Corrawallen Kildallon Kinawley Newtowngore Swanlinbar Templeport Tomregan Group Churches Newsletter

You may notice the name of this Newsletter has changed. The newly amalgamated Grouping of Swanlinbar and Klaxon has been labouring under a rather cumbersome title incorporating all Parish names since the amalgamation became effective earlier this year – but not any longer!! At a recent meeting of the vestries for each Parish in our Group it was agreed, by an overwhelming majority, that the new Group title be The Swanlinbar Klaxon Group of Parishes. This decision is just one more little step towards us cementing our relationship, one with the other, as we continue to move forward together. I would like to thank everyone who attended this meeting and through this has communicated their commitment and support for our new grouping.

And also at the foregoing meeting, it was agreed unanimously that a Group office be set up in the Parish Hall, Ballyconnell with immediate effect and that an administrator be appointed to assist with the burden of Group administration. Plans are already afoot to convert the “Mineral Bar” in the hall into a comfortable functioning office from which Geoff, Richard (the newly appointed Church Army Officer) and the administrator will be able to operate – this is a huge step for us to take as a Group. It may not be apparent to many people, but there is a huge amount of administration involved in 21st ministry and much of this increasing workload can be devolved to the administrator who can work from a central location with up to date equipment and facilities. It is our intention to recruit a suitably qualified person for the role of Group Administrator from our Group of Parishes and more details about the position and the criteria will be in next month’s newsletter.
I would like to thank the vestries for the way in which they have embraced this vision to develop the way in which ministry is developed in our Group – this ultimately will release both Richard and Geoff from work which can now be carried out by a suitably qualified person.

The Christmas Whist Drives will take place on Tue 4th Dec and Thu 13th Dec at 8.30 pm in Newton and Ballyconnell Parish Halls respectively. In both cases, the supper is provided by parents of children attending the local Primary School. And would parishioners from Ballyconnell please note that the hamper for the Christmas whist drive is in Breiden’s if anyone would like to leave an item for the hamper

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Church Updates Some news/updates regarding ongoing work in our Church buildings.
Tomregan the Church floor has now been sanded and varnished, indeed by the time you are reading these notes the pews may have been re-instated. The aisle at the front of the Church has been re-tiled in parts in keeping with the original fabric of the building and these should be polished within a couple of weeks. Similarly, a brand new royal blue carpet should be laid in a couple of weeks which should mean that the Church is available for Sunday Services once more on Sunday 9th December. There will be more work to be carried out around the area of sound amplification but this should not affect our normal Sunday pattern. Plans are progressing for the work to the roof of the Church, the most significant area being the securing of funding for this work – applications are either submitted or in the process of being submitted. More Photos of Tomregan refurbishment may be found here
Templeport a small amount of flooring remains unfinished, but may be complete by the time you are reading these notes. That then leaves the carpet to be re-laid and of course the sound amplification. The heating engineer continues to make steady progress and hopes to have oil-fired heating in our Church for the end of the month. Plans are progressing for the work to the roof of the Church, the most significant area being the securing of funding for this work – applications are either submitted or in the process of being submitted. Swanlinbar Old School House a new kitchen has now been installed and we hope to have our ceiling in place for the Sale of Work on 8th December. Klaxon Glebe the contractor has made great progress and has completed his works with the decorator preparing to begin his end of things. The following works have been carried out; A new en-suite shower has been installed in the main bedroom; A new multi-fuel stove has been installed in the family room; The study has been re-floored, re-shelved and the safe has been sunk in the study wall; New handles and locks have been fitted to all internal doors; All single electric sockets have been replaced with double sockets; All wall light fittings have been removed; A smoke detector connected to the mains supply has been fitted; Wardrobe and hot press doors replaced and refurbished; Extractor fans fitted to both bathrooms. The following works are still to be carried out; Re-decorate the whole glebe house; Replace garage door with roller door; Install new galvanised gates on front pillars; Re-surface drive and replace existing kerbs; Install cavity wall insulation; Replace existing curtains; Replace some floor coverings. I am sure that you would agree that this is substantial work, but there is no need to be concerned regarding the financing of these works as a significant vacancy surplus has accumulated and will cover all of the foregoing comfortably. I wish to thank everyone who has been part of the teams involved in overseeing these projects and ensuring that our building are maintained to a high standard. And thank you to you the reader for your patience and support as we continue to move forward together. +++
Welcoming Service We all should know by now that Richard and Pauline Beadle will be joining us in our Group of Parishes in the very near future – the Glebe developments in Klaxon are one sure sign that their arrival is imminent. In order that we give them a rousing welcome and acknowledge the beginning of what is a new stage of ministry for both them and us, we are organising a service for the afternoon of Sunday 6th January 2008 at 3.30pm in Klaxon Parish Church. Our Bishop will be our preacher at this service and we will formally welcome the Beadle family and acknowledge that their ministry is valued and accepted by all of us as part of our team here in the Swanlinbar/Klaxon Group of Parishes. We would love to pack the Church that day and say in no small way “YOU ARE WELCOME”! Please do make a huge effort to come along to the service that day and then to the community centre for refreshments immediately following.
	--------, Pauline, --------, -------- & Richard Click on the photo above or here for a larger version To protect the children their faces & names have been blured.
Please note that there will be no other services in our Group on Sunday 6th January.

