Eaglais na hÉireann +The Church of Ireland
MALLOW UNION
of Parishes
RECTOR’S
NEWSLETTER
Sunday 9th May 2021
The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Rogation Sunday) SERVICES THIS WEEK
THURSDAY 13th MAY : Ascension Day
10.30am THE EUCHARIST in St James’s Church, Mallow
We resume worship once more on this principal feast day of the Church of Ireland, at a key moment in our Easter celebrations.
We will also welcome The Reverend Tony Murphy as he passes through Mallow on his sponsored walk across the Diocese to support the work of Christian Aid in Burundi.
SERVICES NEXT SUNDAY (16th May) The Seventh Sunday of Easter
10.00am THE EUCHARIST in St Mary’s Church, Doneraile 10.00am MORNING PRAYER in St Mary’s Church, Castletownroche 11.45am THE EUCHARIST in St James’s Church, Mallow
As we prepare to resume public worship in our churches, please read carefully the Guidance Notes elsewhere in this bulletin. They will enable us all to be fully prepared for worship and ensure our churches are safe spaces for everyone.
DAILY PRAYER This Week
The Church of Ireland provides readings from the Scriptures to aid reflection during daily prayer for use at any time of the day
MONDAY (Comgall of Bangor. Abbot. 602) Acts 16. 11-15; John 15. 26 -16.4
TUESDAY Acts 16. 22-34; John 16. 5-11
WEDNESDAY Acts 17. 22 – 18.1; John16. 12-15
THURSDAY (Ascension Day) Acts 1. 1-11; Luke 24. 44-53
FRIDAY (Mathias. Apostle) Acts 1. 15-26; 1 John 2. 7-17
SATURDAY (Carthagh of Lismore. Monastic Founder.637) Acts 18. 22-end; John 16. 23-28
COLLECT & READINGS for this Sunday
COLLECT
God our redeemer, you have delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son: Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
ACTS 10. 44-48
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.
JOHN 15. 9-17
Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant*does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
THE WISDOM OF CHRISTIAN TRADITION
Through the Ages
From
The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit
and the Christian Mission
by John V Taylor
(1914-2001)
The prayer of the first Christians was simply a
reflection of the living Christ in their midst… in
all their prayer they joined themselves to the
prayer of Christ himself, and knew that it was his
Spirit that prayed in them. Praying in that Spirit,
the Christian’s prayer is immersed in the ocean
of the Son’s communion with the Father… To
engage in the mission of God, therefore, is to
live this life of prayer… sustaining a style of life that is focused on God… to engage in the mission of the Holy Spirit by being rather than doing. To realize that the heart of mission us communion with God in the midst of the world’s life will save us from the demented activism of these days.
RECTOR’S REFLECTION
on this Sunday’s Gospel
I was struck, earlier this week, by some advice given by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Houlahan, to those who have been vaccinated: ‘get out and enjoy yourselves’ he said. It’s in stark contrast to the months of ‘stay at home’ and ‘stay away’ that he and his colleagues have been urging over this past year, as this unforgiving virus has forced us to retreat into our homes and kept us isolated from the wider world.
‘Get out and enjoy yourselves’ is a good message in so many other situations at the moment. As cultural and political tensions intensify in Northern Ireland, for example, it seems there is a choice to be made between those who want to retreat into the safety of the bunker of tribal loyalty and those who want to look outward to face the future positively, while insisting there must be a place for all identities. The outcome of the national elections in Wales and Scotland amplify this to a large extent. In Ireland, as we emerge from lockdown, it is becoming apparent that the political agenda needs to progress from hunkering down in order to manage a short-term public health crisis, and getting out to grasp the future challenges posed by a growing shortage of affordable housing and unacceptable levels of homelessness.
But ‘Get out and enjoy yourselves’ is a good moto to enable us to explore the passage we’ve just heard from John’s Gospel. We’re picking up where we left off, last week, as Jesus invites his closest followers to abide in him. I’ve said enough already, over the past few weeks, about the meaning of that word ‘abide’ – both in John’s and Luke’s gospels. So it’s worth thinking about the setting in which that word is used.
