Parish Notices Sunday 22 December 2013

The Rector writes…….‘Thank you so much to all the Sunday School children who raised 165 euro for Nathan Kirwan in last Sunday’s cake sale. They were brilliant. One of the teachers said that now she knows the meaning of the saying ‘selling like hot cakes’ as the cakes just flew off the table!    We had a communication from Bishops’ Appeal this week thanking all of the parishes in the Church of Ireland for their tremendous contribution to help the people in the Philippines. 120,000 euro and 40,000 pounds sterling was received and money is still coming in. This is an amazing amount of money and Bishops’ Appeal are very grateful for the support. With all that is going on at present it is good to know that 100% of all money that comes to Bishops’ Appeal is used for the reason it is collected. I would also like to thank you all for your kind donations to Simon Community, Women’s Refuge and Penny Dinners. I emptied the boxes yesterday and delivered to the charities. The boxes will remain at the back of our churches throughout the year and I will empty and deliver as required over the year. Again thank you for all you give and do to make other people’s lives just that little bit easier. There will be a special Linksheet for Christmas Day so I will save all my festive greetings until then!’

TEA and COFFEE will be available after the 11am Service in the Parish Hall.

EPIPHANY SERVICE  will be in the Canon McCrea Hall in St Mary’s School rather than the Church on 6th January.  This is to allow all of  the children to attend a religious service on the feast of the Epiphany even though they are back in school.  All parishioners who were planning on coming to Church this day are very welcome and indeed encouraged to join with the school for this Service. You can be guaranteed you will never hear ‘We Three Kings’ sung with such gusto before!

CONFIRMATIONS 2014 If you would like to be confirmed in 2014, could you please let the Rector know as the classes will begin on 23rd January. All those who have already put their name down will be contacted before then.

CAMEO Come and Meet Each Other will meet again at 10.30 on Friday 3rd January in the Sailing Club Monkstown. All are welcome to come along and enjoy a cuppa and some good company.

8th ANNUAL YOUTH LEADERS TRAINING WEEKEND 24th—26th January The Quality Hotel, Clonakilty. Cost: €120 (waged) or €60 (unwaged). This great deal includes: dinner x 2, accommodation x 2 nights, breakfast x 2, lunch x 1 and access to pool and leisure centre! Booking form available from the  Diocesan Youth Council of the Church of Ireland in Cork www.cdyc.ie

RAINBOW PROGRAMME FOR 2014-A 12 week Rainbows Programme will be running for children in Spring 2014.  It is a peer-support programme to assist children and young people who have  experienced loss in their lives through divorce or separation in their family.  It is for children aged 9-12 years old and the programme runs for one hour every week in the Carrigaline Family Support Centre.  No cost.  They will also be running 2 Parenting Plus courses for parents in March 2014.  They will run the adolescent’s (11-16 years) and children’s (0-6 years) programmes. These are 8 week courses and will take place in the Carrigaline Community School. To find out more information or to reserve a place on either of these programmes please call  4919299.

 

FORWARD PLANNER

Dec 22nd      Nine Lessons & Carols 4pm St John’s Church

Dec 24th       Carols around the Crib 4pm St Mary’s Church

Dec 29th       United Parish Christingle Family Eucharist. 11am in St Mary’s Church

Jan 3rd  CAMEO in Monkstown Sailing Club 10.30am

Jan 6th Epiphany Service in St Mary’s N.S. 10.30am (not in church)

Jan 13th Toddlers plus one Group 10am Parish Hall

Monday Club 3pm Parish Hall

Jan 29th Theological Book Circle. 8pm Rectory.

 

Random Notes LXXVIII          

Once the Christmas dinner is finished and everyone relaxes with a few drinks inside them, conversations often end up about times past.

Below, my dad recalls a childhood Christmas, growing up in Glenbrook.

“”My earliest memory of Christmas was around 1943 (during the second world war) when there were no cars on the roads. On Christmas morning after church, the whole family would load up our presents and walk to the ferry in Glenbrook. We would cross the river on a rowing boat to Carrigaloe. My uncle Herbert would meet us there with a horse and trap and take us to my Grannie’s house on the other side of the Island of Cobh (or Queenstown as it was then known).

We would then meet up with all our uncles, aunts and cousins and enjoy a dinner of turkey and ham. After dinner we would dress up and play games and generally run wild!

Then at around 5 o’clock, Santa Claus would arrive. He would walk up the long avenue with a sack on his back and knock on the front door. The excitement would be unbearable! He would be brought in to the kitchen where there would be a Christmas tree full of presents. Santa would then hand out the presents to everyone. My favourite present was meccano.

Afterwards, we would have to go back home the way we came and drop in to bed exhausted – but very happy.

Ps. Santa  Claus never spoke much. I wondered why?!””

RCE