Church Review Notes November 2017

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)

Sunday School & Family Service 2017 (subject to change)
12 November Family Service. Remembrance Sunday (Scouts in attendance). Tea and coffee
19 November, 26 November, 3 December, 10 December, Sunday School
17 December Family Service ~ Carol Service (Scouts in attendance) & mince pies
24 December (morning) The Fourth Sunday of Advent

Harvest Thanksgiving
Many thanks are due to those who decorated the Churches for Harvest and who provided tea and coffee and nice things to eat after Family Service in the Church of St Catherine & St James Donore Avenue. The same afternoon the Moderator of the Church of South India made the first visit of a Moderator to the Dublin congregation in the Church, worshipping in the Malayalam language, and our own Archbishop met him at a reception afterwards. My Mother was particularly pleased with the Harvest Flowers kindly sent to her by thoughtful people in anticipation of her ninetieth birthday.
Wedding Bells
Chris and Julia Neeser, married in their native land of Canada, asked for a blessing of their Civil Marriage at St Audoen’s, which they had found on the internet. They particularly wanted to ask God’s blessing on their commitment to each other. At time of writing we look forward to the marriage of Mark Maxwell and Julie Grennell, the son of David Maxwell, Church Organist, and his wife Connie Gardiner, one of the first members of the adult choir formed at Christ Church Cathedral about 1980, after the closure of the boys’ school. Later in the year we will welcome Garry Gouldthorpe and Laura Moore, from London, who have also asked to be married at St Audoen’s.
Mark Gardner
Celtic Camino Compostela
The Archbishop has hosted a meeting of interested parties at Church House Rathmines, with the result that a proposal has been made that a Camino Passport Office or at least a Camino Passport Stamp should be available at St Audoen’s, and at Christ Church Cathedral, as already provided at St James’s Church James Street. The Dean of the Cathedral of Santiago has agreed to grant a Compostela to pilgrims who complete the 75km Camino Ingles route from A Coruña to Santiago, as long as they have already completed a certified 25km pilgrimage in their country of origin. Camino Society Ireland has undertaken the task of defining authentic pilgrim routes within Ireland. The Society has named the 25km walked in Ireland with the 75k walked from A Coruña, the “Celtic Camino”. A Coruña has many historical links to Ireland, being the main port of disembarkation for Irish pilgrims since the 12th century. This provides Irish pilgrims with a great opportunity to do part of the Camino at home before starting Camino Ingles in A Coruña.
Important note about the Celtic Camino Certification
The Dean of the Cathedral in Santiago, Don Segundo Pérez, has asked the Camino Society Ireland, as an official International Camino Association, to provide certification of pilgrims completing the required 25km in Ireland. The Pilgrim Office has assured us that they will accepted our Celtic Camino Compostela as proof of completion of the first stage of the Celtic Camino in Ireland.
Camino de Glendalough
The Camino de Glendalough takes pilgrims through the beautiful Wicklow Mountains between Hollywood and Glendalough. The route follows the ancient pilgrim path of St Kevin’s Way from St Kevin’s Church in Hollywood to the Monastic City in Glendalough. The full Camino covers a distance of 30 kilometres but there are also many opportunities to join the path for individuals and groups wishing to make shorter journeys.
Camino Society Ireland
Irish Times Saturday 14 October 2017
I read this article with interest, having known so many Jewish people in Dublin forty years ago, most of them gone away, mainly to London. I attended services in the Synagogue in Adelaide Road and South Circular Road then, and in more recent years a memorial service for Dr Michael Solomons at the Progressive Synagogue in Rathgar, addressed by Rabbi Julia Neuberger.
Mark Gardner
The State’s Jewish population has risen by 28.9 per cent, or 573, since 2011, according to the 2016 census. The population of Jews in Ireland had been dropping steadily since the 1940s. They now number 2,557, of whom most 1,439 (56 per cent) live in Dublin. It is a reverse from February 2016, just two months before census night, when the 135-year-old Cork synagogue was closed because of falling attendances. It had hosted services there since 1905. The first wave of Jewish emigration to Co Cork was in 1772 with the influx of a small community of Sephardic Jews from Portugal.
Most of Co Cork’s Jews arrived there from Lithuania in the late 19th century, escaping persecution, as did the Jews who arrived in Limerick and Dublin then. It is believed that on arrival in Co Cork some among them thought they were in New York. By the late 1930s their population had reached a peak of about 450 to 500. Currently there are three synagogues in Dublin and one in Belfast. From a high of 3, 907 in 1946 Ireland’s Jewish population declined to a low of 1,581. The 28.9 per cent increase between 2011 and 2016 is by far its largest in over a century.
In general Irish-born Jews are an ageing population, but a new influx of Jews with the arrival of hi-tech US multinationals has contributed greatly to its population growth. Most of these, however, follow the trend of young people in the other larger faith groupings and are believed to be primarily secular and non-practising.
Patsy McGarry