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From the Dean…………….
The past two months have been busy ones for the Group, not least with our Bishop with us in the Cathedral for the month of September. This is something he does every September. He spends the 4 Sundays of the month in one of his six cathedrals and this year it was Waterford’s turn. During that time, he celebrated at two Eucharists, conducted one baptism and took part in a family service. He was also in attendance at a meeting of the Select Vestry of the Cathedral and was a guest, with his family, at the National School barbecue.
Dunmore East held a table quiz in the Ocean Hotel in early September. Between the quiz and the Raffle for a beautiful hand stitched quilt, made and donated by Mrs. Olga Prins, over €4,000 was raised. This was a great effort for such a small community. Thanks to all who worked so hard for this event. The money will go to completing the roof and pointing of the walls. All this work has been under the supervision of Mr. Sydney Shaw to whom we owe much thanks.
Cathedral Close apartments celebrated 20 years since their restoration on Sunday 26th September. The occasion was marked by an Open Day with several guest speakers. Eamon McEaneny gave a talk on the City Council’s proposals for the historic Viking Quarter and the work that is ongoing in the Bishops Palace as it is turned into a museum. The keynote speaker was one of the Patrons of the Close, former Taoiseach, Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald. He spoke about the scene in the nineties when the apartments were refurbished and how wonderful they were as an asset for the elderly of the City. Also present on the day were the two Bishops, Dr. Lee and Michael Burrows and the Mayor, Cllr Mary Roche. Cathedral Close looked splendid on the day. Well done to Pippa Galloway and those who helped with catering on the day.
 
As we moved into October, the “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”, our various services of Harvest Thanksgivings took place. Tramore held their service in the Parochial Hall as the church is undergoing restoration. There was a good attendance to listen to our guest preacher, Rev. James Mulhall of Stradbally. The service was followed by afternoon tea.
A week later, the Cathedral parish welcomed the Dean of Lismore, Very Revd. Paul Draper as preacher. Following the address, the Dean read out a mandate from the Bishop and installed the Dean of Lismore as Precentor of the Cathedral in succession to Very Revd Billy Beare. The Precentor of a Cathedral is the Canon who is responsible for intoning formal services. Again, there were refreshments after the service.
The last of our Harvests took place in Dunmore East when the guest was Revd. Peter Rhys Thomas, former Rector of Youghal. The service was followed by most sumptuous harvest fayre. Thank you to all our preachers, but special thanks to the ladies who decorated all of our churches so wonderfully well and to those who provided refreshments.
During October, the annual Clergy Conference was held in Clonea and the emphasis of the three days was towards a major Diocesan celebration of Holy Week 2011. This has already been flagged in the Diocesan Magazine and will continue to get coverage as the months go by. It was also mentioned at the Diocesan Synod held in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, Wexford in mid October. While most of the focus for this will be on the parishes, the Bishop has asked that the 6 Cathedrals play a major role in Holy Week. To that end, we will have a special preacher on Good Friday for a 3 hour series of talks on the Seven Words from the Cross. The guest preacher will be the Bishop of Tuam, Rt. Rev. Richard Henderson, one of the most gifted and exciting preachers in the Church of Ireland.
Tramore Parish ran a Car Boot Sale on the bank holiday weekend in the grounds of the parochial hall. There was a good turn out on the day and requests have come in to hold another one in the not so distant future.
The WOW group have already held an evening of Quilting, and the next event planned is for Tuesday 9th November at 7.30 p.m. in Christ Church National School. This will be an evening of Willow Christmas Decorations by Cathy Hayden.
This will be followed by an evening of Christmas Recipes with Susan Bailey-Daunt at her home on Tuesday 14th December at 7.30 p.m. Numbers are limited for this so please contact Susan 086-1690619.
Then on Tuesday 11th January there will be a Fun Keep Fit Night; details to follow.
Well done to Daryl Hemmingway who represented Ireland in the Danone Under 12 soccer World Cup in Pretoria, South Africa. Daryl plays with the Villa team.
Looking ahead but not quite as far as next Easter, the Annual Remembrance Day Service will be held by the British Legion in the Cathedral on Sunday, 14th November at 10 a.m. Then on Sunday 28th November, the Enrolment Service of the Girls Brigade and Boys Brigade will be held during the 10 a.m. service in the Cathedral.
The Cathedral Parish Supper will again be held in Dooley’s Hotel on Friday, 19th November at 8 p.m. Tickets are available from Joan Matson and Grainne Duggan.
