Pew Sheet – 28th June 2020

The Rector writes  ‘ Hopefully next Sunday 5th July we will again have our churches open for worship.  Remember that the times have changed to 9am & 11am in St Mary’s and 10am in St John’s.  Unfortunately we do need to know who is coming to the Services and thank you to those who have let me know already.

Can those of you who are hoping to come to one of the three Services please let me know so that one particular Service is not over-subscribed? (My contact details are 087-2363100, 021-4372224 , emitincork@gmail.com)

We can only fit 40 people in St Mary’s and 25 in St John’s and we would hate to have to turn anyone away!  Don’t forget that we will also continue to livestream the 11am Service so you can tune in from home if that is what you’d prefer to do at this early stage of coming out of lockdown. 

We won’t be using the Prayer Books when we get back, I will expand on the Pew sheet to include the Service wording and you can bring these home with you.  As we won’t be singing congregationally for the time being , we won’t need hymnals.   Please do wear a facemask to church as this is the current recommendation for when we can’t adequately socially distance and when we are with groups of other people.  It will help keep other, more vulnerable people safe.  We’re getting there! 

MUSIC NOTES 28/06/2020

This Sunday is the third after Trinity and some of the music choices for today reflect the fact that we are in Trinity time.

Two pieces by J.S. Bach open our service today.

The first is an arrangement  of the lovely ‘Arioso’ by Bach from his cantata BWV 156. Originally written as an oboe solo accompanied by orchestra, it is most often heard nowadays as a cello solo.

The service prelude is the wonderful ‘Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ’, also by Bach. It is a hymn written for Trinity time and is a heartfelt supplication to the Lord to live a life of faith:

I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ,

Grant me grace at this time.

Let me not despair.

In true faith, Lord, I aspire

to live unto you.

To be of use to my neighbour,

To keep your word.

The setting is for three voices, the melody on top, and a pleading inner voice over a throbbing bass line. It is one of Bach’s best loved organ pieces.

As an interlude before the prayers you will hear ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ written by Ennio Morricone for the film ‘The Missionary’.

Our offertory hymn today is “Here I am, Lord”. This hymn was written by Daniel Schutte in 1981 when he was working for the Jesuit order in St. Louis Missouri around the time of the second Vatican Council, a time of renewal for the Catholic church. The hymn is arranged by Betty Pulkingham (1928-2019), wife of a Methodist minister who was active with her husband Graham in fellowship outreach in Burlington, North Carolina. They were invited to minister in England in the diocese of Coventry and subsequently in Scotland.

The hymn has a Trinitarian structure: God as Redeemer in verse 1, Christ as sufferer and lover of humanity in verse 2, and the Holy Spirit as provider of help in verse 3. It is the ultimate ecumenical hymn, loved by Christians of all denominations.

Our concluding service music today is provided by Rachel and Alison Warren-Perry, who play an arrangement of Gounod/Bach’s ‘Ave Maria’ for piano and recorder.

As we conclude this streaming-only period of services I would like to thank those who have been in touch with encouragement and offers to contribute musically. It has been a pleasure to share some favourite organ pieces with you virtually, and I look forward to playing a ‘proper’ organ again soon in St. Mary’s. Special thanks to Simon Woodworth who has been so accommodating and helpful throughout.

.

Random Notes CCCXLVI

Last week  Cork Migrant Centre organised  a Webinar on the experience of

young people of colour in this region.

The session had two parts 

A: Individual presentations  from 10 young people of colour outlining their

personal experiences

B: Questions addressed to a panel discussion including  the CEO of Tusla,

The Ombudsman for Children, President of Irish Primary Schools Principal’s Network, a Garda Inspector, a Rep from Cork Chamber of Commerce.

The session opened with contributions from the Mayor of Cork County , Cllr Ian Doyle  and the Lord Mayor Joe Kavanagh.

I found the individual contributions from the ten young people to be a significant learning experience.

The broad context is that the contributors were either born in Ireland or have lived the greater portion of their lives in this place, which they see as their home , but not necessarily a  welcome home.  Some made the point that they had proactively attempted to understand Irish Culture but they saw no evidence of an attempt to understand their culture

While some experiences related to outright racism, possibly more disturbing was casual racism or being told that comments– which they experienced as offensive– were not racist.

While the structure of this virtual  meeting did not allow one to validate or discuss the experiences outlined there was a constant theme running through the contributions and some strongly felt emotions. (This may have been the first occasion where some of these young people had an opportunity in a public forum to express themselves and share their experiences ).

Some experiences quoted

One contributor described her distress on   being complimented that she “was pretty for a black girl” . She expressed the view that “kids are full of hopes and dreams and we shouldn’t kill these dreams”.

Another described an incident where an internal  disagreement between classmates in relation to how a sports team should be, run led to the fellow  classmate complaining to the teacher.  The teacher’s response to the girl of colour was  that “you were not brought here to be a terrorist”.  objecting to this she was told she was “making something out of nothing”.

More extreme cases quoted included

a group of girls on a school trip singing at the back of the bus using the “N” word . When pupils of colour came to the teachers they said they would do

something about it but in fact did not see action being taken.

Being outside a house for rent with ones mother while she was told   “We’re not renting this house to black people”.

A comment “ they feel sorry for those inbreds in Direct Provision”

The Panel Discussion took the form of questions to the panel.

The question could be  submitted on a Chat line . The  initial question related to  how many people of colour were working in the organisations of those on the panel

The Primary School principal representative  tried to explain the difficulty in recruiting with the Irish Language requirement , but hoped  that soon sufficient people of colour would be able to qualify;

The Garda Inspector  stressed that people were chosen objectively on qualifications.   (There did not seem to be any focus  on the need for positive discrimination in terms of recruitment )

The Tusla CEO placed the Direct Provision in line with classical thinking in the past in this country  of putting people into a building , building big walls around it and thinking that that problem was solved

An overall theme was that these young people did not feel accepted and asked whether we recognised their fears, anxieties and hopelessness.

There was a  plea for anti-racist policies rather than being seen  simply as  a subset of anti-bullying policies

Equally there was a very strong plea for sufficient education which would ensure that if they made a complaint it would be treated seriously .

The Revd Tony Murphy