Parish News Archives - November 2006

Rector Writes | Readings & Services | From the Registers | Organisation Reports | Announcements | Other News

Rector Writes

Dear Friends,

November is a time for remembering: the season of Autumn and the drawing in of dark nights almost inevitably encourage us to think about change and about those who have gone before us. Because of this the Church also helps us to remember all those who have been our predecessors in the Christian faith. On November 1st we remembered All Saints, the great heroes and heroines of the faith. We have our annual Blessing of the Graveyards on Sunday 5th November.

Remembrance Sunday will this year be on 12th November, when we remember all those who have died in war, and still die in our broken world today.

In all our remembrance, we have the great Christian hope that Christ is Lord of all history and of the future and that the whole Church living and departed is in his care.

Posada
This coming Advent, we will once again be holding our Posada journey – for those of you new to the tradition, read on:

Advent is the time of “waiting”: waiting for the coming of Jesus at Christmas time, preparing ourselves to celebrate the coming of God into our world, a time when we recall Mary and Joseph waiting for the birth of Jesus.

Posada is a Spanish word meaning inn and the idea of a Posada celebration is to encourage all our families to prepare for Christmas by welcoming the nativity figures into our homes for a night, as a symbol of making room for Jesus in our hearts. The figures will leave from the Churches on Advent Sunday, visit a different home every night and then be brought back on Christmas Day. It will be the responsibility of each household to deliver the figures to the next family on the list, and there will be prayers to say when the figures arrive in your house.

It should be a very enjoyable way of meeting new people, and bringing home the message of Christmas to young and old alike.

If you would like to take part in Posada, there will be a list at the back of the Churches during November for you to sign up for a particular night. Please do join us!!!

Yours in Christ

From the Registers

Holy Baptism:
30th September: In St. Mary’s Clonsilla Edward Aiden Allen Nuzum, son of Allen and Elizabeth of Ongar

May he shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father.

Christian Marriage:
7th October: In St. Brigid’s Castleknock Trevor Gray and Maria Kelly (recently moved to Enniscorthy)

May their home be a place of love, security, truth and welcome.

Funeral:
10th October: Patricia Hilton of Parslickstown , Mulhuddart.

May she rest in peace and rise in glory

In Memorium:
Patricia Hilton
Trish Hilton’s sudden death at the age of just 37 shocked all who knew her. The large crowds at both removal and funeral testified to her friendliness and warmth, her spirit and kindness. A native of Ballymun, she had raised her family in Mulhuddart and was well known in the area and in the schools where she had worked. Our sympathy and prayers are especially with her 6 children: Marc, Jenna, Craig, Chris, Stephen and Colin; her partner William, mother Carol and her brothers and sisters. May she rest in peace and rise in glory.

Organisations Reports

Boys' Brigade
The company reopened at the end of September and we are delighted to report that there are now almost 70 boys in the 10th Dublin Co. We welcomed 16 new boys into anchor boys this season. This year we are delighted to have 16 boys in company section (this is the group for older boys).

We also welcome three new leaders: David Gibson-McKenna, Alex Kitching, and Rom Olusa. It is to great to have 10 leaders on board now as this will be a busy year with so many boys be kept occupied each week.

Sean Skehan takes over as leader of our biggest group junior section (ages 8-11). He is assisted by Jim O’Connell, Rory Sheils and David Gibson-McKenna.

Bernard Sheridan has moved up to Co. section to work alongside our company coordinator Lawrence O’Reilly.

John Anders remains on as anchor boy leader assisted by Lynda Ross-Dolan, Alex Kitching and Rom Olusa.

We are grateful to Dave Dobson who has agreed to continue on as our treasurer for another year.

Two of our anchor boy leaders retired this year (or hopefully have just taken a sabbatical).
We would like to say a huge thanks to Lorna Beattie and Linda McKiernan for their contribution to the company over the last couple of years.

The company is now settling down to its programme ,and we are looking forward to our enrolment in November.
We will also be attending the annual founders day service in St.Ann’s church Dawson Street at the end of October.

