Office Administrative Assistant

The Group Office in Ballyconnell is nearing completion. Decoration is in hand, office furniture should be with us next week.We would hope to have all assembled and in place before the next Newsletter.

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House to Let!

The tenants in Ballyconnell Glebe house will be completing their term of occupancy at the end of February when it will become vacant. It is the intention of the Select Vestry for the Parish to let the Glebe to a suitable tenant on a medium to long term lease. If anyone is aware of someone seeking a modest 4 bed-roomed home close to the town of Ballyconnell, then please contact Geoff for further information and details.

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Welcome

To Tara Sarah Gould who was brought into the Church family in a service of Holy Baptism at Swanlinbar on Sunday 17th February. Our photo shows Tara in all her finery with her big brother Ryan, who assisted in the service, and mum and dad, Michelle and Alan.

Congratulations to Tara for not objecting to being passed around and for being so good throughout the baptism. She really is a lovely little girl as our photo with Granny Alice and Great Granny Sarah shows.

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GFS Enrolment Service

Wasn’t it great to see such a great crowd at our recent GFS Enrolment service in Newtowngore. This was the first service that Richard had prepared and led, along with his puppet George – and didn’t he do a fantastic job, that is Richard, of course!! Thanks are also due to the girls who actually took part in the service and especially those who were enrolled – well done to you girls. Thanks also to the leaders for their ongoing work with this enthusiastic band of young girls, your work is very much appreciated by everyone. It was also good for the leaders and girls to be supported on the day by the Diocesan President, Mrs Sylvia Quinn. Sylvia was great for coming out to encourage the branch, laden with the cold as she was.

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Day of vision – 6th April 2008

I would like to say something more about this day and the thinking behind it. Diocesan Synod and subsequently Diocesan Council have directed that all triennial elections must take place within our Parish Group at a united meeting of all five vestries at the Easter General Vestry – triennial elections take place every third year and the elections amount to Parochial nominators and Diocesan Synodsmen / women being elected, together with supplementals. We as a Group have no choice in this matter, we must meet at one meeting with all six Parishes present to effect these elections. This could of course take place on a Tuesday evening or a Saturday afternoon, but I believe in involving more people in the life of the Church so have conceived of the idea that we could involve many more people if we had this element of our Easter Vestry, part I, after a Group United Service. I’m sure anyone who has ever been to an annual Easter Vestry meeting would agree that many more people come to Church on a Sunday than would ever dream of coming to this annual meeting as it stands at present. This will be an occasion to meet with friends over some food and refreshments immediately after the service and then Geoff will share some thoughts on the journey so far and plot the way ahead, all under the heading of a Day of Vision. There will be photographs of people and events, music, film clips all focussing on what we have been doing and where we are going, trying to bring meaning to our work under God. While this is all going on, the children will be watching a DVD in the Minor Hall – this is a day for all the family. Immediately following this celebratory part of the day, there will be a short period set aside for the mandatory elections of nominators and synodsmen / women and then the day will conclude with some dessert. Doesn’t sound much like an annual Easter Vestry to me, but then it isn’t supposed to! Some of you may be thinking “But what about the election of the Select Vestry and the Financial Report?” Well those are another thing altogether and will be dealt with at separate meetings on separate evenings for each Parish. After all, who would want to sit through 5 sets of elections or hear about the Parish finances for another Parish? This second meeting will be Easter Vestry part II and will be no different from what you have experienced in previous years.
These changes are not designed to bring about change to Vestries, but are explicitly designed to engage with more people and share with them what we are doing as a Church and how they can be part of that- that can only be a good thing! Please do support this new way of doing Easter Vestry. Don’t simply dismiss it as yet another change – but do embrace the opportunity to worship and share together as we move Forward! together.
Please note that the only United Service in our group during the month of April will be the Day of Vision service in Ballyconnell on Sunday 6th.

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Easter Vestry meetings for 2008

The following are the arrangements for the second part of our Easter Vestry meetings for this year;

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Growing in Grace

I hope that you are remembering your Jars of Grace each mealtime in your homes. I have been amazed at how well people have engaged with the project in many of the homes I have visited. As well as placing your coin (or note!) in the jar, please do take a moment to think of those we are supporting through our giving, specifically those affected by AIDS on the African continent. We will collect our Jars of Grace in at our Easter Day services and will give thanks for all that has been offered through this appeal. As you come to Church that day, there will be an opportunity to come to the front of Church and place your jar along with all of the others.

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History of the Hot Cross Bun:

Hot cross buns are typically eaten on Good Friday and during Lent.
Stories abound about the origins of the Hot Cross Bun. Yet, the common thread throughout is the symbolism of the "Cross" of icing which adorns the bun itself.

Some say that the origin of Hot Cross Buns dates back to the 12th century, when a monk was said to have placed the sign of the cross on the buns, to honour Good Friday, a Christian holiday also known as the Day of the Cross. Supposedly, this pastry was the only thing permitted to enter the mouths of the faithful on this holy day.