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Trip to the Cinema and McDonald’s

This will take place on Saturday 15th December with a trip to the Cineplex in Cavan (alternative activity for younger children if required) followed by a meal in Ronald McDonald’s, that is assuming the children do not mind going to McDonald’s!! This trip is aimed at our Sunday School children, though it is also open to our young people as well. The plan is to see a relevant film in the afternoon (times not yet available) followed by a Happy Meal in McDonald’s. Sunday School children will be contacted about this by their teacher, but anyone else who would like to go along should contact the Rectory. This outing is completely free for our children and is being paid for out of our Forward funds.

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Senior’s Dinner
Dinner party

Our Senior’s dinner will take place this year between 4pm and 8.30pm on Friday 14th December in Ballyconnell Parish Hall. The feast will begin with soup and then a choice of roast beef or chicken along with three vegetables, all the trimmings and topped off with a choice of three sweets and tea/coffee and more goodies (my mouth is even watering as I am writing these notes!!). We hope to have a return visit from Robert Wilson. This is not to be missed and we encourage all of our Senior Citizens, from the whole group, to come along. Transport will be provided for anyone who needs it and the whole evening will be absolutely free.
We would like to get as many folk as possible involved in our ministry to the more senior members of our community in the coming months. You can be involved in supporting this developing ministry in one of the following ways through our Senior’s Dinner;

There are so many things which you could do and we would love to enable you to be part of this developing work. Please contact the Rectory with any offers of help or materials in order that the whole thing can be co-ordinated and if you have any other ideas of things which would add to the evening do not hesitate to give me a ring with your thoughts.

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Kidz Club

Our next meeting of Kidz Club is between 3.30pm & 5pm on Sunday 2nd Dec in Derrylin Parish Hall. Kidz Club is for all primary school aged children within our group and alternates between Ballyconnell Parish Hall, and Derrylin.

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Sunday School Party

This will take place in Ballyconnell Parish Hall between 2 pm & 5 pm on Saturday 22nd December. This party is for all of the children in our new Parish Grouping and there should certainly be a great atmosphere if everyone comes along. All of the games will be organised by Miss Beatrice Crawford, Kinawley, along with Avril Graham. Of course Santa comes at the end of the party and this all adds to the excitement of the season.

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Sustentation/ Free-will offerings
Money

We really value the gifts of all our parishioners and friends of the various Parishes in our group – without your giving the work of the Church would not be possible. But we would like to gently encourage people to ensure that their offerings are with the various Parish Treasurers by the last Sunday of the year, ie 23rd December. If we all comply with this request then the Treasurers will have opportunity to bank your gifts before the end of the financial year, ie 31st December, and they will then be in a position to produce a set of accounts based on the balance in the account at that date.
We are also very much appreciative of the work of our various money counters, recorders and the Parish Treasurers, and would ask you to get your gifts to them rather than them having to come to you, a task which is difficult, time consuming and embarrassing for all concerned. Unfortunately, if your gift has not been banked by the 31st December then it will not appear in the set of accounts for 2007. Thank you once again for your support in giving to the work of the Church.

