The Rector Writes

Dear Friends,

Our thoughts this month are of course with our friend and colleague Sandra as she prepares to become Rector of Dundalk, Heynestown, Rathcor, Ballymascanlan and Creggan. As she mentioned in her article last month, she is taking on a big challenge, with five churches and a new parish grouping in this fast growing area. However, she has been a tremendously hard worker here, with her pastoral, preaching and administrative gifts greatly appreciated by all of us. Those of you have had cause to meet her pastorally will know how much she cares for those in need. You will have received a letter inviting you to a reception after 11.30 a.m. service on Sunday 8th May and I hope you will join us then.

I am delighted to be able to inform you that we have been able to appoint a new curate to be trained here in the parish. Her name is Elaine Dunne: aged 27, she is a native of Malahide and has been in full time education up to this point. More about her in the next issue, but please keep the date of her ordination free: 19th June in Christchurch Cathedral at 3.30 p.m.

As I write this letter, the new Pope Benedict XVI has just been elected. There is no doubt that the death of Pope John Paul II was a significant moment in the early years of the twenty-first century. Clearly, it is almost impossible to add more words of any significance to those already spoken and written about him. His personal charisma, his courage in suffering, his role in the collapse of European Communism, his theological writing and his travelling all marked his pontificate out as very special. I paid tribute to him in a letter written to some of our local Roman Catholic parishes on the morning after his death.

The new Pope has of course a reputation as being ultra conservative and hardliner on a number of issues including relations with other churches. However, it is important that we wait to see what happens in practice – we could yet be surprised…

Yours in Christ

Andrew

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