Pew Sheet – 11th May 2025

Peter Coughlan writes ‘‘Stephanie and myself are the Christian Aid representatives of our union of Parishes. The Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross are currently supporting Christian Aid and their partner the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL) in the Malen District with a very important fund raising project entitled “Liloma” a word in the local language meaning Hope for the Future.

The Rev Tony Murphy visited the region in November of last year and met many of the people directly involved. He has kindly agreed to tell us of that amazing experience during our 11am service today – we know you will all be very interested in what Revd Tony has to share with us. After the service we will have coffee and tea in the parish hall and Tony, Stephanie and myself will be happy to chat to you all in more detail about the project.

Donations to the Christian Aid project can be made at the retiring collection at the 11am Service or in the hall after the Service. Thank You in advance ! ‘

Dates for your Diary

May

17th Cork Operatic Society Fundraising Concert Performance

4pm St Mary’s Church

Youth Group Board Games evening 7:30pm till 9pm

20th Screening of the Oscar winning Documentary ‘No Other Land’

7:30pm Parish Hall

June

1st Sunday Club Prizegiving 11am in St Mary’s Church

8th Confirmation Service 11am in St Mary’s Church

(no 9:30am Service that day)

21st Parish Féte in School Hall and Grounds 10am till 2pm

Youth Group BBQ 7:30pm till 9pm

Request for Volunteers for a Rota to cut the grass around St Mary’s Church. Depending on the number of volunteers, it should only be every 4 to 6 weeks. Please contact William Warren-Perry or Revd Richard Dring.

Summer lunch

to be held at Lee Valley Golf and Country Club, Ovens, Co.Cork on Wednesday 21st May 1.00pm

Cost 33.95 pp (main, dessert and coffee/tea)

We hope you can come and we can arrange a lift if necessary. Contact Deirdre 0862612442 or Valerie 0871270457 or Hilary Warren Perry 0862637137 to arrange a lift or book to join us, before 14th May.

Looking forward to a lovely day out!

Random Notes CDXC

Screening of No Other Land on May 20th, 7:30pm, Parish Hall.

Random Notes is supposed to be about interesting titbits from our locality and community, but I think I have repeatedly broken that rule to communicate something about an upcoming event. And I’m going to do it again here, to talk about our upcoming movie screening on May 20th.

We will be screening the 2024 documentary No Other Land, film directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor, in their directorial debut. A Palestinian-Israeli collective of four activists conceived and produced the film in what they describe as an act of resistance on the path to justice in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The film was recorded between 2019 and 2023 and shows the destruction of a Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, which had been resisting forced displacement after an Israeli “firing zone” was declared on their land.

A co-production between Palestine and Norway, the film was selected for the Panorama section at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 16 February 2024, winning the Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film and the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. The film won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards.

No Other Land was directed and produced by a Palestinian – Israeli team: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, three of whom feature in the documentary itself. Basel Adra was beaten by Israeli settlers in February 2025. In March 2025, Hamdan Ballal was attacked by Israeli settlers in his home and left with head injuries. He was taken by ambulance for medical care but was detained by the Israel Defence Forces. He was released a day later.

I have now screened this documentary twice in UCC, once for UCC’s Together 4 Palestine staff group, of which I am a member, and also for the Islamic Society. It is a very unfussy film and lets the facts on the ground speak for themselves. While not excessively violent, it is nonetheless a harrowing watch, especially with the casual brutality to which the Palestinian villagers in the community of Masafer Yatta are subjected. The impact of the film does not lessen on subsequent viewings.

No Other Land is 92 minutes long and will be screened in St Mary’s Parish Hall at 730pm on Tuesday May 20th. Tea, coffee and refreshments (including some medjool dates I hope) will be provided. I may explain briefly what some of us in UCC are doing, both to raise awareness of the situation in Gaza and the West bank, and also to directly help those who are suffering under the occupation. In particular we have just started a pilot project to strengthen online education in Birzeit University, the Lajee Center in Ayda Refugee Camp and possibly the Islamic University in Gaza.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Other_Land