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Group Youth Fellowship

Meets this evening (Sun 25th Nov) in the Parish Hall, Ballyconnell between 6.30 pm & 8.30 pm. This evening is a pure games evening (Pictionary, charades etc). Please do bring your teenager along if they have not already been a part of Youth Fellowship. And then the following week, Youth Fellowship will be enjoying their Christmas dinner in the Parish Hall. Everyone is welcome to come along to one or both of these nights, even if they have not been to any of the previous meetings.

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Supper Dance
Dancers

Thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of the Swanlinbar Supper Dance back in October. As usual, the talk of the night was the wonderful supper so thank you to everyone who provided and served up what was an outstanding spread! Just over £2,100 was raised through the night for Parish funds.

Planning permission has been granted for our new school in Ballyconnell but we must now wait for final permission to be issued following a further statutory period of four weeks providing there are no third party objectors – this is great news! We will keep you posted of any further developments.

The annual sale of work in Swanlinbar Parish takes place on Saturday 8th December from 2pm onwards. Please note that this year there will be no second-hand clothing stall nor will there be a bric-a-brac stall.

This annual event takes place once more in the community centre, Klaxon from 9.30 pm on Friday 30th November. All the usual stalls will be in place and proceeds from the Bazaar go towards Parish Funds.

If you have any news items or photographs for insertion in future editions of the Newsletter or on the web site please let me have them.
Please remember too that this web site has lots colour photographs of many of the events mentioned on these pages and in previous Newsletters.

To Ann and Alan Pollock of Newton Parish on the recent birth of their fourth little girl. Ann has built-in baby sitters with little Niamh’s older sisters and Alan is the only man in a house full of woman! Someone joked with me “Blessed art thou amongst women”! All joking aside though, we do wish the whole family every blessing in this wonderful news and celebrate with them as they rejoice in this beautiful new life.

And just up the road from Niamh, young Samuel George Taylor was welcomed into the Church family through Holy Baptism on Sun 4th Nov in Coracle Parish Church. Samuel behaved impeccably throughout the service, never taking his eyes off Geoff! The promises made in a service of Holy Baptism are huge thing for parents and god parents. We aren’t really into telling our story of faith in our Churches but in Baptism, in a sense, those making those promises are nailing their colours to the mast for all to see. We pray for George & Violet, Samuel’s parents, and Richard & Jenny, his god parents as they seek to encourage and nurture Samuel in the Christian faith which they have professed. This is a big responsibility which we share in as we all agreed to support them. May Samuel grow to be a fine young man who lays claim one day to the faith of his parents and god parents.

The year has flown by and it is so hard to believe that Christmas is almost with us. You’ll find overleaf details of our forthcoming services during Advent, Christmas and New Year’s Eve - everyone is welcome to come along to any of our services. The school children from Newton School will be taking part in the Advent Carol service in Coracle on Sun 16th Dec, as will the children from Ballyconnell School on Sun 23rd Dec. Immediately following these two services there will be an opportunity for us to grow in our fellowship as we will be having refreshments for both children and adults!

Prayer points for November & December

Let us continue to listen to God in prayer and develop a daily routine of praying for the following on the day of the week indicated;

Monday:	For all those work in the caring profession – that God would sustain them in their work
Tuesday:	For our young people as they prepare for confirmation – that they would understand that Christianity is all about knowing who Jesus is, understanding why he came and learn to trust him and follow him all of their days ;
Wednesday:	For the elderly in our Parishes – that as they grow older their knowledge of their value in God’s sight does not diminish ;
Thursday:	For our leadership team – that the Lord would be the real leader in our leadership team and continue to build the team within our Group;
Friday:	For an ongoing work in the lives of those who have attended Christianity Explored – that God’s Holy Spirit would continue to touch each of our hearts as we reflect on this wonderful course ;
Saturday:	For all those working on building projects within our Parishes – that they would continue to know God’s protection and look to him in times of stress or crisis ;
Sunday:	For Richard, Pauline, Ruth, Asher and Alicia as they prepare to move from Belfast to Klaxon– that God would keep on smoothing out the corners and bumps along the way.

C of I Cross

News Items

GROUP NEWS

Prayer points for November & December

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