The anchor boys are going on an outing to Fitzone, Leopardstown in November where they get to meet boys from other companies

Company are also going on a hike in Glendalough at the beginning of November.

We will let you know how all these events went in the next issue.

Finally we would like to extend the prayers and good wishes of all the boys and leaders to Robert Lawson (former coordinator) as he commences his studies for the full time ministry.

Janet Seaman (secretary)

Mothers' Union
The MU has had a busy season so far beginning with the enrolment of five new members at our opening service in Clonsilla, welcome to Sandra Moloney, Clelia Murphy and Margaret Bentley, Gail Gibson McKenna and Olive Good. We congratulated Dorothy Robinson too on the fine achievement of 50 years in the Mothers Union. Our September meeting was a fun and social evening with a few guessing game, but the emphasis firmly on being together. Our October meeting was a presentation of Weekenders clothes by Paddi Mulholland who donated her commission to the hospice fund. There was also a collection of warm clothes and coats for those who will be on the streets this winter. Again this was a great night. As well as our usual meetings there is an open invitation to join the knitters (who also natter) who meet weeklyish to knit for the Simon community.

We are looking forward to the North Area meeting on 9.11.06 in Malahide at which the speaker will be Senator David Norris.

Susan Greene

Youth Club
Centre with a “fun night”. It was great to have 25 young people in attendance.
Everyone enjoyed a game of “Who wants to be a millionaire” as well as snooker and dodge ball. The evening finished off with hotdogs and minerals.

The next evening will be a “film and food night” and will be held in Clonsilla.
We would like to thank Kenneth Hill for his kind donation of a snooker table to the Youth Club. It will provide great entertainment and competition over the winter months.

We will be looking for some extra adult help now that our numbers have increased.
It is only for a couple of hours a fortnight and is really for “in the background” supervision. If you would like to volunteer please contact Ruby or Charles.

Youth Club is open to any parishioner who is in secondary school, and is held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month in either Castleknock or Clonsilla from 8pm-10pm.

Announcements

Farewell:
Sadly, our organist of nine years, Raymond Russell, has decided to retire from playing for us, owing to pressure of work. We will miss his inspiring playing, his enthusiasm for both teaching new music and getting us singing, and his sense of humour. The quality of music at worship is so important and we have been very fortunate to have had the services of someone of Raymond’s calibre over the last few years. We will have a chance to pay a full tribute to him later in the year.

National School Service:
Most of 6th class went to the Diocesan National School Service in Christ Church Cathedral and had great time, including a visit to McDonald’s afterwards! Thanks to Elaine who arranged free minibus transport from the Gardai.

Ecumenical matters:
Local Christian leaders met recently in Castleknock Parish Centre for coffee, with representatives from Catholic, C of I and Dublin West Community Church. As well as discussing practical items such as Lent courses and so forth, it was good to get to get to know one another better in an informal setting. We are pleased to welcome Fr. John Daly to Porterstown in succession to Fr. Martin Murnaghan.

Rugby Club Blessing:
Andrew recently joined other clergy in the blessing of the fine new extension to Coolmine Rugby Club’s Pavilion.

CCC Eucharist:
Elaine and Andrew once again joined C of I students at Castleknock CC to celebrate the Eucharist together. The school is once again leading the way in Ireland in discussing issues of religious ethos and education in an increasingly pluralist country, and it is good to see all the religious traditions made welcome in the school – something which is not always universal.

Harvests:
Our Harvest Festivals were once again thoroughly enjoyed by all, although the attendance at Mulhuddart was down owing to a certain golf tournament…. We welcomed Gillian Wharton from Booterstown and Mount Merrion at Mulhuddart, while Geoffrey McMaster from Newcastle came to Castleknock and Clonsilla. The churches looked better than ever; a big thank you to all who helped and decorated them. Thanks also to Hazel McClean for once again hosting the post Mulhuddart party.