In our reading, we are invited to step inside the safety of a close gathering of friends, as they take refuge in one another’s company, and Jesus discloses the future for himself and his hopes for the future of his friends. The Gospel-writer invites us to contemplate Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, speaking with his disciples of what awaits him. It was a private preview before a very public display of brutality and suffering the following day. Jesus, as they know him, will be taken from them. The disciples must learn to discover Jesus in a new and previously unknown way. It echoes the exchange of Easter morning, when Jesus tells Mary Magdalene not to cling on to him. We cannot open our hands to receive the new gift of the risen Lord, if we are tightly clinging-on to what we already possess.
It is the Gospel-writer’s way of encouraging the first Christian generations to ‘Get out and enjoy yourselves.’ At these tremendous times of significant encounter with Christ, he tells us, resist the instinct to cling on to what you know already. Leave the old, familiar place, and have the courage to relocate yourself in another landscape, with faces and voices that you’ve never seen and heard before. The truth of Christ’s risen presence will not be proved by lingering in the garden and picking over the arguments about whether the tomb was empty or not; but by moving out to discover what lies beyond it and ahead of it. If we are to abide in the love of Christ, we must embrace the future he is handing over to us. The Gospel tells us that, to abide in Christ, we must love one another – and that love extends to all people.
This highlights an underlying agenda in John’s Gospel, with its concern to encourage the earliest Christian followers to venture out from the cradle of the Jewish world, to embrace the wider world of new cultures, people and ideas. If the earliest followers of Jesus had remained on the safe, familiar soil of Judaism, the proclamation of the Gospel might have died out as a small, quirky sect of the Synagogue. The Christian faith grew as it did by change and movement. It has always developed and grown around new ideas and new contexts. God is encountered not only from past certainties, but in the surprises of the future, too.
Of course, that’s easier said than done in our modern Western European culture. How on earth do we move on when, on the whole, we don’t always know where we’ve come from? How are we to hear and embrace new ideas, when the values and beliefs which have shaped our identity as Christian people are no longer valued by many people? More urgently, perhaps, how do we ensure that the uncertainties we face about roots and identity don’t become an excuse to withdraw into the safety of the bunker, where we can hunker down and take refuge in the old certainties, keeping others at a distance because they are different and pose a challenge to our safe and settled existence?
From our Gospel, this morning, we can hear the good news that, by abiding in the love of Christ, our desire for more than we imagined is awakened. We can ‘get out and enjoy [our]selves.’ We are being given the freedom to embrace an unimagined future. That future is rooted in the security we are offered in Christ, raised from the dead, who invites us to abide in his love so that we are free to love all others.
The risen Christ is not content simply to be our past – he is inviting us into a new future, too. When we dare to let go of all that we fear, when we face outwards into the world, taking the energy of Christ’s risen life to others, we will begin to discover that our lives, and the lives of those around us, are being transformed into a future of limitless possibilities. Now is the time to ‘get out and enjoy [our]selves.’
GUIDANCE NOTES
for all attending worship in the churches of Mallow Union
With the lifting of restrictions on gathering in churches for public worship, the Rector and Churchwardens are committed to making our churches safe places for everyone who wishes to return to public worship in the coming weeks. Alongside the various social distancing and hygiene protocols that will be put in place, it is essential that everyone is familiar with what is required of us – and why some familiar aspects of worship must be different for the time being. We are assuming that everyone who returns to worship fully agrees with these guidelines and will adhere to them. We are putting the following guidance into place, not to make things purposely difficult and uncomfortable, but for everyone’s benefit and well-being.
Before you arrive in church:
1. We are all well aware of this message, but we will repeat: if you have a fever or cough, or other symptoms associated with Covid-19, please do not come to church.
2. Please remember that face coverings are required. Please put on your face covering before entering the church.
When you arrive in church:
1. Upon arrival, please use the hand sanitiser provided.
2. Notice sheets, prayer books and hymn books will be set out on the seats. 3. After you enter the church, please take a seat directly, without stopping to talk to others, being mindful of social distancing.
