Vol 8.5  

Sep - Nov 2005  

Dear Friends ,

With the summer period just behind us and as we launch into September which for many of us brings the welcome return of familiar routine and the resumption of organisational activities, I hope that it will prove to be the beginning of another successful year of activities based in and around the parish family and wider community. You are no doubt familiar with the annual autumnal call for potential leaders and membership of many of our organisations from scouting, through guiding and being part of the choir et cetera. This is a good time of year to think about how we might spend the coming season and renew our connections with people in the parish by joining one of the parochial organisations. Should you have the time and are free to commit to an organisation either by becoming a leader or member I’d be happy to put you in touch with the relevant person or indeed the parish directory contained in this magazine is a useful reference aid. I am aware that some of the junior scouting groups really do require new volunteers to lead.

All the above dates are recorded in the Calendar for September to November. The final Sunday in November is the beginning of Advent, marking the start of a new church’s year and I’d like to draw your attention to a service of Readings and Music to mark the beginning of Advent on the evening of Sunday 27th November. (People have been heard to say that they prefer this service to the Carol Service!… come along and decide for yourself.)

Every blessing in Christ

Stephen Fielding

Bowling Club

On Saturday 20th August 2005, 31 members and friends travelled by coach to Dunluce Bowling Club for an afternoon of outdoor bowling, stopping on the way at the holiday home of Amy and Reggie Montgomery for afternoon tea, coffee and lots of goodies.

Our sincere thanks to both of them once again for their hospitality which was an enjoyable start to our afternoons bowling.

We then proceeded to Dunluce Bowling Club for three hours bowling and afterwards to the Causeway Hotel for our evening meal before returning home, tired but watered and well fed.

Isobel McCollam (Hon. Sec.)

Communion Rota for St John's

CMSI Zambia Link

Many thanks to everyone who supported our fundraising barbeque and musical evening on Friday 24 th June 2005. The evening was a great success and raised an amazing £1,079. A very big thank you to Mrs Betty Campbell who organised much of the event and made it possible. Thanks also to those who helped on the evening and to those who sent donations and in particular the Ladies Fellowship for their generous donation of £250 towards our missionary link. Including donations from individuals and groups we have now exceeded our target and raised a total of £1,664 after costs. Due to your generosity we have been able to send off a cheque for £1,250 to the Rev. Keith Scott in Kitwe through CMS Ireland with a little bit over to start us off on our fundraising for next year.

Well done everyone!

Bridge

John Sheldon

Five Finger Prayer

• Your thumb is the nearest to you. So begin your prayer by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a "sweet duty."
• The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct, and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
• The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the prime minister and those in political leadership, leaders in industry and business, and administrators. These people shape our country and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.
• The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger; as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble, or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
• And lastly comes our little finger; the smallest finger of all. Which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, "the least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinky should remind you to pray for yourself.

When my daughter was about three I took her to bed and asked what she would like to pray about. Promptly she answered: "onions". We prayed about onions and the next morning I asked why she wanted to pray about onions. "Because you said in your sermon that we should pray for things we don’t like".

Safeguarding Trust

In accordance with the recommendations in 'Safeguarding Trust - The Church of Ireland Code of Good Practice for Ministry with Children', a Parish Panel has been appointed (operating since June 1998) to implement some of the responsibilities identified in the Code.

The Panels responsibilities include:

• interviewing persons willing to serve as workers in the parish
• advising workers on their responsibilities in respect of the Code
• advising the Select Vestry in respect of its responsibilities
• being an immediate contact point for workers when a suspicion, complaint or allegation of child abuse is made about a worker or on parish premises in accord with the procedures set out in these guidelines.

The Parish Panel Members are:-

Saints of the Church

The Birth of the Blesséd Virgin Mary
8 September -- Lesser Festival -- BVM -- White
This festival in honour of the birth of the mother of our Lord is celebrated on this day in both the eastern and the western Churches. Falling just nine months after the feast of the Conception of Mary, this feast acknowledges the preparation by God of his people to receive their Saviour and Lord, putting 'heaven in ordinary' and showing that mortal flesh can be the bearer of Christ to the world.

Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
21 September -- Festival -- Apostle -- Red
Matthew appears in the list of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to the gospel written under his name, was a tax collector. Mark and Luke called the tax collector Levi, and it has been assumed that they are one and the same. This occupation was despised by his fellow Jews as a betrayal to the occupying Roman force but Christ showed that judging by outward appearance was not what he was about. He ate with Matthew and with his friends, scandalising those around him. Matthew affirmed that his life would now change because of following Jesus, and that he would make amends for any former wrongdoing. This was enough for Jesus, for he had drawn someone back to God. He was forgiven, therefore he was acceptable, therefore he was received.

Michael & All Angels
29 September -- Festival -- White
Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are the three named biblical angels, depicted as the belovèd messengers of God. Michael, which means 'who is like God?', is described as protector of Israel and leader of the armies of God and is perhaps best known as the slayer of the dragon in the Revelation to John. He is thus regarded as the protector of Christians from the devil, particularly those at the hour of death. A basilica near Rome was dedicated in the fifth century in honour of Michael on 30 September, beginning with celebrations on the eve of that day, and 29 September is now kept in honour of Michael and all Angels throughout the western Church.

Luke the Evangelist
18 October -- Festival -- Evangelist -- Red
Luke was a dear friend of the apostle Paul, and is mentioned by him three times in his Letters. Paul describes him as 'the belovèd physician' and, in his second Letter to Timothy, as his only companion in prison. He is believed to be the author of two books of the New Testament, firstly the gospel which stands in his name and also the Acts of the Apostles. Luke's narrative of the life of Christ has a pictorial quality and shows the sequential pattern from the nativity through to the death and resurrection. The developed sense of theology that comes over in Paul's writings is virtually unknown in those of Luke but, as a Gentile, Luke makes clear that the good news of salvation is for all, regardless of sex, social position or nationality. Traditionally, Luke wrote his gospel in Greece and died in Boeotia at the age of eighty-four.

Luke describes Jude as the son of James, while the Letter of Jude has him as the brother of James, neither of which negates the other. It seems he is the same person as Thaddæus, which may have been a last name. Owing to the similarity of his name to that of Judas Iscariot, Jude was rarely invoked in prayer and it seems likely that because of this, interceding through him was seen as a final resort when all else failed. He became known, therefore, as the patron saint of lost causes.
The two apostles are joined together on this day because a church, which had recently acquired their relics, was dedicated to their memory in Rome in the seventh century.

All Saints' Day
1 November -- Principal Feast -- Gold or White
From its earliest days, the Church has recognised as its foundation stones those heroes of the faith whose lives have excited others to holiness and have assumed a communion with the Church on earth and the Church in heaven.
Celebrating the feast of All Saints' began in the fourth century. At first, it was observed on the Sunday after the feast of Pentecost; this was to link the disciples who received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the 'foundation of the Church, with those who were martyrs, giving their lives as witnesses for the faith. In the eighth century, a pope dedicated a chapel to All Saints in St Peter's at Rome on 1 November. Within a century, this day was observed in England and Ireland as All Saints' Day.

Andrew the Apostle, Patron Saint of Scotland
30 November -- Festival -- Apostle -- Red
Though Andrew is named among the apostles in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, it is in John's gospel that most is learned about him. Andrew was a Galilean fisherman, mending his nets, when Jesus called him to follow him, which he promptly did. He then seems to have remained with Jesus until the end. He was there at the feeding of the five thousand and then later, when some Greeks in Jerusalem wanted to see Jesus, Philip brought them to Andrew who told Jesus of their desire. Tradition has him travelling on several missionary journeys and eventually being martyred by being crucified on an X-shaped cross. He became the patron saint of Scotland because of a legend that his relics had been brought there in the eighth century.

Rector

The Rev. Stephen A Fielding B.Sc., B.Th. M.A.

The Vicarage, 926 Antrim Road, Templepatrick, Co.Antrim,

BT39 0AT

(028 9443 2300    E-mail: templepatrick@connor.anglican.org

CHURCH OFFICE BEARERS

Rector's Churchwarden:(St.Patrick's)
Mrs M. Walbridge, Templepatrick

People's Churchwarden:(St.Patrick's)
Mrs A Millar, Templepatrick

Rector's Churchwarden:(St.John's)
Miss Y.Hutchinson, Doagh

People's Churchwarden:(St.John's)
Mrs M Bell, N'abbey

Rector's Glebewarden:Mr R Barnes, Dunadry

People's Glebewarden:
Mr M Cooke, Dunadry

Supplemental Glebewarden:
Mr S Clendinning, Templepatrick

Select Vestry: (Meets 2nd Monday in month at 8.00 pm)
Mr R.Barnes, Mrs M Bell, Mr H Cinnamon, Mr S Clendinning,
Mrs M Coe, Mr M Cooke, Mrs Y Hutchinson, Mr J Jones, Mr C Lundy, Mr D Mawhinney, Mr T Michael, Mrs A Millar, Mrs I McCollam,
Mr S McCollam, Mr R Montgomery, Mr N Shirley, Mr A Walbridge,
Mrs M Walbridge

