo, based in Munich ) whose clergy led a service in St Audoen’s, conducted in German and in sign language for the hearing impaired. They arrived late and stayed a long time! As part of their tour they were also travelling to Clonmacnoise, Galway and Westport, taking in Kylemore Abbey. They have been urged to commend themselves to their prospective hosts through the Dublin Council of Churches (Hon. Secretary, Uta Raab, Lay Reader, a native of Germany) and the Lutheran Church, Adelaide Road.
Heritage
The late Canon John Crawford, a much published historian, preserved at the church of St Catherine & St James Donore Avenue many monuments from St Luke’s and St James’ Churches. Leila Budd and John Beattie recently made a written and a photographic inventory of the contents of the store. She is involved in the rebuilding of St Luke’s and he is busy with the restoration of St James’ James Street. It’s remarkable to see such young people so interested in the welfare of these ancient sacred sites, more so, it seems than those who consigned them to ruin and dereliction in days gone by. Cora Coleman and Charles Duggan are also working on St Luke’s. Fragments of the reredos from St Peter’s Aungier Street are also stored at Donore Avenue, but many more are scattered in the vaults of St Luke’s. Is there any chance that this fine work of art in stone and opus sectile might be reconstructed?
The Grand Canal
My old friend Eric Conroy, a Trustee of St Audoen’s, originally from St Paul’s North King Street, tells me that The Grand Canal Clean – up Group meets on the Second Sunday of the month at Dolphin’s Barn Bridge, opposite the library. Time: 1.00, and work to 2.30.
Visionaries Choir
This year on Friday 16 June at St Audoen’s Church Cornmarket the choir was joined by other students from the Visionaries School of the Arts to perform piano, guitar and clarinet pieces as soloists and duets. Some of the art work created by their talented students was also exhibited. The Visionaries School of the Arts is a unique endeavour promoting engagement in the arts by people who are vision-impaired and blind, and is a Fighting Blindness quality of life initiative.
Out of Africa
Roland Purcell, Church organist, has recently moved from the Rectory to Africa, whence he sends greetings from Nairobi, where he has conducted a rehearsal of ‘Zadok the Priest’ in a hut made of corrugated iron sheets insulated by cardboard on the inside, in Kayaba and Mukuru slums, Nairobi. He has also ventured to Mary Immaculate rehab centre, where one of the volunteers is from Upper Austria (Volklabruck) where he would be more at home!
Mark Gardner
