Parish Notices Sunday 5th January 2020
The Rector writes
’Happy New Year… and also Happy Epiphany (which I have transferred back to today from tomorrow!)
I have included again the words of T.S. Eliot’s moving poem ‘Journey of the Magi’ on the back page. Eliot wrote it in 1927 after his own conversion to Christianity.
Tomorrow we will mark the official Epiphany with a Service in St Mary’s School and those of you who are free tomorrow morning are very welcome to join with us at 10am in the Canon McCrea Hall. “
Littlies Plus One-HELP! The toddler group needs some more people to help out. Are you free on a Monday morning for 2.5 hours? Could you go on our rota and help out every 4/5 weeks? Please contact Hilary on 086-3680513.
Christian Aid Calendars for 2020 are available at the back of both churches at a price of €10. Payment can be given to the wardens who will pass it on to John Sweeney, our Christian Aid rep.
Monkstown home group is scheduled for Wednesday 8th January 2020 at 8pm in Lesley Robert’s home – Mount Rivers Carrigaline.
WHIST NIGHT for CARRIGALINE WELCOME GROUP There will be a Charity Whist Night in the Canon McCrea Hall on Saturday 18th January with all funds raised going to local Carrigaline Welcome Project (Community Sponsorship Project to welcome a Refugee family in the area) Please do support the night. If you can’t already play Whist, you have a chance to learn on 6th or 13th January when there will be classes in the Parish Hall beginning at 8pm, come along and watch the Rector make a fool of herself! Huge thanks to Henry Forbes and Barney Deane for the organising of this Whist Night Fundraiser and if you have any item suitable for a Spot / Raffle Prize, just let them know. Thank you.
ANAM CARA CORK the organisation that supports bereaved parents, is holding a Parent Evening on 8th January at 7:20pm in The Clayton Hotel, Cork City . This is a free event and open to all bereaved parents. For more information, see anamcara.ie or call our Information Line on 085 2888 888.
Music Notes 5-01-2020
These weekly notes owe a great deal to two wonderful online resources for anyone interested in the history of hymn tunes, texts and authors. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology offers over 5,000 articles with information on every aspect of hymns and hymnals both online and in print. Jeremy Dibble, who is music editor, was lecturer at University College Cork for a time. Hymnary.org is a purely online resource, based at Calvin University USA, and offers a similar service but is additionally useful as it provides tunes and arrangements as well as informative articles. it proved very useful recently when a request was made for a melody from the 1919 Hymnal. Facebook users can follow Hymnary to read regular posts on seasonal hymns.
6th Jan Epiphany Service 10am in St Mary’s School,
Littlies + One 10-12 Parish Hall
6th & 13th Whist Class, 8pm Parish Hall
8th Jan Monkstown Home Group. 8pm Lesley Robert’s home.
9th Jan Select Vestry Meeting 8pm Rectory
15th Jan Mothers’ Union Lunch 1:30pm Parish Hall
18th Jan Special Whist Night 8:30pm in Canon McCrea Hall for CEPT Carrigaline Welcomes Group
3rd Feb Theological Book Circle 8pm Rectory
The Journey of the Magi, by T.S. Eliot
A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp, the very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices: A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night, sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying that this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down. This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
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