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From the Rector..... Dear Friends, I write during Advent as we approach the festive season of Christmas when we are challenged to consider our ultimate destiny-amidst the rush and bustle of the days leading up to Christmas to pause and reflect on our goal in life. The beginning of Advent was marked this year with a meaningful and reflective service of Readings and Music at the start of which we had a ‘Liturgy of Light’ ceremony.The darkness to light theme has great play in this season as we look to Christmas and the coming of Christ the light of the world, our Redeemer Christmas is about the birth of Christ in us TODAY and every day, so as the hymn has it, let us, "Prepare we in our hearts a home where such a mighty guest may come." |
| Confirmation | |
| A number of our young people will be confirmed
by the Bishop on Sunday 17th January 1999 at 11.30a.m. It is appropriate
therefore that we should remember the individuals concerned as they prepare
for confirmation. Please pray for: Caroline Brady; Hanna Foster; John Jackson;
Richard Lusty; Elizabeth McMeekin; Leigh Young and support them by our presence
on 17th January. |
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| Looking Ahead | |
| The ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity’ occurs in January1999.
We will be marking this week in our Parish by holding a service in St Patrick’s
Church, Templepatrick on Wednesday 20th January at 7p.m. Please invite your
friends from other churches and denominations to come with you to this service.
The service has been put together by an inter-church working group especially
for this week. In Christ, Stephen Fielding |
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| St John’s Restoration News | |
| Good News from the Heritage Fund in that it has awarded a grant to St.
John’s restoration of £132,000. It is not yet known how much more grant
might arise from other sources, and it will not be until the next magazine
when we have an idea of the full extent of contributions needed from the
parish. The Select Vestry will be meeting with the architect shortly for
more information. The St. John’s Christmas cards are selling well and
there are still some available from Mrs. Bell or members of the Restoration
Committee. The Abbey Singers choir gave a most enjoyable and entertaining
evening and they were ably supported by guest artistes Gillian McWilliams
and Christopher Logan. Popular demand could ensure there might be an ‘encore’
for those who missed it first time. Michael Cooke (Hon. Sec. Restoration Committee) |
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| ?? Moving Home ?? | |
| If you are moving home please give your new address in writing to the
Rector so that Parish records can be updated Thankyou. |
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| From the Registers..... | |
| HOLY MATRIMONY 'Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder' October 26th 1998 Duncan Edward Twells & Elizabeth June Lovelle Graham, 86 Cubitt House, Oaklands Estate, London. - |
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| Study Group | |
| A Study group will meet in the Church Rooms each Tuesday from 26th January
- 2nd March 1999.
TOPIC:- St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians |
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| St. Patrick’s Choir | |
| The Choir was very encouraged to see a great congragation present for
the first service of Carol & Readings for Advent to be held in the parish.
Music included "The Angel Gabriel", "I know a rose tree springing",
"O Come, O Come Emmanuel" amd the Advent Prose, which was beautifully
sung by our Rector.
We are looking forward now to the Christmas Carol Service on Sunday 20th
December at 7p.m. and with only a few practices left, working hard to
prepare all the Christmas Music. My thanks to the choir for their hard
work, generous commitment of time, regular attendance at both practices
and services. There will be no practice on the Thursday evening after
Christmas! |
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| Flower List | |
| Please sign up on the new list for 1999. Thankyou. |
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| Communion Rota | |
Presenting the Bread and Wine at the Parish Eucharist-3rd Sunday.
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| Bowling Club | |
| The Bowling Club meets on Friday evening between 7.30pm and 10.30pm with
a practice night on Monday between 8pm and 9.30pm. New members would be
made very welcome. Since the last magazine we have had our week-end bowling trip to Co.Sligo which was very successful and enjoyed by all. Our next outing is to the Opera House in January. We were pleased to welcome the Rector one evening recently and members were impressed to see him turn his hand to bowling! The Bowlers have organised their annual concert, "Country & Western" to take place on Tuesday 23rd February 1999 at 8.00p.m. in the Parish Hall. Admission is £5. All are welcome. Isobel McCollam (Hon.Sec.) |
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| Ladies Fellowship | |
| Members were made most welcome when they were invited to Templepatrick
Presbyterian Women’s Association meeting in November for the talk by
Alan Streacy from the Church’s Ministry among the Jewish People.
Our varied programme continues in the New Year with the following;- Tuesday 19 January:- Julie Reid on "Reflexology", talk and
demonstration. Meeting attandance has been encouraging and all ladies are most welcome. Please Note:- Sunday 7th March, Soup and Cheese Luncheon.- Proceeds to The Bishop’s
Appeal. |
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| Towards 2000 The Millenium Experience | |
| The new Millennium is approaching. It is a unique time and moment of transition-which
only a few of us in the history of the world are privileged enough to witness.
People throughout the country are already talking about the year 2000, where they will be and how they will mark the occasion. This third millenium also marks almost 2000 years of church life. A few people within our Parish wanted to do something to mark the Millennium so a small group was formed to discuss ideas, projects and events. As a result of their meeting they believe a time capsule might be the best way to reflect our community here in its diversity and so record our story for posterity. The capsule enables us to catalogue our community’s story with images of our past, together with accounts of events and developments that are shaping our present and which no doubt will influence our future. In the capsule might go, documents, photographs, stories, features, artefacts etc. from a cross section of the local community. We will aim to include a wide spectrum of these encompassing education, health, business, commerce, agriculture, transport, sports, organisations, local churches-in fact anything that impinges on our daily life. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SUPPORTING US?- If so, we would like to hear from you.If you have any articles that you think may be of use and interest we would be glad to hear from you. If you’d like to know more contact:- AMY MONTGOMERY Tel:01849 432017 |
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| Syria & Lebanon | |
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6th - 16th May 1999 For brochure and details contact |
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| The Internet | |
| The internet and the world wide web (WWW) have become common place words
in the english language and but a day passes without some reference to it
on the TV,radio or paper. The Net is becoming more of a facility in quite
a few homes and many have access to it now in the workplace. Here are a
few web-sites that you may find of interest and which are church related.
Our parish now has a few pages online at the following URL bringing the
total number of parishes in the Church of Ireland who have their own site
to 17.
http://www.d-n-a.net/users/dnetbzSc See also:- http://www.ireland.anglican.org/ Church of Ireland home pages. http://www.farnboroughabbey.org/ Happy surfing!! T'ed. |
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| Ramblers | |
| The 10th of October turned out to be a lovely clear dry day and perfect
for a walk from Murlough Bay to Fairhead. Eleven of us made our way along
the cliff path, some braver than others looking out over the edge. {Someone
took a photograph of this phenomenon from a safe distance inland. Where
is it?}
A handful of more experienced, i.e. faster walkers, were sent to the outward route to pick up the cars while the rest of the party took to the inland path through heath and sheep and over a couple of stiles to Coolanlough, a farmyard and road. There we all joined up again and drove to Wysner’s restaurant in Ballycastle for a very welcome and tasty lunch. Molly and Pat joined us for the first time and hopefully enjoyed it enough to come along again. Everyone is welcome-the more the merrier! There were many suggestions about routes for future walks. Let’s have one of them for the morning of Friday 1st January 1999 to clear away the over-indulgences of Christmas. Best suggested route and lunch wins a smile. Helen Sheldon. |
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Copy for the April-June Issue should be with the Rector by Wednesday 10th March 1999.Contributions from our organisations are welcome.
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