Other News

Global warming is creating climate change refugees says christian agency

By Jordan Tchilingirian

Global warming will trigger millions of climate change refugees unless urgent action is taken, a new report has suggested.

The controversial and challenging scenario linking the two hot political topics of climate change and migration, is being spelt out by Evangelical charity and development agency Tearfund.

In the report released today, Feeling the Heat, the aid agency predicts that millions of climate change refugees will be one result of the impact of global warming on water supplies in the world’s poorest countries - unless urgent action is taken now.

“There will be millions more thirsty, hungry and ill poor people living in high risk areas of the world by the end of the century. It makes sense politically, economically and morally, for governments to act with urgency now” the report states.

Feeling the Heat, suggests that there are already 25 million ‘environmental refugees’ around the world, and that this figure is likely to increase as rain patterns continue to change and floods and storms become more frequent.

The report cites examples where the environmental exodus has already begun. In Mexico poor crop yields are forcing more and more people to risk death by illegally fleeing to the USA. In Brazil one in five born in the arid north-east of the country are forced to move to avoid drought.

In particular it highlights the spread of the Gobi desert, which is consuming its surroundings at a rate of 4,000 square miles a year. This is forcing the populations of three provinces in China to abandon their homes. In Nigeria, 1,350 square miles of land are turning to desert each year. Farmers and herdsmen are being forced to move to the cities.

Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director of Tearfund said; "One of the most devastating impacts of climate change is on water supply. In some parts of the world, floods, storms and poor rainfall are beginning to have catastrophic effects, threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of people."

The report contains a call on governments, meeting at the UN Climate Change conference in Nairobi on November 6-17th, to move towards a global framework for cutting C02 emissions that goes beyond the existing Kyoto Protocol. Representatives are being urged to commit their governments to billions more pounds to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.

The forward to the report is written by Sir John Houghton the former Chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He suggests that strong words from the world's leaders on climate change must now be matched by sufficient investment and strong action to cut global emissions, and help for the poorest nations to adapt to climate change on their doorstep.

“If your house is on fire, do you urgently try to save it, or throw your hands up in despair and walk away?" said Sir John. "Well, the house is on fire and it requires much more determined efforts to bring it under control and put it out. The UN climate change conference in Nairobi is an opportunity for failings to be addressed. Time is running out on us and Governments need to act much more responsibly, effectively and quickly."

A Thought

Listen carefully to other. Courtesy means good communication -
Develop the habit of keeping each other informed of where you are
and what you are doing.

Some Church Humour

SOME CHURCH HUMOUR
Thank God for church folk with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:

Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals."

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight:
"Searching for Jesus."

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.

St Mary's Church, Clonsilla

You may have noticed the scaffolding up along the side of St. Mary’s recently — this was due to the fact that a section of the guttering fell down and it had to be replaced — this along with the lighting that we are putting in along the driveway, all adds up to the additional expenses that we have along with the loan on the Centre.

We would like to ask anyone who took out a standing order to help with the building fund to please considering extending it for another couple of years. For further information please contact the Parish Office or the Rector.

A Thought

What goes around Comes around
what you sow - So shall you reap

Balancing Act

We are busy filling ourselves up with activities,
goals and responsibilities.
Emptying yourself is just as important.
It gives space for making new ways to live your life.

Pilates Classes

In Clonsilla Parish Centre
Opposite Clonsilla Train Station

Tuesdays - Beginners:
7pm-8pm from 14th Nov

Intermediate:
8pm-9pm from 14th Nov

6 Classes EUR 90
To book your place contact Angela on 086-3004774
(NCEHS Qualified)
Also available for:
Personal Training Sessions
Pre and Post Natal Sessions

Rector Writes | Readings & Services | From the Registers | Organisation Reports | Announcements | Other News

Parishes of Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla
Parish Office
Main Street
Castleknock
Dublin 15
Tel: 01-820 0040
Fax: 01-820 0040
E-mail: castleknock@dublin.anglican.org