Parish Diocesan Synodsmen:
Mr E Cinnamon, Mr H Cinnamon

Diocesan Synodsmen:
Mrs M Bell, Mr R Montgomery

Honorary Secretary:
Mrs M Bell, Newtownabbey

Honorary Treasurer:
Mr N Shirley, Templepatrick

Honorary F.W.O. Recorder and Envelope Secretary:
Mrs I McCollam, Templepatrick

Covenant Secretary:
Mrs P. MacKean, Loughanmore

PARISH PANEL:-
The Rector; Mrs M Bell; Mr S Clendinning; Mr M Cooke

Parish Organisations and their Leaders:-

Choir Practices on Thursdays at 8pm.

Organist and Choirmistress Mrs D Martin, Parkgate

Sunday School Coordinators: Mrs G McCoy, Mr B McMeekin. Leaders: Mrs V Brady, Mrs D Gaffney, Miss R Laird. Helpers: Miss C Lucas, Miss S McCollam..

Crèche (Sundays) Mrs Judith Collister, Mrs Julia Fielding

Youth Group Mrs Valerie Brady

Sacristan: Mrs R Barnes

Hall Secretary: Mrs I McCollam

CofI Gazette Secretary: Mrs M McConnell

Bible Study Notes Secretary: Mrs D Lucas

Christian Aid Secretary Mrs L Lynas

Parish Webmaster Mr Alan Walbridge

Magazine Producer Mrs Gail McCoy

Youth Organisations

Choir Practices on Thursdays at 8pm

Rainbow Guides (4-7 years): Tuesday 2.15-3.15pm
Mrs D Reid

Brownies (7-10 years): Wednesdays 6.00-7.30pm
Mrs Elaine Lamont

Guides (10-14 years): Wednesdays 7.30-9.00pm
Mrs Ann Forsythe

Squirrels (4-6 years): Thursdays 4-5pm
Mrs C Michael

Beavers (6-8 years): Mondays 6.30-7.30pm
Mrs C Michael

Cub Scouts (8-10years): Tuesdays 6.45-8.00 pm
Mr A Martin

Scouts (10+ years): Contact Mr P Lawther

Parents and Toddlers Group Wednesdays 10.30am-12pm Mrs Hayley Cunningham

Adult Organisations

Choir Practices on Thursdays at 8pm

Indoor Bowling Club : Fridays 7.30pm
Secretary: Mrs I McCollam

Ladies Fellowship 3rd Tuesday in the month, 8pm. Secretary:Mrs A Kerr

Parish Ramblers meet occasionally

Bridge Club Wednesdays 7.00-9.30pm Church Rooms

RCL
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Harvest Services

St Patrick's, Templepatrick

Sunday 2 October 2005
8.30am Holy Communion
11.30am Festival Matins

St Patrick's Church will be decorated on Saturday 1st October from 10.00am onwards.
Please bring you contribution that morning and stay to lend a hand if possible.

St John's, Donegore

Sunday 9 October 2005
3.30pm Festival Evensong

Harvest Appeal 2005

You will have received an envelope with this magazine to support the annual Harvest Appeal which this year is being organised in support of the work of the (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) USPG’s Harvest Appeal 2005 – Supporting local communities in India and around the world. Our HARVEST LUNCH which follows the harvest service in St Patrick’s will be spiced up a little in that curry flavours and naan bread will be a feature! Here’s a little more about the USPG. Families, groups of friends and church congregations share a curry meal and have fun while they raise funds for life-changing projects. Donations from the Big Curry Parties will support the many projects that USPG supports through its partner churches around the world - from agricultural training in India to improving healthcare in Africa to helping the homeless in South America.