The Cathedral Choir will be giving an Advent Coffee Concert in the Cathedral on Sunday 28th November at 12 noon.
It is hoped to start a Book Club in the Parish on Tuesday 30th November in the Deanery at 8.00 p.m. This involves picking a book to be read and meeting some weeks later to discuss it.
There will be a Friendship Group Christmas lunch in early December in a new venue, the Majestic Hotel in Tramore. This will be on Thursday 9th December at 1.00 p.m. Please come along and feel free to bring a friend. If in need of transport, please contact the Dean.
As we head into the festive season, Christmas Day falls on a Saturday therefore there will be one service on Sunday 26th December and that will be a said Holy Communion at 10 a.m. in the Cathedral. The Group Carol Service will take place on the following Sunday, 2nd January at 11 a.m. The schedule of services for Christmas is laid out in this newsletter.
As always, at this time of year, Richard deCourcy and his helpers are out and about selling tickets for the Parish Bazaar which takes place in St. Olaf’s Hall on Saturday 4th December. All helpers on the day and contributions to the various stalls will be most welcome.
A Memorial Service for the Suicide Prevention Implementation Working Group, based in Waterford, for families and friends affected by suicide will be held in the Cathedral on Sunday 28th November, 3-5pm.
The format for the service is to include music on arrival, choir/solo singers along with reflections, to remember loved ones who have passed.
From the Registers:
Isabella Victoria Mitchell was welcomed into the fellowship of Christ’s Church by the Bishop in the Cathedral in September. She is the daughter of Alan and Aisling
Jack Ian Alterman was welcomed into the fellowship of Christ’s Church in mid October in the cathedral. He is the son of Henry and Xuefang.
Sophie Sylvia Jones was welcomed into the fellowship of Christ’s Church in St. Andrew’s Church Dunmore East on the Bank holiday weekend. She is the daughter of Emyr and Alison.
 
Rupert Oliver and Lili Roth were married in St. Andrew’s Church in early September. We wish them God’s blessing in their new life together.
We offer sympathy to Peter Minchin of Tramore on the recent death of his brother in England, to John Beardsley on the death of his father in Dublin and to Revd. Ruth on the death of her grandfather in the North.
CHRIST CHURCH NATIONAL SCHOOL
We are on mid-term at the moment and everyone getting a well deserved break after a hectic few weeks. Just prior to midterm we were honoured by a visit from the Mayor to present certificates for full attendance. 13 children received certs which must be a record. The Mayor comissioned us all to be ambassadors for the city and to make all visitors to the area feel welcome.
We welcome Charlie, Cian, Emily, Georgie, Isaac, Isabel, India Lilly, Iza, James, Kate, Lucy, McFrank, Megan and Ralph to junior infants and Arthur, Daniel, Alanna and Heather who have joined other classes. We hope that they will all enjoy their time with us.
We congratulate the Jones family on the birth of Sophie and the Lemon family on the birth of Hannah.
We send our sympathy to the Kennedy family on the death of Colin's father and to Ms. Knoph on the death of her dad in Norway. Our thoughts are with you all at this sad and lonely time.
5th and 6th class went orienteering in John F Kennedy Park on a beautiful day last month. They had a wonderful time and represented the school well.
The Infants all received high-visibility jackets from the RSA, and went for a walk to celebrate. All the children have just completed a module of gymnastics with Tanya Cunningham and really benefited from it. Well done everyone!
Once again this year we ran Board Games Day as part of National Game Playing Week. The children were asked to bring in their favourite board game from home to play in school with their friends. The money raised this year will go towards buying new equipment for the school.
We have installed "smart" interactive boards in the resource rooms and the children and teachers are finding them to be of great value.
We continue to collect used stamps, printer cartridges, batteries and tokens as part of our "Green School" project.
Happy Christmas and every good wish for 2011 to all our parents, children and staff. H.H.
BOYS BRIGADE
The Boys Brigade started back the first week of October and it’s all go! If you’ve yet to join us, don’t worry there is still time. The boys have not yet chosen names for their teams but as soon as they do we’ll let you know. For this season we have lots of action packed activities organised. Just some include: Drama, Juggling, Exercise, Crafts, Indoor football and of course Dodgeball. It’s in the planning stage that we visit a variety of locations within the city, that are of interest to the Boys. Of course we will have our usual parties and remember that Boys Brigade closes when schools take holidays.
