21 new members of MU enrolled; Bishop’s chaplain; Parish celebrates Palm Sunday in the sunshine!; Parish Holy Week Mission to Romania; Mission to Seafarers invitation; The Archbishop of Armagh’s Easter Message
21 new members of MU enrolled
21 new members of MU enrolled at a special Enrolment Service in St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen. his the 125th Anniversary of the foundation of the Mothers’ Union in Ireland. St Macartin’s Mothers’ Union Branch is part of a membership of 4.1 million members in more than 81 countries worldwide. The Mothers’ Union began in Ireland in 1887 with the founding of the first group in Raheny, Dublin. The organisation gradually spread throughout Ireland and there are now 385 branches throughout the 12 dioceses of the Church of Ireland, which is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The 10,500 members represent a wide range of age and interests.
Bishop’s chaplain
The Revd Sampson Ajuka, Diocesan Curate in the Diocese of Clogher serving in the grouped parishes of Devenish and Boho, has been appointed as Chaplain to the Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd John McDowell.
Parish celebrates Palm Sunday in the sunshine!
With 2012 being the year where everything seems to be happening in Northern Ireland, the parishioners of St Mark’s Newtownards felt this was certainly the year to mark Palm Sunday in an extremely special way.
Organisers were to put together an event which would recreate the excitement and energy felt on the very first Palm Sunday when Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.
With Parade’s Commission forms complete and permission granted, all was required was sunshine, crowds and the all–important donkey from Ark Farm…for the very first Palm Sunday Procession to proceed.
Sunday 1st April saw everything listed above and much, much more! The sun was shining down on the crowds that had gathered at Kiltonga Duck Pond and with the arrival of Grace the donkey, the crowds enjoyed a time of outdoor praise before following Grace into the town.
En route, the procession participated in praise shouts and songs of praise as they made their way along Belfast Road, onto Church Street. The procession also stopped outside Ards Community Hospital to pray for the sick and those who care for them before going into the church grounds.
On arrival, parishioners who had already made their way to the church came outside in the glorious sunshine and joined the procession as everyone made their way round the church behind Grace before entering the church with the final praise shout.
The few hundred who had gathered at St Mark’s to celebrate Palm Sunday then enjoyed the All–Age Worship which included the usual blend of music, puppets, creative worship and everyone with great smiles on their faces.
The final part of Palm Sunday celebration was a Bring & Share Lunch in the Parish Centre where the fellowship was continued.
The Rector, Revd Chris Matchett reminded everyone at the service that the Palm Sunday Story should have the strapline “to be continued” as there are many opportunities to worship at St Mark’s during Holy Week especially on Good Friday at 7.30am for Morning Prayer, 10.00am for All–Age Worship, 2.00pm for the Last Hour and 7.45pm for an Evening Service.
The parishioners of St Mark’s took their celebrations onto the streets to shine God’s love onto the community. You are warmly welcomed to share in their Easter Celebrations on Sunday 8 April with 9.00am Holy Communion, 10.30am Family Communion complete with an Easter Egg Hunt and 6.30pm for an Easter Praise Service.
Parish Holy Week Mission to Romania
A team of sixteen parishioners from Killaney and Carryduff (Down & Dromore) are in Oradea, Romania for Holy Week, to work on a Habitat for Humanity Project in partnership with the Caminul Felix Orphanage Trust.
The Parishes first became involved with Habitat for Humanity (HFHNI) through one of the Select Vestry taking an interest. When Revd Willie Nixon became rector he urged the parishes to become more directly involved with the work of Habitat, having been involved himself for over 15 years.
This is now the second team to be sent out from the Parishes. In October 2008 a team went to Hungary. Carryduff is now a Hope Builder Church, which means they are prayerfully and financially committed to HFHNI. This is a tremendous opportunity for Churches to be doers and hearers of the Word.
Seven of the team members on the Holy Week Mission team are members of the Select Vestries of Killaney and Carryduff. The team is all–age, ranging from 19 years to 70 years.
The work will be physically challenging as they hope to complete one home of three homes being constructed for orphans who are now moving into adulthood.
Mission to Seafarers invitation
The Mission to Seafarers is nearly 160 years old and was 150 years in Northern Ireland in 2010. Known by the seafarers as ‘The Flying Angel’ because of the emblem originating from the Book of Revelation 14:6, it is highly respected by seafarers the world over, being represented in nearly 250 ports throughout the world. The Mission’s prime purpose is to give Christian care and witness to seafarers coming from many nations – now predominately Eastern European eg. Russians, Ukrainians Polish and Far Eastern eg. Filipinos, Indonesian, Chinese, Indian. It is unashamedly and unequivocally a Christian organisation which welcomes people of every nationality and creed by visiting the merchant ships arriving in the port and welcoming them to their mission centres.
You too are welcome as individuals and groups to visit the Flying Angel Centre in Belfast (beside the main port gate on Corry Road) to partake of the facilities, which include food and beverages, foreign money exchange, phone and IT facilities, pool and TV facilities, 2nd hand clothes shop and library. The Mission also has conference/seminar facilities for hire and parking is available.
Senior Chaplain, Revd Colin Hall–Thompson, says: “I deeply appreciate the work and ministry of our staff, mainly volunteers. Thanks to them we are open every night of the year and 10.00am to 3.00pm weekdays. I am always on the lookout for further lay ministry/help, not only in Belfast, but also in the Ports of Warrenpoint, Larne and Lisahally.
“Each of these provincial ports has an Honorary Chaplain attached from amongst the clergy, but with not a lot of time to visit ships. It hardly needs saying that these provincial ports don’t receive the large number of ships that the Belfast one does!
“I am very happy to visit pulpits and church groups around Northern Ireland and to welcome group visits to our Centre – we can even transport you around to view the modern Port of Belfast. Come and see or hear directly about this ministry for yourselves; a ministry to a forgotten community, seafarers, on whom we depend on for 90–95% of our goods.”
The Archbishop of Armagh’s Easter Message
The origins of ‘holidays’ in ‘holy days’ means that for hundreds of thousands of people, this Easter weekend has become an opportunity for a break, often involving taking to the roads or skies. For many of those who do not associate Easter with a holy day, I suspect it has become an annual flight or escape from everyday life. For Christian believers, however, whether spent at home or elsewhere, Easter is the great flight to reality – the reality that Christ is risen and that those who are in Christ have risen with Him. It is the pivotal holy day of the year.
Easter is precious and foundational not just as the remembrance of a past event, but also as the celebration of our death and subsequent rebirth through the waters of baptism. The everyday reality of the life that we live in Christ is a transformed and transcendent life – not a life insulated from drudgery, pain and mortality but a life lived beyond the captivity of our fears and frailty. We celebrate Easter as the Feast of the Restoration of Mankind, the event horizon through which we pass enabling us to lay hold of a true humanity, for the divine took on and then surrendered the wholeness of humanity to show us and help us to become who and what we already truly are.
Today, as we have become increasingly aware, the convictions of Christians are publicly challenged and this may be especially so at Easter. Nevertheless, indeed more so than ever, let the declaration ring out: ‘Christ is Risen, and those who are in Christ have risen with him!’