Announcements
Parish Open Day | All Souls' | The Annual Ecumenical Blessing of the Graves | Posada | Christmas Carols | Christmas Services and events | Advent services | Parish News Distribution | Visiting preachers | Builders, builders! | Lay Readers to be commissioned
Parish Open Day:
A most successful Parish Open Day saw a large crowd come to Castleknock Parish Centre. There, they browsed the stalls which all our organisations had provided and then enjoyed a great meal and glass of wine. There were many new faces and lots of old ones too! It was a great way for all the people in our community to get to know one another better and find out what was on offer for all ages. Many thanks to all the organisation leaders who worked so hard on their stalls, and especially to the Communications Committee (Sandra Connolly, Valerie Fildes, Philip Good and Iain Greenway ) who worked very hard on the organisation, catering and administration of the day.
All Souls’:
A Eucharist was celebrated in St. Mary’s for All Souls’ Day. The names of many who have passed away were remembered and we gave thanks for all that was good and true in their lives. Thanks to Aisling Shine for presiding.
The Annual Ecumenical Blessing of the Graves took place in both Clonsilla and Castleknock on Sunday 6th November and as usual huge crowds attended, along with a number of the local Roman Catholic clergy. A combined total of over €3,100 was raised for the Laura Lyn Children’s Hospice Appeal. Both Laura and Lyn McKenna are buried in the churchyard at Castleknock.
Posada:
Once again, both parishes are inviting families to take turns to invite the crib figures of Mary and Joseph into their homes to mark the journey from Advent Sunday to the nativity on Christmas Day. It is a great way to prepare our homes as well as our hearts for the real meaning of Christmas, and encourages us to pray with each other in our homes. The children love this each year, and parishioners have enjoyed meeting and getting to know each other and being able to pray together as a family in the house (in some cases for the first time). It is a great way for the whole family to prepare for Christmas.
Christmas Carols:
Castleknock National School is holding its Carol Service at St Brigid’s at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday 11th December. On 18th December, there will be mince pies served after the 10.00 a.m. service in Clonsilla. The Carol Service for the joint parishes is at 7 p.m. at St Brigid’s on Sunday 18th December, followed by seasonal refreshments in the Castleknock Parish Centre. Do join us!
Christmas Services and events:
The First Eucharist of Christmas will be on Saturday 24th Dec at 11.30 p.m. in St Brigid’s. On Christmas Day, the Eucharist will be celebrated at St Mary’s at 10 a.m. and at St Brigid’s at 8.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.
In Christmas Week, there will be Holy Communion in the Parish Centre at 10.30 a.m. on 26th, 27th, and 28th December.
Advent services:
Each Wednesday night in Advent we will be having a short prayer service with music from the Taize community. The services will be at 8 p.m. in St. Brigid’s and all are welcome.
Parish News Distribution:
Our Parish News distributors do their best to ensure that the magazine reaches you as soon as possible after publication on the first weekend of each month. However, many of them are busy people with heavy workloads and it can be hard to find time to deliver the magazine. However, there isn’t much point to a magazine which arrives when the events are over! So two appeals:
to magazine distributors: If you find that you cannot deliver the magazine on time very often, please let us know, so we can find someone to take over
to readers: if your magazine reaches you very late regularly, please let the Parish Office know
We are looking at the possibility of providing the magazine in electronic (PDF) format. Please let the Parish Office know if you would like to receive the magazine in this way, which would reduce postage costs and/ or work for the distributors. The magazine is also posted on the Parish website at the time of publication, if you would prefer to read it in that format.
Visiting preachers:
In January we will welcome Martin O’Connor, the national organiser of the Bishops’ Appeal to talk about their work in emergency relief aid and long term development. He will be with us on January 15th. On January 22nd we will be carrying out our traditional Unity Week pulpit swap, as member of our churches come and share their hopes and dreams for ecumenism with us.
Builders, builders!
At the time of writing, we moving towards the end of the building work in St. Brigid’s. Pointing in the roof valleys had crumbled over the years and problems with the lead flashing had allowed water to seep into the roof sections at the rear of the church. This in turn had led to an outbreak of dry rot in a small section of the roof trusses. Some of the timber has had to be replaced, repointing carried out and quite extensive replastering of the walls has been undertaken. All of the roof timbers have been treated with dry rot protection, guaranteed for thirty years. We have followed that with a complete internal painting - the first time since 1963! This should leave us with a very sound and beautiful church for many years to come. The total for all this work, which requires specialist heritage contractors, has come to around €70,000. We should be able to meet some of the cost of this with grant aid, but the vestry’s reserves have also been substantially reduced. This makes it even more important that we give realistically to support our church into the future……
Lay Readers to be commissioned:
Parishioners Stella Obe and Martha Waller will be commissioned as Lay Readers by the Archbishop in Christchurch cathedral on January 15th at 3.30 p.m. Please do make an effort to support them on this very special occasion, for both them and our parish. Plans are being finalised at the moment, but it seems likely that Stella will be working as part of our ministry team, while Martha will continue to be based in St. George and St. Thomas, Cathal Brugha St, where she has been training. Congratulations to both Martha and Stella for completing this intensive course of study and having their ministries recognised in this special way.
Parish Open Day | All Souls' | The Annual Ecumenical Blessing of the Graves | Posada | Christmas Carols | Christmas Services and events | Advent services | Parish News Distribution | Visiting preachers | Builders, builders! | Lay Readers to be commissioned
