November ’08 News

Tower Flower Power

What a lovely memory that weekend of 3/4/5th October invokes - The Desert Shall Flower! Glorious autumn weather on the Sunday; lots of happy people; wonderful displays of flowers in St Mary's Church Desertserges; scrumptious teas and the finest of lace. St Mary's looked truly wonderful - all thanks to the many people and clubs who rallied and did us proud. The lace exhibition at Kilcolman Lodge was first class with some extremely valuable antique pieces as well as some being actually made over the weekend. The Union came up full trumps with its usual generosity making tea and cakes in the old school room a very lively affair; the raffle and preserves also doing a roaring trade. It was good to have Fr Sean McCarthy with us on Friday night and to see the our new Methodist Minister the Reverend Moba Mwanzele with his wife Monique and two of their children on Sunday afternoon as well as good Church of Ireland friends from other Unions. Thank you to Phemie Rose for opening the festival; for Desertserges NS singing to us; Ballymoney School for their collage; for Canon Peter Rhys Thomas preaching on the Sunday and for a grand finale with the Clerks Choral, with Ian Sexton for our Songs of Praise. We raised a clear €11,000 after expenses, which is marvellous as we can now pay for the finishing of the tower renovations. All has been paid from fund raising within eighteen months. Thanks must go to not only the Church of Ireland community but very much to the wider and ecumenical community around. St Mary's tower which was truly ruinous, is now looking splendid with all its pinnacles restored and a new roof in place. Inside already feels much drier. We have also discovered that the lower portion of the tower is infact from the previous church (present nave having been built in 1803) which probably makes the tower very old indeed. Thank you must also go to our firm of builders BOMCL (Bernard O'Mahoney of Carrigaline Ltd.) for working around us and with us. Even the scaffolding got decorated!

Harvest

We did not forget harvest - especially in a year which has been badly affected by the damp and wet. Thank you to Rev Ian Jonas from Kilgariffe who bravely swapped Sunday services with Rev Judith. We say ‘bravely' as Ian still had his left hand in a splint after his lawnmower accident.

Healing Service

The Rector and Fr Sean McCarthy again jointly led the ecumenical healing service at the BEDA hall as part of the Community Care programme

CMS Ireland Sunday

On the 30th November we will be thinking of the work of the CMS and James Price will be our speaker.

New appointment

By the time you read this the news that I will be returning to England to Gloucestershire will be fairly well known. I will be Priest-in-Charge of the Severnside Group of Parishes - only ten miles from Gloucester where I was before coming to Ireland. If you look at a map of England and Wales, find the River Severn which has the Bristol Channel as its estuary; you'll see a horseshoe bend; that is where I will be - inside the bend! That part of Gloucestershire amazingly doesn't easily flood, as the Severn (which is tidal) is extremely wide at that point. I will be sorry in so many ways to say goodbye to West Cork but the timing and the opportunity are both right. I have enjoyed over six years here.

Holy Baptism

12th October at Christ Church, Kilmeen – Lucy Mary daughter of Mary and Colin Cooper.

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