Every issue Free! Monkstown Voice Monkstown Parish Church, St Patrick’s Church, Monkstown & the Society of Friends Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 3 Lent & St Patrick’s Day March 2017 PAGE 2 MONKSTOWN PARISH CHURCH, ST PATRICK’S CHURCH AND THE FRIENDS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 Monkstown’s Community Newsletter Canon Roy Byrne writes… Meeting is the annual gathering offering an opportunity to every Friend to meet together in worship to review Storm Doris is causing wind, rain and a ferocious amount of matters of business and oversight. The website litter to swirl around the village as I write and the temptation www.quakers.ie is visited up to 1,500 times a week or to stay indoors, light the fire and hide for the evening is 77,000 times a year. Friends are also active on Facebook looking rather appealing! Such is the joy and unpredictability and Twitter.. The addresses are Quakers Ireland on of Spring weather. Spring though is about new life and new Facebook and @QuakerIreland on Twitter. growth and all around us the daffodils are blooming and the stirrings of a new season spurs us onwards. In the Church we The Sunday School of Monkstown Quaker Meeting gets move from Epiphany towards Lent and by the time this involved in the organization of an annual Hungry Lunch magazine is being read Ash Wednesday will be behind us and event. This year it will be held on Sunday 26 March the remainder of Lent’s 40 days lies ahead. I still have vague when the Sunday Meeting for Worship concludes at memories of the austerity of the Lent of former years and the 11.30 am. The aim is to raise funds for a donation to go memory of RTE’s output of devotional programming to a nominated charity. All participants are asked to increasing over the season but today things are rather contribute a sum equivalent to whatever they might different and we are exploring new ways of ‘doing Lent’ with normally spend on their Sunday lunch while joining an emphasis of taking up rather than giving up. In together in a frugal lunch of bread and soup. Monkstown Parish Church we are hosting a series of special Internet information is available at www.quakers-in-ireland.org Wednesday evening Lenten services with an address on the Neville Keery: 087 947 4687 email: [email protected] theme of Justice which hopefully will give us food for thought during the season. All are most welcome to come Fr Michael Coady writes… and join us and already the rector of Dun Laoghaire has indicated that she and her parishioners are planning on Once again, this year, the Christian Churches in the area joining us for the Lenten season which is something to look will join together for prayer and reflection during Holy forward to. Week. In recent years these services have been welcomed and very well attended by all denominations. A lovely symbolic act took place recently when Fr Michael The sense of togetherness and spiritual bonding was and I jointly blessed the new Monkstown tower cross which palpable. The culmination of these services takes place replaced the lightening-damaged old cross. A video of the in a “Sonrise” service at sunrise in Kill Abbey, Kill of raising of the cross may be seen on the parish facebook page the Grange, on Easter Sunday morning. We will publish - look under ‘Monkstown Parish Church’ and follow the a timetable for the services in the next issue of video link. How appropriate that such a prominent symbol of Monkstown Voice. Because of the Alpha Course, now our collective Christian faith should be ecumenically blessed taking place in our Parish Centre on Wednesday and to be in place as we celebrate Lent together. evenings, we have deferred our planned evenings of discussion and reflection on global warming until May. Community is so important and at the heart of what our The title for these evening will be “Caring for our Sacred three Christian communities in the village are all about. The Earth” and they will take place on Wednesday 17 and 24 meeting held recently in the Quaker Meeting House to May. A parishioner of St Patrick’s has very generously discuss forming a Tidy District committee proved that made a contribution to refurbish the seats in the church. people care and are interested in our village life and we look The seats may well be the original seats which were forward to seeing the results of this endeavour in due course. fitted in the church when it opened in 1866. One of the Storm Doris left a trail of mess but already people have been seats was returned for a period as an example of what spotted picking up the litter and branches and that is good to the seats will look like when the refurbishment is see! complete. The