Pew Sheet – 1st February 2026
The Rector writes ‘Today we celebrate one of our National Saints .. Brigid… and as with St Patrick, we get to enjoy a Bank Holiday as well! The readings and collect in our services reflect St Brigid but at the end of the Service we will also have the liturgy for Candlemas.
Candlemas, also called the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, falls on 2nd February each year and marks the true end of Christmas and Epiphany, we now turn towards Lent, Ash Wednesday is 18th February this year. As we have done in previous years, our Spire Stars are turned off and our Giving Tree is emptied, the gifts you have all given so generously will be distributed to our charities (Cork Simon, Cork Penny Dinners and Cuan Lee Refuge) and all of the remaining gift type stuff will be given to our local charity shops. Thank you once again for all!
Music Notes 01-02-2026
Hymns at St Mary’s
348 Fill thou my life
460 For all your saints in glory
70 Holy God, we praise Thy name
20 The King of love
St Brigid’s feast is celebrated today. She is second only to St Patrick in rank in the Irish tradition. Her church at Kildare attained considerable early importance and was an important rival to Armagh in achieving supremacy over all churches in Ireland. Padraig O Riain in his wonderful A Dictionary of Irish Saints says:
Her cult spread well beyond Ireland to Britain and the Continent. In Ireland, thirty-five townlands named Kilbride and the eight named Kilbreedy give an indication of the spread of her cult which even reached the south coast at Tower Street in Cork city, at Liscleary, near Carrigaline….at Templebreedy near Croshaven at Myross, near Glandore, and at Templebreedy in the parish of Tullagh, near Baltimore.
Brighid’s record shows that she stood alone among the women saints of Ireland, a rival in importance to Patrick and Colum Cille, an abbess whom all other abbesses revered, a bishop in all but name, of such high status that she came to be regarded, possibly as early as the seventh century, as ‘Mary of the Irish’.*
We are including a verse sung in her honour during our second hymn today.
Music News
The parish choir rehearses on Thursday afternoon from 2.30-4.00 p.m. We are always delighted to welcome new members. If you think you might be interested, why not come for a taster – we can promise some good music and plenty of fun too!
Free introductory organ lessons are available until the end of May – all ages and stages are welcome.
Just phone or email Bébhinn.
087 228 5965
*Padraig O Riain, A Dictionary of Irish Saints (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2011).
Saturday 7th February
Heavenly Cocktail Evening with the Rector
Fundraiser in the Parish Hall.
Tickets are €25 and places are limited, please contact Brenda Haubold
087-6976552 to book a place.
M.U. meeting on Wednesday 25th February
at 3pm in the Parish Hall.
Subject: ” Guide Dogs Change Lives”.
A guide dog- owner will bring their Ambassador dog and talk about the training and ongoing benefit for a visually impaired person.
Refreshments to follow and all welcome.
The Owenabue Garden and Flower Club, Carrigaline are celebrating our 50th Anniversary
with a Celebration 5 course Lunch, featuring a floral demonstration by Lorraine O’Brien AOIFA.
On Saturday 28th February 2026 in the Carrigaline Court Hotel from 10.30 am.
Tickets €50, non members welcome, tickets are limited.
owenabuegardenclub@gmail.com
February
Sunday 1st
3:30pm Confirmation Service St Fin Barre’s Cathedral
Saturday 7th
7:30pm Heavenly Cocktail Evening Parish Hall
Ash Wednesday 18th
10:30am Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes
St Mary’s Church
7:30pm Holy Communion with Imposition of Ashes
St Mary’s Church
8pm Lenten Study ‘Come & See’ Parish Hall
(also by Zoom, link in that week’s Pewsheet Email)
Saturday 21st
Bake off Youth Group night in the Parish Hall,
7:30-9pm.
Monday 23rd
7:30 to 8pm Vestry Register Open Parish Hall
Wednesday 25th
3pm Mothers’ Union Meeting
8pm Lenten Study ‘Come & See’ Parish Hall
(also by Zoom, link in Pewsheet Email)
Friday 27th
CDYC 5 aside soccer tournament, Bandon Grammar, 6pm. We are looking to make a team or two of 5 youth from Carrigaline. Please contact Oriel Hosford for more details.
March
Sunday 1st
Mothers’ Union Famine Lunch, immediately after the 11am Service.
Saturday 21st
Youth group in the Parish Hall from 7:30-9pm
Random Notes DXVII
PARISH STREAMERS
Do you know how to use Microsoft Word? Or a web browser? Can you use a mouse and keyboard? That’s all the knowledge you need to join us in streaming church services every Sunday from St Mary’s at 1100.
We started streaming on a weekly basis nearly 6 years ago at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then we’ve upgraded hardware, software and our internet connection so we now have a modern 4-camera system that allows us to communicate the full richness of our public worship to those who cannot be with us. The streaming of services is a ministry in itself and we frequently reach up to 10 people every Sunday.
We know from parishioners and friends that the online service is a huge comfort to those who cannot get to church in person. When I have been travelling, I have been able to tune in from Tanzania, with others watching from as far way as Australia. We’d have to broadcast to the Moon to reach further!
However, at the moment our streaming group is a little too small to maintain a comfortable streaming rota. This is especially the case when two members are also lay readers.
If you are interested in joining, we would love to hear from you. The more people we have, the fewer Sundays you have to do it! Newcomers will be fully trained and will be supported by an experienced streamer for the first couple of services.
If you are interested, feel free contact me by phone
or on WhatsApp at (086) 083-0639 or email me at simonwoodworth@gmail.com.
Contacting me does not oblige you to commit – perhaps you’d like to sit in on a streaming session before deciding.
Please give it some thought.
SJFW
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