Irish news digest May 30

Photo above – Harland & Wolff staff in Belfast joined with Key Workers and NHS staff on top of the cranes 9n Thursday evening for the final show of support.

The Irish Blessing features on RTE’s Morning Ireland

The Revd Rob Jones, Sherry Hazlett Gallen and Philip McKinley talk to Cian McCormack for Morning Ireland on RTE

This Sunday (May 31) is Pentecost. It sees the release of The Irish Blessing, a unique collaboration of church musicians, choirs and singers from all over the island of Ireland, to honour the dedication of frontline workers during this time of the coronoavirus. The recording will be released on YouTube on Sunday at 11am.

An appeal for recordings of an adapted version of the ancient Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision, elicited responses from 250 different churches from every county of the island.

You can listen to Philip McKinley, Dublin based ordinand in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, the Revd Rob Jones, rector of Holy Trinity Rathmines, and Sherry Hazlett–Gallen, worship director at Holy Trinity, talk about The Irish Blessing to reporter, Cian McCormack on this morning’s Morning Ireland here:
[[] https://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/share/radio1/21778757 ]

Alicia leads her neighbours in Sunday sing-a-long

Alicia Duncan on keyboards and Roger Goodcliffe on clarinet leading their neighbours in a sing-a-long.

There’s nothing like a good old sing-a-long in times of adversity, and on Sundays, Ballymoney parishioner Alicia Duncan is helping her neighbours raise their voices – and their spirits.

Alicia, a retired secondary school teacher, plays the keyboard, while her neighbour Roger Goodliffe plays clarinet. Their neighbours in Beech Hill, Ballymoney, come out into their gardens to join in this weekly ritual.

Now self-isolating alone, Alicia, whose husband Albert, former Archdeacon of Dalriada, died in February last year, says the sing-a-long at 2.30pm on Sundays cheers everyone up.

“It was the brainchild of my neighbour Roger, who is also retired. He came out onto his lawn for a few Sundays with his clarinet, and we would all gather round – from a safe distance – and sing along to his playing.

“Then he suggested I play the piano. I didn’t have a keyboard, so Roger got one for me and now we play as a duet for about three quarters of an hour.”

Roger normally selects a theme in advance. “They are not hymns,” Alicia said. “Although some of the children like to sing songs they have learned in Sunday School. On previous Sundays we have had Frank Sinatra, Irish Songs and Disney songs.”

Alicia, who is an experienced pianist and organist (she still helps out in church on occasions) has no bother picking up a new tune.

“I enjoy it, I think it cheers people up in the situation we are in,” she says.

Food for thought

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that the way of unselfish, sacrificial love – love that seeks the good and the well-being of others as well as the self – that love is the rubric of the Christian life.

Points for Prayer

Pray for patients in hospital and residents of care homes at this time when the need for additional measures to ensure safety from spread of infection can be upsetting, asking that God would bring a sense of his peace and a freedom from fear and anxiety.

Pray for hospital and care home staff who feel tired and stressed by confronting the challenges of coronavirus, asking that God would renew them in body and mind.

God in Creation