Pew Sheet – 5th February 2023

The Rector writes ’ I wanted to especially thank Mary Murphy & Olna Trotter and the entire Parish Drama Group for their amazing efforts that culminated in last weekend’s plays.  It was spectacular! What a dedicated group they are. I’m already looking forward to their next foray! I know that a ’Play/Pageant’ is planned for November as part of our Bicentennial year. We officially begin that year next Tuesday 7th, with Choral Evensong at 7:30pm in St Mary’s Church. This liturgy will be exactly as it would have been 200 years ago (apart from the fact that the Rector is a female !)

Please do come along if at all possible. We are delighted to welcome Colin Nicholls and The Clerks Choral to sing and thank you to Bébhinn for organising it all.   Of course our Bishop needs no welcome to his own church in his own diocese but it will be lovely to hear him preach at the special Service and dedicate the new ‘4 Gospels Book’ bought in memory of our late friend Vivienne Sharpe. 

The Bishop will also re-dedicate the Parish Hall which, as most of you know, has undergone substantial renovations since the famous ‘hole-in-the-wall’ incident back in 2020.

One final thing to mention is that there will be NO midweek service on Wednesday 8th as the Clergy Conference takes place in Little Island that day.’ 

Music Notes 05-02-2023

Hymns at St Mary’s

647     Guide me, o thou great Jehovah

509     Your kingdom come, O God

55       Let this day be Holy

324     God whose almighty word

At the opening and close of our special anniversary service on February 7th you will hear two organ voluntaries.

The first is by the composer pictured here, John Stanley (1712-1786). He was born in London and had an accident at the age of two which resulted in blindness. It seems he fell on a marble hearth while carrying a china bowl.

He took up music and became a professional organist by the age of 12 and graduated from Oxford at the age of 17 – the youngest person ever to do so.    He was famous for his wonderful musical memory drawing crowds for his playing of organ voluntaries, publishing three sets between 1748 and 1754. The one you will hear on Tuesday mimics the effect of trumpets playing a fanfare in the second section.

The closing voluntary was written by Georg Berg who  was born in Germany but was based in London for most of his musical career. He was an organist and teacher of violin and harpsichord, as well as a composer of instrumental and vocal music. He was a keen amateur chemist and conducted over 672 experiments in glassmaking.

Bébhinn 087 228 5965

bebhinnmuire@gmail.com

St Mary’s Church, Carrigaline,   Bicentenary Photo Exhibition 

Wanted : Photographs to display at a Photo Exhibition of St Mary’s Church.

The theme includes the immediate vicinity, exterior, interior, or any detail.

Photo prints of ANY SIZE up to the maximum of 12” by 18”

Photos to be exhibited can be Current or Older, Colour or Black and White, and be Print or Digitally projected.

Closing date for entries is 1st March

Photos can be sent to;  

Lesley Roberts, Mount Rivers, Carrigaline,

Co Cork. P43 P497.  Tel no, 085 243 3920

or

William Warren-Perry, Beau Vallon, Strawhall, Monkstown, Co Cork. T12 TP9X.  

Tel no, 086 332 7915

williamwarrenperry@gmail.com

Advance Notice

Parish Fundraising Auction, Saturday, 18th February, 2023

If you have have any furniture, pictures, silver, jewellery, brass ware  kitchen ware or appliances (in good and working order!), garden furniture and implements, clocks, toys

(in good order), etc., etc., and would be prepared to donate same for the forthcoming, and much needed, auction, please contact any of the following:

Madeleine Geary, Rowland Newenham, Cecil Poole,

Olna Trotter, or Lesley Roberts. 

Collection of larger items etc. can be arranged. 

Article from The Irish Examiner 31/1/23 by LIZ DUNPHY

Historic church to host Cork’s latest music and arts venue

Their first live event sold out within hours, which points to the appetite for a live

music venue in the seaside town

Picture: David Creedon   

A new contemporary music and arts venue will launch in a historic church in Cork seaside town Monkstown in February with concerts by renowned singer-songwriters.

Live at St John’s is a new collaboration with St John’s Church in Monkstown and local residents Pat Kiernan — founder of ground-breaking Cork-based theatre company Corcadora which launched the careers of Cillian Murphy and Enda Walsh but closed after 31 years last October — and Graham White, founder of music collective FreezerRoom who collaborates with national and international musicians. 

Together, they aim to programme pop-up music and arts events in the landmark location.   Their first live event sold out within hours, which points to the appetite for a live music venue in the seaside town, Mr White said.

Award-winning singer-songwriters Jack O’Rourke and All the Queen’s Horses will perform the sold-out show on February 18, but more events are being planned for the space this year.   Details will be announced on their website but major names from the Irish and international folk and singer-songwriter genres can be expected for upcoming shows.  

Mr Kiernan, who has been living in Monkstown for six years, was supportive of Mr White’s idea of a Monkstown music and arts venue.    “I had experience with putting events on in venues that were not ready or equipped for performance, I thought I could bring that area of expertise to the project,   I thought it was a great idea to programme events. And it’s fantastic that the church has been so open and receptive to the idea, it really is a collaboration between us to make things happen.”   

Although Mr Kiernan is well known for expansive, site-specific theatre, the relatively small performance space in the church will dictate the types of events held there, which are likely to be acoustic gigs and perhaps stand-up comedy and other smaller-scale arts events, he said.  “By their nature churches were built in order for people to communicate in them. So they naturally lend themselves to performance,”

The beauty of the Gothic Revival church, first built in 1832, inspired Mr White to approach it for use as a music venue after he accompanied Jack O’Rourke to perform in a church in Tipperary last year and was struck by its quality and resonance as a music venue.   Churches can be brought back into the centre of communities again by providing spaces for arts, culture and connection, Mr White said.  “There are churches in almost every town in Ireland, many of them are only used a few times a week so this is something more towns could do, it’s great to bring artists to perform outside of the cities and to bring more people into these places again.”

St John’s is a small Gothic Revival church which is part of the Church of Ireland’s Carrigaline Union of Parishes in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross.  The Church is still in regular use, with services every Sunday at 9:30am.   The Monkstown Chamber Choir, a robed choir, sing Choral Evensong at 7pm on the Second Sunday of each month, excluding Summer months.

Ticket availability for new shows will be announced at www.liveatstjohns.com.