Eaglais na hÉireann +The Church of Ireland
MALLOW UNION
of Parishes
RECTOR’S
NEWSLETTER
Sunday 2nd May 2021
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
SERVICES & EVENTS THIS WEEK
WEDNESDAY 5th MAY 10.30am COFFEE BREAK
For anyone who would like some conversation and company for half an hour. Just grab a drink and join in!
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83457039316?pwd=S0VSSklPZzE4V2JFOVBkejd3T2k2QT09
WEDNESDAY 5th May 8.30pm NIGHT PRAYER
An opportunity to continue our Easter celebrations, using the ancient form of Night Prayer (or Compline), with words and music to offer a space for reflection and prayer. All very welcome.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81583163646?pwd=dWJHUmZvQVFlT2tRL25KRUQ1cGdqdz09
Following the announcement by An Taoiseach on Thursday last, public worship in our churches can resume after Monday 10th May. I will write more fully about arrangements next week – particularly how we can worship together on ASCENSION DAY, Thursday 13th May.
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
Acts 14. 5-18; John 14. 21-26
TUESDAY
Acts 14. 19-end; John 14. 27-end
WEDNESDAY
Acts 15. 1-6; John 15. 1-8
THURSDAY
Acts 15. 7-21; John 15. 9-11
FRIDAY
Acts 15. 22-31; John 15. 12-17
SATURDAY
Acts 16. 1-10; John 15. 18-21
COLLECT & READINGS
COLLECT
Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him: Grant that we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise and honour, glory and might, now and in all eternity.
ACTS 8. 26-40
Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: ‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’ The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
JOHN 15. 1-8
Jesus said ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
RECTOR’S REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL
I know someone who has a cartoon of a man and a gorilla sitting next to each other at a bar. The man is putting a cheerful arm around the gorilla and says to the barman, ‘He and I go way back.’
That may be true about our origins as human beings. But, in another sense, that’s what many of us might want to say about people we count on as good friends. Maybe it’s someone with whom you were in the same class at school, lived on the same street or worked in the same place over the years. It’s one of those friendships that can mean a great deal. It goes ‘way back.’
It gives us insight into what St John’s Gospel is probing at when Jesus speaks about abiding with his friends. I touched on this, briefly, a couple of weeks ago. We abide when we spend a lot of time with someone. The years of abiding can become a deeper connection of need or recognition. That’s, perhaps, why we put so much effort in to sending Christmas cards to certain people. We send them to many people to whom we might want to say, ‘Our friendship is abiding, even though we haven’t spoken for a year or more.’
But this kind of friendship, this abiding in another is, at heart, a relationship of freedom. It’s available without one person dominating the other. We all know the so-called friend who is never off the doorstep, who hardly seems to give us space to breathe and live our own lives. In stark contrast, to abide is to be simply assured that someone else is there without crushing our individual character or taking over our lives. There is constancy, dependability, without being compelled to live in someone else’s pocket.
Of course, once we recognise that this is what it means to abide, we also realise that, with the freedom to abide, comes all kinds of risks. Where there is freedom there are no obligations to remain, no guarantees that the other person will always be there. Friendship may be constant, but it can also be fragile.
When Jesus invites his friends to abide in him, as we hear in St John’s Gospel chapter fifteen, he does so as he prepares for betrayal and death. And that challenges us to think about how we might respond to his invitation to abide in him, as his followers and friends today.
There will be times when we wish God was just abiding at a safe enough distance not to make too much of a difference to our lives. It will be as if we and God are just on Christmas card terms, and that’s as much as we can cope with just now. Then there will be times when we lose our sense of trust when we feel far from intimate with God – distant, even. At other times, if we allow enough space and silence in our lives, it will feel like God is as close as our own breath. Our friendship with God is at least as complex as our human friendships. But God still abides. He takes any level of friendship we offer, as he abides in us and invites us to abide in him.
This is perfect freedom. To know that God abides, even when we are unsure of it, is what can be truly liberating. It is a freedom which releases us from all the anxieties and ambitions, the neurosis and anger that can diminish us and other people.
The German Christian martyr of the last Century, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from his cell in a Nazi prison, said that this kind of freedom released him from the fear of dying because he discovered what supremely matters by simply handing over his life to God, rather than desperately and fearfully clinging on. That’s just another way of abiding in the freedom and friendship of God.
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a little guide for students when he ran his college for those preparing for ministry. It’s called Life Together; and, although it’s a short book that can be read in around an hour, it has become one of the classics of 20th Century religious writing. At one point in this book, he explains the need for a sizeable period of silence each day. That may seem like too much of a luxury for us in a typically busy and demanding day. But Bonhoeffer is in no doubt about its importance, as he wrote ‘We want to rise from silent meditation different from what we were when we sat down to it.’ That’s a good way of saying that, to abide in Christ, is to be changed, transformed by our friendship with God, day by day. Or, as the text of our Gospel puts it, it is how we bear fruit, as those who are mysteriously grafted into the life of God.
Being given the space, the freedom, the silence, to abide in Christ is what makes a difference to our lives, to our worship, and to the world from which we are sent from our worship. This is what makes us truly free. Not free to do whatever we like, whenever we like, regardless of the consequences for others; but free to be real, free to become more than we are already. After all, what other sort of freedom is worth having? As the story of Christ’s journey to the cross and his victory over death makes clear, it is the kind of freedom to become who we are meant to be, and to travel to where we most belong, as we abide for ever in the love of the crucified and risen Lord.
The Lord calls himself the vine and those united to him
the branches in order to teach us how to benefit from
our union with him, and how important it is to remain
in his love… From Christ and in Christ we have been
reborn through the Spirit in order to bear the fruit of
life… Like branches growing from a vine we now draw
our life from Christ… Let the wisdom of John, then,
teach us how we live in Christ and Christ lives in us.
From Commentary of John’s Gospel
by Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444)
CHRIST THE TRUE VINE (Greek 11th Century)
NEWS ITEMS FOR THIS WEEK
There are two events related to Christian Aid Week that will be of interest:
• There is a service to celebrate the work of Christian Aid on RTE1 television at 11.00am this coming Sunday 2nd May.
• 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 travelling from West to East. He will call at St James’s Church, Mallow, on Thursday 13th May (Ascension Day), when I hope we will be able to combine a welcome for Tony with a celebration of the Eucharist to mark this principal feast day in the Christian calendar. More details next week.
• 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
• Over the coming week, I will be consulting with the wardens about the process for safely re-opening our churches following the announcement of the lifting of restrictions on public worship from Monday 10th May. In particular, I hope that we can gather to celebrate Ascension Day on Thursday 13th May to mark a significant moment in the Easter season. Also, I am aware that those who have not yet been vaccinated will be anxious about attending worship in person. With this in mind, it would be very helpful to hear from people who would appreciate the continuation of online resources for Sunday worship (e.g. the weekly video reflection).
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 neighbours) 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, too, for our neighbours who are Muslims and observing the holy month of Ramadan.
• We pray for all involved in sporting organizations, especially the GAA, who will return to training this week.
• 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 David Hunter who was buried this past week in St Mary’s churchyard, Castletownroche.
The Reverend MEURIG WILLIAMS
Rector of Mallow Union
(022) 21473
mllwyd@aol.com
Diocesan Readers
Avril Gubbins (022) 24267
Emmanuel Adebisi 0868 467464
Follow us on social-media
https://www.facebook.com/Mallow Union-of-Parishes-153486538476524/
@MallowUnion