effect was stunning. We look forward to Monkstown Parish Church wishes you all a happy and the completion of the project later this month. As part th fulfilling season of Lent and as always extends a very warm of the 150 celebration our parish took part in the welcome to anybody who wishes to come and join us at any studio broadcast mass on Sunday 26 February. It went of our services and events. extremely well. Thanks to our choirs and our readers who took part in the broadcast. Also, as part of our Parish Office 2147714 email: [email protected] 150th celebrations, we are holding a parish mission. The mission which will begin on Sunday 23 April will run for Neville Keery writes… five days until Friday 28 April. The Mission will be There is a Meeting for Worship every Sunday from 10.30 to conducted by the Redemptorist Fathers led by Fr 11.30 in the Quaker Meeting House on Packenham Road. Laurence Gallagher and his team. Again we will publish All are welcome. The first point of contact for many people a full timetable for the mission in the April edition of with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Ireland is Monkstown Voice. through the Ireland Yearly Meeting website. Ireland Yearly PAGE 3 MONKSTOWN PARISH CHURCH, ST PATRICK’S CHURCH AND THE FRIENDS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 MC3 News & Spring Film Series MC3 Film Club agreed to take him by canoe to an already established Huron mission. They begin the journey in late fall and The 7 February showing of The Mission was most the hope for survival seems slim. The Jesuit experiences successful, with its story of a Spanish Jesuit Mission a spiritual journey while his young companion falls in among South American Indian tribes people making a love with the Algonquin chief's beautiful daughter powerful impression. The two films continuing the underneath the imposing and magnificent mountains. season are listed below. Each showing begins at 7.30 pm Dread and death follows them upriver. in the St. Patrick's Parish Office, entry through the side entrance. Website and Social Media THE AGONY AND THE MC3 would love to hear from anybody with the necessary skills who might be able to design and ECSTASY Tuesday 14 March maintain a website for MC3 and also help us maintain a During the Italian Renaissance, Pope database of names of people who have expressed an Julius II contracts the influential artist interest in becoming involved with our activities. Michelangelo to sculpt 40 statues for his tomb. When the pope changes his mind and asks the sculptor to paint a mural in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo doubts his painting skills and abandons the project. Divine inspiration returns Michelangelo to the mural, but his artistic vision clashes with the pope's demanding personality and threatens the success of the historic painting. BLACK ROBE Tuesday 4 April The film is set in Quebec, New France, 1634. This is a story about a French Jesuit missionary, Father Laforgue who sets out on a 1500 mile journey with a group of Algonquin Indians who have Carole Cullen captures the new cross on the roof of Monkstown Church during a break in Storm Doris Justice talks for Lent 2017 in Monkstown Parish Church. All are most welcome to join us on Wednesday evenings for a short Lent service with an address by visiting speaker on the theme of ‘Justice’ 8 March The churches historic response to justice Canon Roy Byrne 15 March Justice for the homeless of Ireland Alice Leahy, Alice Leahy Trust 22 March Justice for the leprosy sufferers The Revd Ken Gibson, The Leprosy Mission 29 March Justice and education Ann Creaner, Principal, North Strand School 5 April The family, women, and justice issues Karen Nelson, Mothers’ Union Ireland 7:30 p.m. in Monkstown Parish Church PAGE 4 MONKSTOWN PARISH CHURCH, ST PATRICK’S CHURCH AND THE FRIENDS VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 News from Monkstown Parish Church CROSS & FINIAL REPLACEMENT in a sealed envelope addressed to which went live in mid January. The - SUPPORT APPEAL – The Parish Administrator, The page contains photographs, news, and MONKSTOWN PARISH CHURCH Knox Hall, Monkstown, Co details of future events. Dublin. Please do remember to In February last year a routine Blessing of the New Cross The inspection of the cross and include your name and address on the back of the envelope. Every Rector and Fr Michael Coady jointly finials on the roof of our renowned led an ecumenical service of and beloved church revealed much donation will be acknowledged. If you are already contributing to the dedication and blessing for the new more than we would ever have tower cross on Wednesday 15 anticipated.