Other accounts talk of an English widow, who's son went off to sea.She vowed to bake him a bun every Good Friday.When he didn't return she continued to bake a hot cross bun for him each year and hung it in the bakery window in good faith that he would some day return to her.The pub now on the site of the bakery kept the tradition for her even after she passed away.

Others say that Hot Cross Buns have pagan roots as part of spring festivals and that the monks simply added the cross to convert people to Christians.Even if this is the case, I think it was rather bright of the monks to be able to so readily tie existing traditions to Christianity!

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Hot Cross Buns Recipe

Ingredients

1 lb plain flour
2 ozs. caster sugar
1 level teaspoon caster sugar
2 ozs melted butter
1 oz. fresh yeast (or 1 level tablespoon dried yeast)
1 beaten egg
¼ pint lukewarm milk
1 oz. currants
2 fluid ozs warm water
1 – 2 ozs chopped mixed peel
1 level teaspoon each salt and cinnamon

Method

Sift 4 ounces of the flour with the 1 level teaspoon caster sugar. Crumble in the yeast and stir in the milk and water. Leave the mixture in a warm place for 20-30 minutes, until frothy. Meanwhile, sift the remaining flour with the salt and cinnamon. Add the sugar. Stir the melted butter, together with the egg, into the risen yeast mixture. Gradually fold in the flour, currants and peel. Knead the dough until perfectly smooth, on a floured surface. Divide into 12 pieces and shape into buns. Set the buns, well apart on greased and floured baking trays and leave them to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Make two slashes on top of each bun to form a cross. Bake just above the centre in an oven pre-heated to 375°F (Gas Mark 5) for 15 – 20 minutes. Leave the buns to cool on a wire rack; while still warm brush them with a glaze made from 1½ ounces caster sugar dissolved in 2 tablespoons water.

Readers Digest. “The Cookery Year” 1964

Maundy Thursday - a Historical Perspective

The word 'Maundy' comes from the Latin word for commandment, mandatum. This is a special day for Christians. It is the day when they remember the Last Supper, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane and the arrest and trial of Jesus. The Last Supper is a key event for Christians. It was at this Last Supper which Jesus shared with his friends that he changed the words of the traditional Passover meal and commanded his followers to break and eat bread and drink wine in his memory. Christians throughout the world continue to do this. This act of remembrance is known as the Eucharist, Holy Communion, Mass or The Lord's Supper.
The tradition of the Sovereign giving money to the poor dates from the 13th century. The Sovereign also used to give food and clothing (later changed to a gift of money), and even washed the recipients' feet - this varied from Sovereign to Sovereign, the last Monarch to do so was James II.
The number of recipients is related to the Sovereign's age: in 2003, there were 77 male and 77 female recipients at Westminster Abbey for the Maundy Service attended by The Queen.
The Royal Maundy Service used to take place in London; The Queen decided that the service should take place at a different cathedral every year, chosen from throughout the country. Queen Elizabeth II has distributed Maundy on all but four occasions since coming to the throne in 1952.
www.maundy.com
In the Christian calendar, Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday is the feast or holy day on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It is preceded by Holy Wednesday and followed by Good Friday.
On this day four events are commemorated: the washing of the Disciples' feet by Jesus Christ, the institution of the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot.
The morning celebration of these events marks the beginning of what is called the Easter Triduum or Sacred Triduum. The Latin word triduum means a three-day period, and the triduum in question is that of the three days from the death to the resurrection of Jesus. It should be noted that for Jesus and his followers a day ended, and a new day began, at sunset, not at midnight, as it still does today in the modern Jewish calendar.[1] The Last Supper was held at what present-day Western civilization considers to be the evening of Holy Thursday but what was then considered to be the first hours of Friday. Its annual commemoration thus begins the three-day period or triduum of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, days of special devotion that celebrate as a single action the death and resurrection of Christ, the central events of Christianity.
Services held on this day typically include a reading from the Gospel account of the Last Supper, which includes Christ's taking bread and wine and giving them to the Apostles. This day also stresses Jesus' washing of the feet of the Apostles at the start of the Last Supper, as recounted in the Gospel of John. At services on this day, a minister, priest, or lay leader(s) may wash the feet of some members of the congregation to commemorate Christ's actions and command. The Washing of the Feet is a traditional component of the celebration in many Christian Churches.
For Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians this day is referred to liturgically as Holy and Great Thursday, but is also called Great Thursday or Holy Thursday.
The day has also been known in English as Sheer Thursday, from an obsolete word shere (meaning "clean" or "bright"). This name might refer to the act of cleaning, or to the fact that some churches would switch liturgical colours from the dark tones of Lent, or because it was customary to shear the beard on that day, or for a combination of reasons. This name is a cognate to the word still used throughout Scandinavia, such as Swedish "Skärtorsdag", Danish "Skærtorsdag" and Norwegian "Skjærtorsdag". Skär in Swedish is also an archaic word for wash.
Some secular communities refer to the day as "Easter Thursday", although technically, the correct day for this name is the following Thursday, after Easter.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday

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