The Enrolment Service is to be held on Sunday 28th November and we hope to see all boys at Christ Church Cathedral, in full uniform at 9.30am. We would like to thank all those that help to make Boys Brigade possible and welcome the new leaders on board, noise and fun guaranteed!! It would be nice to take part in some weekend events so if you can offer your help with this we would be delighted. Here’s a quote to start our new term: “Taking an interest in what others are thinking and doing is often a much more powerful form of encouragement than praise."
Roger Mulligan
Email: rmulligan1@eircom.net Tel: 086-3569493
Check out Boys Brigade Website: www.boysbrigade.ie
Girls’ Brigade
The 33rd Company Girls’ Brigade has re-opened, and we are delighted to see so many of the girls back, and to welcome so many new faces this year. We celebrated the season with a Halloween party on 21 October, where the girls played Wrap the Mummy, competed in an Eyeball and Spoon race and a Ghost waiter race, made delicious marshmallow monsters, and then had an exciting game of Tip the Can in the dark! We have another busy year ahead of us. This year the Explorers will be decorating socks for thenational art and craft competition, and the Juniors and Seniors will be decorating masks. Our enrolment service will take place in November, and we will finish this term with a movie night before Christmas.
Sonja Coulter, Captain
Cathedral Sunday Club
We will shortly begin rehearsals for this years' Christmas play, "What Christmas means to me" which will be during the 10 o'clock service on 12th December. Rehearsals are on 21st November and 5th December and any children wishing to be included should be available on those dates. This years' play will look at how we celebrate Christmastime around the world and look at some of the traditions we associate with this time.
Sunday Club meets during the 10 o'clock service each Sunday except the fourth Sunday which is the family service.
We are very lucky to have 7 volunteer leaders, Tanya, Hazel, Sarah, Ruth, Colin, Lorraine and myself and we always welcome any new children of school going age into our Junior group. When the children reach 4th class they move into our senior group. We finish this terms sessions on the 12th December and begin in the New Year on the 16th January.
All the leaders would like to wish the Sunday Club members "a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" Georgi McGeary 0894148256.
CHOIR NOTES
Now that we are heading into the Advent / Christmas season. it will be all systems go for the choir. To usher in the start of Advent we are going to perform a selection of music from Handel's Messiah which will take place on Sunday 28th November at 12 noon.
Quickly following on we will have the Civic Carol Service on Sunday 19th December at 4pm. and a visit to WRH to sing some carols.
As a choir we are unique in that we do not take a break for summer but sing at service each Sunday throughout whether we had five or fifteen. In June we had Mary Wall join the soprano line all the way from Dungarvan. She made her debut on Sunday 13th June and has been a regular traveling the 60 miles eachweek, and now that we are back to Thursday practice as well, she has doubled her mileage to 120 miles to be with us. She is an inspiration and is now a valued member. On our return to Thursday practice in September another soprano joined. She is Megan Oldmeadow all the way from Australia but living in Waterford. Megan is a coloratura soprano and a wonderful addition to the choir. Welcome Mary and Megan.
In addition a big return welcome for Lynn Cahill who was arts manager here in the Cathedral but due to the nature of her job was unable to sing with us.
Finally we offer our deepest sympathy to Rev'd Ruth on the sad loss of her grandfather.
Dermot M.
From the Curate
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in an old man’s hat.
The countdown to Christmas seems to be well in to swing – the shops are already full of Christmas decoration, mince pies, special offers on tins of chocolates. Yet before we get to Christmas, the Church has another season – Advent – we even countdown to the season with the Sundays before Advent. Yet it is a season we often miss out due to the bustle of the preparations for Christmas.
Christmas is full of sparkle and merriment but it is a season of seriousness. The story of the nativity we are used to hearing and even the images of the stable scene add a lightness, even within the church community, and we end up seeing a cute little baby in his mother’s arms. Yet that scene is profound, that baby is God come to earth, God come to dwell among us. This birth has cosmic implications.
Advent leads us to Christmas. It is a season to prepare us for that incredible event we commemorate Jesus’ birth. Advent is a time to recall the serious and cosmic nature of what Christmas is, to remember who this baby is, one of the persons of the Trinity, and that his story doesn’t leave him as a baby. Advent reminds us that the baby grew up, spent three years teaching and preaching, was crucified, rose from the dead and ascend to heaven and that one day Jesus will return as King, coming to rule and bring God’s kingdom in all its fullness, were all is made perfect. Advent is a serious season to prepare to celebrate Christ first coming as a baby but also his awaited and promised second coming to reign.
