Sunday Services
10.00 Eucharist, St Audoen Cornmarket (parking in Francis Street).
11.30 Eucharist, St Catherine & St James Donore Avenue (service of the Word Second and Fourth Sundays) and Sunday School (during School term). Next Family Service 12 June, the feast of Pentecost.
Confirmation
All good wishes to Shane Hackett, confirmed at the King’s Hospital on the same afternoon as the Archbishop’s enthronement. Bishop Roy Warke officiated at the School.
Anniversaries
It was a delight to welcome Joan Gyves to St Audoen’s Church on Mothering Sunday, her eightieth birthday, and to give her and all the other ladies in the congregation, some flowers. We remember with love before God the life and witness of John Gyves, for many years devoted to the welfare of St Audoen’s Church. We also mark an anniversary with the Wilson-Power family, and remember Jimmy and Irene Wilson, for so many years stalwarts of city centre Churches and Cathedrals. A generous donation in Irene’s memory provided Easter flowers in St Catherine and St James Church.
Remembrance
My old friends in Newcastle upon Tyne, at J & M’s sewing service, will make made-to-measure pulpit falls to adorn both Churches, at reasonable cost. So, if you would like to be associated with this project, please let me know. I also have in mind to plant native Irish trees in the grounds of the Church of St Catherine and St James, and in the extensive Rectory garden, and they could equally well be memorials to those whom we might wish to commemorate.
Family service
We are very happy to have so many parents of young children who are prepared to bring their children to Sunday School and to attend Church service while the little ones go out, into the care of a very dedicated and well-equipped group of Sunday School teachers. From time to time, the children lead the Church service. Most recently, we had not only Family Service but also a sacramental celebration, with the children, using a new form of Eucharistic Prayer provided by the Church of Ireland ‘on occasions when many children are present’. The questions and answers in that form of service recall the Jewish tradition of the Passover, when the children ask questions and the father of the family answers; for example, ‘a wandering Aramean was my Father’. We look forward to the development of this kind of worship, and are most grateful to the Sunday School teachers, Day School teachers among them, for their commitment and dedication.
Choirs in Concert
At time of going to press, a concert is anticipated at St Audoen’s, on Monday 2 May, at five o’clock. The performers will be the forty-strong Estonian Childrens’ Choir, which will be singing elsewhere in Ireland the same weekend. The concert is being arranged by the Revd Kalmer Kesküla , a Deacon of the Estonian Church, resident in Glasnevin, who is normally one of the assistant clergy at Christ Church, and would like to hold services in the Estonian language from time to time in St Audoen’s. If you have internet access, you can Google him!
St Audoen’s Bells
The Eastern District of the Irish Association recently held a district practice at St Audoen’s. The Vicar was delighted to open the doors and was then surprised to be summoned to the belfry, where he began to renew auld acquaintance with Grandsire and Plain Bob. He stood back in admiration while others rang Stedman. Having learnt to ring at St George’s, when old Gabriel George Lindoff was a ringer, it was rather moving to recall that his father, who came to Ireland in the late nineteenth century, had heard the bells of St Audoen’s ring before they fell into century-long long silence. Lindoff senior came from Lincoln St Giles to impart the science and art of change-ringing to those who rang the bells of St Patrick’s, a melodious peal given by the Cherry family and named after them.
St Luke’s Girls Brigade
The Company had its Display on Tuesday 12 April in St Catherine’s National School. Again, as in previous years, it was a wonderful sight, to see members of St Lukes’ GB show what they had learnt in the past year in the School in Donore Avenue. In response to a heartfelt appeal from senior members, one person has been in touch with an offer of taking on the role of Captain of the Company. We are very grateful to that person, and we know that senior members of GB Ireland will continue to offer every help and support to the new Captain. Special thanks to Margery McEhinney for her role in leadership and coordination during the year that has passed, and other members of her team.
The establishment of a Malayalam-speaking congregation in Dublin has met with much interest, not least from members of Mothers’ Union Ireland, who are in touch with the members of the new group to see what MU can do for them. There are many young mothers among them.
The Church of South India is in full communion with the Church of Ireland, and is very grateful for the opportunity provided by the Parish to worship in their own language. The use of the vernacular is a Reformation principle. Their group is growing in strength and vitality, and they have marked Good Friday with a service based on the Seven Words from the Cross, led in part by the Revd Obinna Ulogwara. They are expecting either an excursion (for the children) or a service on Saturday 7 May. If the excursion comes to pass, the service will be moved to Sunday 8 May at one o’clock.
Mark Gardner
