Looking back: Memories of beautifully decorated Churches, Bible readings beautifully read with feeling, carols lustily sung, and mince pies a plenty! Our Christmas services were occasions of great joy as we gathered both regular members and friends from the wider community together in our three buildings. Our Bellringers in Doneraile were also busy ringing in the New Year late on New Year’s Eve. A lot of hard work goes into preparing for these services, and we are so grateful to everyone who gave of their time and talents in ways both big and small. May God continue to bless us as we face into a new year, and we pray for all those who have passed through our doors in 2025 as we welcome those who will come in 2026!
On Saturday 27th December Ruth Sherlock, Rev Eileen and Tom Cremin were honoured to be invited to the baptism of Herlen Maria Bijoy, daughter of Fr. Karukuzhiyil and Preethi Bijoy in St James’s Church. The Syrian Orthodox Church community who come from South India worship in St James’s once a month and share in worship with us on special occasions. It was our first time witnessing an Orthodox baptism and we enjoyed it very much! The church was packed and bedecked with colour and light. We joined the family and many friends for a celebration afterwards in Shanballymore Community Centre. It is wonderful to be able to support these dear friends in Christ in this way, long may this fellowship continue!
Christingle was combined with Epiphany on the afternoon of January 4th in St James’s Mallow. It’s a lovely service where the atmosphere is warmed by the glow of the candles in the Christingles, and the Wise Men are welcomed to the crib scene. Our thanks to Emmanuel Adebisi who stepped in and took the service at the last minute! The other churches celebrated Epiphany in the morning.
Looking forward: Many homes and businesses were stripped of their decorations on January 6th, some of them much earlier! In our three churches the decorations stay up until Candlemas (2nd February) and in Mallow we will celebrate the Presentation of Christ in the Temple on Sunday 1st February, which also happens to be St Brigid’s Day!
Sunday 8th February 2026 is Racial Justice Sunday. For a fuller explanation of the reasoning behind this day, please see the article elsewhere in this magazine. This year, following a successful motion at last year’s General Synod put forward by members of the Archbishop of Armagh’s Reference Group on Ethnic Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Justice encouraging each diocese to hold a special service on the day, there will be a service in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast where the preacher will be the Reverend Eileen Cremin. Members of the Cathedral community along with members of the Archbishop’s Group will be taking part. The liturgy for this service has been prepared by the Liturgical Advisory Committee and is available for all parishes to download, use, and adapt according to their own circumstances. The service in Belfast will be recorded by RTE and broadcast on March 29th at 11am.
Mallow Arts Table Quiz: Our friends in the Mallow Arts Collective are holding another Table Quiz on 5th February at the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow 8pm. It would be wonderful if we could put together more than one team at least for this fun evening! Do you have what it takes to be the ultimate quiz champion? If so, then join us to help a very worthy cause and have a great time in the process! Teams of 4 €40.