Pew Sheet – 22nd November 2020

The Rector writes        ‘Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, when we celebrate the Kingship of Christ. Then next week we will begin a new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent. As today we remember and reflect on Jesus Christ as King, we are perhaps a little more prepared to enter into the season of Advent. 

Although Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical year, we can see the whole cyclical nature of the liturgical calendar and how it ties its beginning in with its end. 

During Advent, we again wait in anticipation of the birth of the baby Jesus, our Messiah. During this last liturgical year in our churches, we have witnessed to the birth, ministry & teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and now here we are today , awaiting his coming again as King. 

So ending the year by remembering Christ as King, can help us all to look both backward and forward:  backward, so that we might better celebrate the joyful incarnation of Jesus; and forward, so that we might be watchful servants waiting for the day when Christ our King will come again’ 

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Random Notes CCCLXVI

“My brother lives in London and on a visit home to Cork a few years ago, he visited Fota House. He put a random picture of the house on Facebook and one of his friends in the UK put up

a comment  saying that he spent the first few years of his life there as his Great Grandmother was Dorothy Bell. His name is Andrew Petherick. My brother said that Andrew was about my own age, so would have been born sometime around 1970. We didn’t think much more about it until I saw the below photograph at a small exhibition in the frameyard at Fota.

I thought…”could this be Andrew?” I sent the picture to my brother who then forwarded it on to Andrew and he replied “Yes – that’s me!!”

I began some genealogy research and with the help of the very knowledgeable Catherine Coakley, who is a volunteer at Fota, we established that Andrew’s grandmother was Evelyn Bell. Evelyn Bell was born in 1921, a daughter to Major Bertram and Dorothy Bell. In 1939, she married David Petherick with whom they had a son called Robin. Evelyn and David divorced in 1945 and Evelyn then went on to marry Captain Dacres Dixon. After having three children together, Evelyn and Captain Dixon divorced. In 1961, Evelyn re-married David Petherick before divorcing him again in 1971!!!

So, my brothers friend, Andrew Petherick’s father is Robin, who was born in the early 1940’s to Evelyn and David. Apart from being a fascinating story, it is interesting to note that only the Dacres Dixon children are mentioned in the peerage documents. The Petherick’s are not to be seen anywhere. ”

RCE