Mallow Union Newsletter
St. James’ Mallow, St. Mary’s Doneraile, St. Mary’s Castletownroche
January 2021
Rector: Rev Meurig Williams
022/21473
Email: mllwyd@aol.com
Website: www.mallow.cork.anglican.org
Facebook: Mallow Union of Parishes
Lay Readers: Avril Gubbins 022/24267
Emmanuel Adebisi 022/20477
It is with great pleasure we welcome Reverend Meurig Williams as the new Incumbent of Mallow Union. He was instituted on The Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, Wednesday 6th January 2021 in St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork. Given the current Level 5 restrictions, The Right Rev. Dr. Paul Colton, the Very Reverend Nigel Dunne Dean of Cork, Venerable Adrian Wilkinson Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross and Reverend Meurig Williams were the only ones present. Hopefully some of you will have been able to join in the service on line from the Cathedral website and if not it is still available to be seen on the Cathedral website.
Bishop Colton said:
This Epiphany Eucharist tonight is not as we might have wished. I should be in Saint James’ Church in Mallow. We should be there in great numbers, joined by clergy and lay people from all over the Diocese and local community, to welcome your new Rector, the Reverend Meurig Williams.
Since his arrival on 18th December he might ordinarily have expected to be able to go out and about in the community but instead he has been confined to his home: isolated and in quarantine. In the weeks ahead you should be meeting him on Sundays at church and in your homes as he makes his way around the parish. But you, and he, will have to be patient and
understanding, because the pandemic allows for none of this. ‘Things do not go to plan.’
And we see things not going to plan either in tonight’s Gospel – on this Feast of the Epiphany: “And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.” (Matthew 2.12)
Meurig Williams was born in Bangor, North Wales, where his father was a Baptist minister and grew up in a Welsh-speaking home. After studying modern languages at the University of Aberystwyth, including a year in Bordeaux, he was a teacher in a secondary school near Cardiff for four years.
He returned to the University of Wales to study theology and trained for ordination at Westcott House, Cambridge. He was ordained in Bangor Cathedral in 1992 and served a curacy in the port town of Holyhead.
He subsequently served as Incumbent of Pwllheli, a market town in rural North-West Wales; and then became an Incumbent in Cardiff. He returned to Bangor as Archdeacon in 2005. In 2011 he moved to become Commissary to
the Bishop in Europe – a role which he combined with being Archdeacon of North-West Europe (serving Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) before his current appointment as Archdeacon of France in 2016. There he had
oversight of 83 congregations across France, many of which serve scattered, rural populations.
Meurig has been involved in fostering strong ecumenical relationships throughout his ministry, and is currently involved in discussions between the Church of England and the French Protestant churches. He also has good working relationships with the Roman Catholic Church in France and, as a fluent French-speaking Anglican, has contributed to various ecumenical conferences, including at the Catholic Institute in Paris.
Thanks
We would like to thank Canon Alan Marley who was in charge of the parish in the vacancy and Rev. Tony Murphy for the Pastoral Care. We thank everyone in the parish for all there help and support in 2020 and we especially thank all those
who took our services during the vacancy Canon Alan Marley, Rev Tony Murphy, Avril Gubbins, Emmanuel Adebisi, Canon Peter Rhys Thomas, Helen Burke and Susan Buckley. Thanks to Billy Skuse and Susan Perrott of the
Diocesan Office for all there help during the vacancy and to Billy for making out the rota of clergy for Sunday morning worship. And to everyone else who helped in anyway to help keep the parish running during the vacancy.
St James’ Candlelight Concert goes online
Christmas Concert 2020 was done in a very different way this year with alot of
extra work for some people. A huge thank you to Susan and Emma Brennan for all the work they did in getting in the videos and putting them together and recording and re-recording extra pieces. Thanks to all the performers for recording their pieces. Thanks to Maurice Clancy and his helpers for decorating the church for recording in it. Thanks to Linda Deane for her wonderful mince pies as usual. €4,500 approx was raised for Parish funds between the Go Fund Me page, donations and mince pie money. Thanks again to all involved and especially the Brennan family. If you didn’t get to see the Concert you can still see it on the Mallow Union Facebook page and if you can’t get into it please contact someone that can help you.
Doneraile Carol Service 2020
As it was for all parishes our usual carol service could not happen, usually our church would be full of people from both communities in Doneraile and further a field for our Carol Service. So this year it was decided to do it on YouTube
thanks so much to Avril Gubbins for all the work she put into organising it. Avril got people from both communities to do the readings and sing the carols either from their own homes or from the churches (while obeying the guidelines) we
thank all who took part. All this could not have been done without Vit Gardiner who put all the recordings together and got them uploaded to YouTube so thank you Vit. It is still available on Youtube.com under Doneraile Carol Service 2020
or if you go on the Mallow Union Facebook page you can get into it.
Christmas Eve/Day Services
Thanks to all who cleaned and decorated the churches for Christmas. Thanks to Emmanuel for leading the Christingle Service in Mallow and to Rev. Tony Murphy for the Holy Communion Service in Doneraile on Christmas Eve. Thanks to Canon Alan for the two Communion services on Christmas Day in Castletownroche and Mallow. Even though our numbers were down this year is was nice to be able to join together for the Christmas Services. This was the last time that Canon Alan and Rev Tony did services for us in the Union. Hopefully in the near future we will be able to make a presentation to them both from the parish.
Thanks
Thanks to David, Linda, Roy and Paul Deane for ringing out the Old year and ringing in the New Year unfortunely there couldn’t be any more ringers ring with them this year.
Sympathy
We extend our sympathy to Shirley Wolfe and family on the death of her aunt June Marie Eady in Midleton in December and to Marie and John Nagle and family on the death of her sister Betty Trotter (nee Ludgate) in Ballincollig Cork.
SUNDAY READINGS
10th January (1st Sunday after The Epiphany) The Baptism of Christ White
Genesis 1: 1-5 Psalm 29 Acts 19: 1-7 Mark 1: 4-11
Reflection on the readings and recording of the Gospel reading followed with a
piece of music will have been emailed to you and will be available on the
facebook page
17th January (2nd Sunday after The Epiphany) White
1 Samuel 3: 1-10, (11-20) Psalm 139: 1-5, 12-18 Revelations 5: 1-10
John 1: 43-51
24th January ( 3rd Sunday after The Epiphany) White
Jonah 3: 1-5, 10 Psalm 62: 5-12 1 Corinthians 7: 29-31 Mark 1: 14-20
31st January (4th Sunday after The Epiphany) White
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20 Psalm 111 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 Mark 1: 21-28
7th February (2nd Sunday before Lent) Green
Proverbs 8: 1, 22-31 Psalm 104: 26-37 Colossians 1: 15-20 John 1: 1-14
If you have anything to put in the February magazine please give to Diana Buckley before Tuesday
12th January and for the February Newsletter please give to Diana before Wednesday 3rd February.
Email: dianabuckley2@gmail.com or mobile 086/1547810 or address Bridgetown,
Castletownroche.