4. Hymn-books, prayer books and notices sheets will be placed in socially distanced spaces. Please sit where the books are set out and (unless you are from the same household) please do not sit directly next to someone else.
5. We are required to maintain a register of attendees for the purpose of contact tracing. Slips of paper will be available at each seat for you to record your name and a phone number. This information will be retained confidentially for 14 days and then will be destroyed.
During the service:
1. Unfortunately, no singing is currently permitted by the congregation. 2. We will not exchange the Peace by physical contact (handshakes etc). We will remain in our seats, from where we can exchange smiles and friendly waves etc. 3. At the time of communion, please remain seated until your row is directed by a warden to come forward, always mindful of social distancing while waiting to receive the sacrament.
4. Communion will be given in one kind only (the consecrated bread) and should be received in the hand and consumed immediately.
5. No collection plate will be passed during the service. A basket for a retiring collection will be available at the back of each church for your offerings.
6. Sadly, we are unable to extend hospitality or offer refreshments following the service for the time being.
After the service:
1. Please take your notice sheet home with you and leave your contact tracing form and pencil on your seat for collection after the service.
2. Please be mindful of social distancing as you leave and use the hand sanitiser provided. 3. Please do not gather inside the church, or around the church doors, to speak to others. If you need to speak to the Rector, please do so outside. He will be very happy to ring you or to meet with you in a socially distanced setting in line with current public health guidelines.
We are aware that some people, particularly those who have not yet been vaccinated or who belong to vulnerable groups, may not feel comfortable returning to church immediately. With this in mind, the Rector will continue to record a video reflection for each Sunday. This will be available on the Union Facebook page for those who would like resources for worship at home.
NEWS ITEMS FOR THIS WEEK
The Reverend Tony Murphy, who is known to many of us and whose ministry was much valued during the vacancy, is undertaking a sponsored walk to support Christian Aid’s work in Burundi. He will visit all the parishes of the Diocese, starting from Kilmocomogue and finishing in Youghal, broadly traveling from West to East. He will call at St James’s Church, Mallow, on Thursday 13th May (Ascension Day), and join us for the celebration of the Eucharist before continuing his walk. Anyone wishing to make a donation to the work of Christian Aid can do so via their website at www.christianaid.ie
There is a diocesan Vacancy for the part-time post of Diocesan Media and Information Technology Officer. This is a new role, working with the Bishop and across the Diocese. The role of the Diocesan Media and Information Technology Officer is to engage with internal and external audiences to support the work of the Church in developing a sustaining Christian presence in every community and to assist in the delivery of a change in the Church’s approach to communications. Further details are available from secretary@corkchurchofireland.com
It is a great delight to receive the news that GILLIAN GARDINER has been appointed Professor at the Waterford Institute of Technology, where she currently lectures. We send her our warmest congratulations and assure her of our prayers as she begins her new role.
This will be the last edition of the weekly bulletin in this format. As we resume worship in our churches, there will be a printed bulletin each week. A copy will also be available on the website and the Union Facebook page.
FOR YOUR PRAYERS
• Please remember in your prayers all who are isolated and anxious, the sick at home and in hospital (as well as the health service professionals who care for them, along with family and neighbors) and all who are grieving. We pray for all those known to us who are in need of our prayers, especially Jim Sheehan of Castletownroche.
• We give thanks to God for all who have received their vaccination – and pray for those waiting to be called.
• We pray for all who work in the ‘non-essential’ retail sector and who will be returning to work and re-opening their businesses this week – and for those still unable to return to work.
• We commend to God’s mercy all who have recently died, along with those we have loved and lost whose anniversary of death occurs at this time of year, especially Ernie Gardiner (Bruff), David French, David Hunter.
The Reverend MEURIG WILLIAMS
Rector of Mallow Union
(022) 21473
mllwyd@aol.com
Diocesan Readers
Avril Gubbins (022) 24267
Emmanuel Adebisi 0868 467464
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