Harvest Appeal 2005

Support local communities in India and around the world

Murugan and Manoranjithan, trainees at the Women Workers Training Centre, Nagalpuram, learn tree planting Leah Gordon/ USPG

An 18-day course at the Nagalapuram Training Centre proved to be a life-changing experience for husband and wife Murugan and Manoranjitham.

Putting their newfound agricultural skills into practice has resulted in better harvests and healthier livestock, which means the couple now have enough income to support themselves and send their three children to school.

Murugan and Manoranjitham have also been passing on their newfound knowledge by teaching their neighbours about organic farming and how to look after livestock.

Manoranjitham told USPG: ‘Life could be difficult before, but now we are very happy. Before the training we knew very little about animals and different farming techniques. But now people call by to ask us for advice, and it makes us happy to be able to help others.'

Nagalapuram Training Centre is part of the Church of South India and is one of many church-run projects around the world that are reaching out to the impoverished and marginalised, with support from USPG.

Internet

Looking at the Church of Ireland website, linkable from our parish page, I noticed that it now has an RSS feed.

Your reaction could be ‘About time to!’ or is more likely to be ‘What is he on about now?’.

Email is now ceasing to be the useful tool it once was for distributing information. There is so much of it that programs are sold to sort out the Spam, but the only way of knowing that nothing important has been thrown away is to read it all. It is what is termed a Push way of communicating. The information is pushed on you whether you want it or not.

Imagine that you are thinking of booking a holiday. One way of gaining information would be for all the tour operators and travel agents to send you their literature. A frightening thought.

A much better way is to decide whose of information you are interested in. Walking into their shop you would still be faced with too many brochures to read. The titles and headlines on the covers would lead you in selecting just the few that you thought would be useful and you would Pull them out.

Pull, where you decide what you want, as opposed to Push, gives you back control.

This is what RSS is about, it provides an organised way of staying on top of things with the minimum of effort.

Firstly to get the abbreviation out of the way, it stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ or ‘Rich Site Summary’.

Similar to deciding which shops to visit you draw up a list of say tour operator sites. Each of these sites puts out headlines or feeds, similar to the headlines on the brochures. These are pure text and consist of just a headline and a couple of lines of text. Being text it is very fast. They also contain a link to a fuller in depth coverage of the holiday, just like opening the brochure.

To help you organise things programs called RSS Aggregators pull together the headlines from lots of RSS feeds that you have decided are worth looking at. Thus what you have in front of you is the equivalent ability to instantly select which shop you wish to visit, just like a push button for tuning into a different radio station. Immediately you see the latest say 20 ‘brochures’ for that shop in headline format with a fuller version just a click away.

My computer is currently organised with a News Channel Group, enabling me to instantly select any of 16 different news feeds. For each of these feeds I can see a headline for the latest 20 stories. I also have other Channel Groups for interests such as Sport, Entertainment and Technology.

The only real way to appreciate RSS is to experience it. A visit to http://www.rss-lessons.com/ will provide you with a free multimedia course about RSS and is well worth a visit. Although built around a specific aggregator the principles are the same for most. Some are free standalone programs, some bolt on to your existing browser; others have an annual charge and others you buy.

But how do you find which sites are publishing feeds? You may come across them by chance and saving the address pointed to by the RSS logo, as at the top of this Technology section, will enable you to add them to your aggregator in whichever Group you want. It is also possible for users to store and share their list of feeds with others. Websites exist where such lists are published. It also means that if you change aggregators you can take your list of feeds with you. Sites also exist with directories of RSS feeds. To get a flavour of how much is out there go to http://www.syndic8.com/ which list 418,365 feeds as I write.

Another feature that an aggregator may have is the ability to Watch for the occurrence of given words in any of your feeds. Thus if you have set it up to watch for Templepatrick, any time that Templepatrick is mentioned in any of your feeds it will be logged. You can also be informed when a given site adds a new item.

I have added an RSS feed to our Parish site even though the amount and urgency of parish events do not really warrant it. Perhaps the Diocese of Connor site should have a feed to keep us up to date. However, as in August it is telling me about a bowls competition that starts on 16 April and the Big Dander of 7 May there does not appear to be a need for up to date information.

Alan

Bible Puzzle - Word Search

Scriptural Names of Christ

After you find all the hidden words the left over letters spell out a Bible verse reading from the top left to the bottom right.

More puzzles at http://biblewordgames.com