So although Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, don’t let all the glitter distract you from the Light of the world.
Finance
As we are all aware, the finances of the State are in a precarious position at the moment as we await what will be a fairly severe budget. Because of the collapse of the value of bank shares many people are suffering a loss of income, apart from job losses and short time working hours. It has already been publicised that the church has also lost heavily due to its exposure to the banks. This loss of income to the church has affected all our parish finances. Investment income in all parishes is down by approximately a third. This means that money traditionally used to help pay the parochial assessment is no longer available, but that assessment still has to be paid.
Many parishoners give very generously to the church year after year, and for that many thanks. But, and there is always a but, for the parishes to continue to reach their target, and remember that the assessment is only two thirds of the cost of running the parish, we need to increase our level of giving. The money on the plate or in the envelopes each week is our free will giving. Is it all we can afford or is it what is left over after all other expenses are paid? Please look at your level of giving and ask yourself “Can I give a bit more for my church”.
Hospital Chaplaincy
As most of you are aware at this stage, the Revd Jenny Crowley’s attachment to the parish is only through the hospital. While the Dean is the hospital chaplain, Revd Jenny has the task of both visiting on a weekly basis, and trying to develop a sacramental ministry among the patients and staff. This she does on Wednesdays and then celebrates the Eucharist in the hospital oratory on Sundays. This is for those patients who are mobile, after which she goes to those unable to leave their beds. On Wednesday evenings at 5.45 p.m. she holds a short service of Evening Prayer also in the oratory.
The Revd Ruth normally visits on a Monday and the Dean does Friday as well as being on call at all other times.
Women of Waterford Group
November 9th at 7.30. Willow Christmas Decorations with Cathy Hayden at Christ Church National School. Lower Newtown.
December 14th at 7.30. Christmas recipe night with Susan at Samuels Heritage, Dunmore Road. Number limited.
Names in advance to 086 1690619.
January 11th 2011. Fun Keep Fit night. Details later.
Services for December 2010
1st Dec. Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
3rd Dec. Fri 10.45 a.m. Healer Prayer Service, Tramore Rev. R West
5th Dec. Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Advent 2 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean/D Bate
10.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, Annestown Rev. R West
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Dunmore East The Dean
11.30 a.m. Family Service, Tramore Rev. R West
8th Dec. Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
12th Dec Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Advent 3 10.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, Cathedral The Dean
11.30 a.m. Morning Prayer, Dunmore East The Dean
4.00 p.m. Carol Service, Tramore Rev. R West
15th Dec Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
17th Dec Fri 8.00 p.m. Carol Service, Dunmore East The Dean
19th Dec Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Advent 4 10.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, Annestown Rev. R West
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Dunmore East The Dean
11.30 a.m. Morning Prayer, Tramore Rev. R West
4.00 p.m. Carol Service, Cathedral The Bishop
22nd Dec Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
24th Dec Fri 11.30 p.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean/D Bate
25th Dec 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Christmas Day 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Annestown Rev. Crowley
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Dunmore East The Dean
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Tramore Rev. Crowley
26th Dec Sun 11.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
29th Dec Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. R West
Services for January 2011
2nd Jan Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. R West
Christmas 2 11.00 a.m. Group Carol Service, Cathedral Rev. R West
6th Jan Thurs 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
7th Jan Fri 10.45 a.m. Healer Prayer Service, Tramore The Dean
9th Jan Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Epiphany 1 10.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, Cathedral The Dean
10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Annestown Rev. R West
11.30 a.m. Morning Prayer, Dunmore East The Dean
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Tramore Rev. R West
12th Jan Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. R West
16th Jan Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev R West
Epiphany 2 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. West/D Bate
10.00 a.m. Morning Prayer, Annestown The Dean
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Dunmore East Rev R West
11.30 a.m. Morning Prayer, Tramore The Dean
19th Jan Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
23rd Jan Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral The Dean
Epiphany 3 10.00 a.m. Family Service, Cathedral The Dean
10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Annestown Rev. R West
11.30 a.m. Family Service, Dunmore East The Dean
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Tramore Rev. R West
26th Jan Wed 10.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. R West
30th Jan Sun 8.45 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. R West
Epiphany 4 10.00 a.m. Holy Communion, Cathedral Rev. West/Dean
11.30 a.m. Holy Communion, Tramore Rev. West/Dean
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