Parish Notices Sunday 24th January 2016

The Rector writes ‘There is so much happening in the next little while I don’t know where to begin! One exciting event is the  Songs of Praise on 14th February. Pick up a form at the back of the church and start getting votes for your favourite hymn, just a bit of fun but it will raise much needed funds for Focus Ireland as well as allowing some lovely hymns to be sung by our own lovely Chamber Choir. Another date to note is the annual opening of the Vestry Register on 15th February. If you’d like to be on the Register, the Church Wardens have a simple form which must be filled in by you. Then on Monday 15th February, your name will be added to the parish register which allows you to have a vote in the subsequent Easter Vestry meeting on 14th April which is when the Select Vestry for 2016/7 are voted in. Its all very democratic indeed and I’m sure we’ll be sick of elections by then! (see the Random notes this week for what to watch out for in the auld spiel you’ll be getting at the door!) Another special date is 18th March when we will be hosting a Concert ’Music in March’ in St Mary’s Church. Dan Twomey, the Tenor, will be the Soloist along with the Carrigaline Singers and our own Monkstown Chamber Choir. It’ll seem like altogether too much enjoyment for Lent! As I say, exciting times, so keep an eye on the Forward Planner ’

New year: New opportunities to share your time and talents-At the recent Gift Day, some people registered their interest in sharing their time and talents within the Parish.  If you haven’t already, do tick a few boxes on the Time and Talents form and share your ideas with us.  Completed forms may be handed to Eddie Pierce (087 255 7505), Ingrid Glen (085 888 8044) or a Church Warden.   From music to muscles, we will do our best to match-make!

CONFIRMATION 2016  Confirmation Classes in the Rectory will start on Saturday February 6th.  If you haven’t already, please let the Rector know if you would like to be confirmed in 2016.

DIOCESAN MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS for 2016 are due by 31st January. The annual subscription is €23. Please pay Rowland Newenham or the Church Wardens.

Monkstown home group will meet on Wednesday 26th January in the Warren-Perry’s home at 8 pm. From then on it will be at the Lenten study meeting in  Carrigaline.

CARRIGALINE HOME GROUP meets on Thursday 27th January at 8pm in the Poole’s home. Deirdre Whitley will be speaking on Counselling issues.

Songs of Praise Choral Evensong. In St John’s Church, Monkstown on 14th February at 7pm, there will be a “Songs of Praise Choral Evensong”. This is an opportunity for parishioners to choose their favourite hymn from our hymn book, and ask people to sponsor the hymn at 50 cent per vote. The most popular hymns will be sung on the evening! Sponsorship cards are available at the back of the churches, or from the church wardens. The proceeds will be sent to the ever deserving charity – “Focus Ireland”.

Owenabue Garden and Flower club, Carrigaline, will hold their AGM on Monday 25 January in the Canon McCrea Hall, St Mary’s NS. This will be followed at approx 8.45 pm with a talk by Charlie Wilkins on “Aspects of Fota”. Visitors are welcome to the talk. Enquiries to 086 322 2615.

NEXT WEEK

25th Jan  Toddlers Plus One 10 to 12pm Parish Hall

Monday Club 3 to 5pm Parish Hall

Play Rehearsal 7.30pm St Mary’s Church

26th Jan   Monkstown Home Group  8pm Warren-Perry home

27th Jan   Carrigaline Home Group 8pm Poole Home

29th Jan   CAMEO 10.30am Monkstown Sailing Club

FORWARD PLANNER

31st Jan    United Service 11.15am  St John’s Church

Service of Wholeness & Healing 7pm St Mary’s

6th Feb     Confirmation Class 6 to 8pm Rectory

10th Feb   Ash Wednesday. Lenten Study Course in Parish Hall  at approx. 8pm immediately after the 7.30pm Eucharist Service in St Mary’s Church.

14th Feb   Songs of Praise Choral Evensong. 7pm St John’s.

15th Feb   Annual update of Vestry Register 7pm Parish Hall

16th Mar   St Patrick’s Eve Eucharist as Gaelige 7.30 St Mary’s

18th Mar   ‘Music in March’ Concert 7.30pm St Mary’s. Dan Twomey (Tenor) , The Carrigaline Singers & Monkstown Chamber Choir.

14th Apr    Annual Easter Vestry 7pm Parish Hall

 

Random Notes CLXXIX

It’s election season, both in Ireland and in the USA. If you’re interested in elections, courtroom dramas, Dáil debates, or just a good old fashioned argument, here’s a small list of logical fallacies. A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning and, while it may seem persuasive, in fact it’s wrong.

Ad hominem Attacking your opponent’s character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument. Ad hominem attacks can take the form of overtly attacking somebody, or casting doubt on their character. The result of an ad hominem attack can be to undermine someone without actually engaging with the substance of their argument.

Bandwagon Appealing to popularity or the fact that many people do something as an attempted form of validation. The flaw in this argument is that the popularity of an idea has absolutely no bearing on its validity. If it did, then the Earth would have made itself flat for most of history to accommodate this popular belief.

Slippery Slope Asserting that if we allow A to happen, then Z will consequently happen too, therefore A should not happen. The problem with this reasoning is that it avoids engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts attention to baseless extreme hypotheticals. The merits of the original argument are then tainted by unsubstantiated conjecture.

Begging The Question A circular argument in which the conclusion is  included in the premise. This logically incoherent argument often arises in situations where people have an assumption that is very ingrained, and therefore taken in their minds as a given. Circular reasoning is bad mostly                 because it’s not very good.

Strawman  Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack. By exaggerating, misrepresenting, or just completely fabricating someone’s argument, it’s much easier to present your own position as being reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to undermine rational debate.

This is just a selection of five from many more that can be found at https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/. You can print a poster from this site and play fallacy bingo during election season. Logical fallacies are in fact studied as part of law, philosophy, the sciences, mathematics and computing. It should be obvious, however, that the logical argument does not always win!

SJFW