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, Second Sundays)

Wednesday 6 May
11.00 Service of Wholeness and Healing, Laying-on of Hands and Anointing.
Martha Waller
Easter
The Churches were filled with colour and flowers, to create an Easter garden. Special thanks to all who provided and arranged the decorations, and did all the cleaning and polishing. If you wish to donate flowers at any time of the year, marking an anniversary or as a memorial, do let me know.
Mark Gardner
Choirs at St Audoen’s
Mickael Mergirie is organising visits to Dublin for two Norwegian choirs. Kvaefjord Blainnakor will sing at the service and afterwards on Sunday morning 5 of July. Another choir is called Tomter and they hope to sing on Sunday 20 September.
Mickael Mergirie, Irish Welcome Tours Ltd
In retrospect
By the time I arrived as dean the City and Town Parishes Commission was completing plans to unite two groups of city parishes with the two cathedrals and the legislation was passed by general synod in 1970. Each parochial group, one on the north side of the city and the other on the south side, would have a vicar, and the dean of Christ Church and the dean of St Patrick’s would be ‘incumbent for constitutional purposes’. I was aware that in the group of parishes on the south side of the city, what was to become the St Patrick’s cathedral group, a number of churches would have to be closed in the short term. I remembered only too well the almighty row that erupted in the late 1950’s, with headlines in the press, when it was announced that St Matthias’ church Adelaide Road, was to close. I expected that putting matters into effect would be difficult. In the early 1970s with no decision forthcoming from the Dublin diocesan council, I was saddled as dean with having to tell the Easter vestries of St Kevin’s, St Luke’s and St Peter’s not to spend any more money on their churches as they were to close. St Catherine’s and St James’ Church Donore Avenue and St Audoen’s Church Cornmarket would remain in use. It caused a bit of a rumpus at the time and I was accused of pocketing the proceeds from the parishes for cathedral funds But with the assistance of the vicars who worked with me, Gordon Linney, Des Sinnamon and John Crawford, all turned out well in the end and by the time of my retirement in 1991 the parishioners of the cathedral group of parishes were happy with their lot and that rationalization had been achieved when it was. I was obviously forgiven for closing their churches as Daphne and I received a splendid presentation for the select vestry to mark my retirement.
Victor Griffin Memoirs of St Patrick’s Cathedral 1969-1991

The streets on a Dublin Sunday in the 1820’s were filled with the sound of bells. Christ Church’s ‘deep tremendous toll’, the carillons of St Patrick’s and St Werburgh’s, were joined by a multiplicity of single bells in most of the twenty parish churches and bells in the chapels of the university and the Castle. It was an intensely Sabbatarian age, a time when the visible performance of religious duties was a compelling obligation for the respectable classes. This was universal across the English-speaking world, but in Dublin the evangelical revival had particular potency, first evident in the new ‘proprietary chapels’ (licensed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop but independently financed), where huge congregations turned out for celebrity preachers (in the Bethesda chapel in Granby Row, Trinity Church in Gardiner Street and St Matthias’s in Adelaide Road). Religious observances in the household and in public, were reinforced by a pervasive sense of confessional competition.
David Dickson Dublin The Making of a Capital City 2014

Choirs at St Audoen’s
Mickael Mergirie is organising visits to Dublin for two Norwegian choirs. The first choir, Kvaefjord Blainnakor, will sing at the service and afterwards on Sunday morning 5 July. The second choir is called Tomter and they hope to sing on Sunday 20 September.
Mickael Mergirie, Irish Welcome Tours Ltd

Doing our part
There is a significant problem with drug abuse in the ‘Cathedral Quarter’. Dublin City Council is now preparing a plan to enhance the amenities around St Audoen’s. The Franciscans at Merchants’ Quay have extended their opening times and the parish is supporting them financially. The Herald recently reported; ‘a new facility to give Dublin’s homeless community a place to visit at night has been opened in the city centre. The night cafe on Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, has opened its doors and will be fully operational seven nights a week. The night cafe will provide a range of different services for people experiencing homelessness or who suffer from drug abuse, including shower facilities, light meals and brief interventions on addiction and mental health. The initiative is part of the Government’s 20-point action plan to respond to key concerns of homelessness, particularly in the Dublin region. The cafe will initially cater for 30 people, but the capacity could be increased to provide for 50 persons pending a review at the end of this month. The Merchants Quay centre already provides for dozens of people every day, and offers a range of facilities including workshops, a cafeteria and a ‘quiet room’, which allows a visitor safe space in the afternoon. The ‘quiet room’ offers users a chance to rest in a secure and monitored environment, which a member of MQI said they wouldn’t get sleeping rough for fear of being robbed. hnews@herald.ie