From
the Rector
On 12th November we
recorded the TUD Tallaght Campus’ Remembrance Service in the Church for
deceased staff and students which it is held annually in our Church, I was
asked to preach on the Beatitudes, the eight blessings recounted by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew.
We had our annual Gift Day in November and a partner of one of our parishioners
suggested that I send the Gift Day letter to our local newspaper, the Echo. In
order to catch the paper’s attention I thought I’d create an opportunity for a photograph
and an article. In a letter to clergy the Archbishop suggested that Churches keep their lights on
during Advent to remind people that their Church is still here but St.
Maelruain’s is floodlit so we are visible to passersby year round especially in
the long evenings of winter. The following is the article I submitted to the
Echo.
“On Friday the 20th
November the pubs were asked to "Keep their Lights On" to let the
customers know they were still there if closed under Levels 3 to 5. Since last March I have been putting up posters like
"While we may be Locked Down we are Virtually Open on Facebook live!"
and I put up a poster on the weekend of the 20th that we in St Maelruain's were also
"Trying to Keep the Lights On for the Holy
SPIRIT
of Christmas" and hopefully beyond! It happened to be the same weekend
when we had made an appeal to our few and all ready hard pressed parishioners
for our annual Gift Day. Despite trying not to spend money we struggle every
year and we were €8,000 short on a relatively small budget last year before
Covid ever struck! Obviously it is many multiples of that figure this year.
We
were only allowed open for eleven Sundays in seven months and were only
permitted to seat twenty five people in a triple height building with the doors
open and with a capacity for one hundred and fifty so not many got the opportunity
to contribute.
As
clergy don't qualify for any financial help from the government the Hospitality
Sector might not realise that they are actually better off than us!
Fortunately my son who studies Creative Digital Media in the College across the road not only filmed our 8,500 viewed tour of the Church, Tower and Graveyard but the sixty four Facebook live services since St. Patrick's Day at which my daughter sing the hymns to her own Ukulele cords. Just as well as a dental nurse she is used to wearing a mask as she had to sing with one when people were allowed attend for the eleven weeks.
I
don't know how a minority is meant to maintain the historic heart of Tallaght
even in normal times never mind when the doors of the church have only been
open for eleven weeks and our halls have been closed for hire. We have contributed
to the community in many ways not least by hosting fund raising concerts for
various charities and in welcoming the ‘New Irish’ by hosting the Refugee Drop
In Centre for 10 years until they outgrew us in more recent times. The wider
community in turn has always been very supportive by using our halls and
attending our different fundraisers like our Spring Concert, Summer Sale,
Christmas Sing Along, Harvest and Carol Services none of which we been able to
have this year.
While
recognising that we are all trying to keep the numbers down to prevent our
local hospital from being overwhelmed and to protect our senior citizens I
noted it was the older members of the congregation who really appreciated the
eleven Sundays we were allowed open as it was one of the few places that they
actually felt safe. Not only was it good, I hope for their spiritual health,
but also for their mental health as it was one of the few occasions that they
could meet somebody else that week, granted afterwards with a mask and outside!”
We
were finally back in church with a congregation, after sixty six services on
Facebook live, on 2nd December with our First Wednesday of the Month
Holy Communion service with Prayers for the Sick and subsequent Sundays.
In
this first Church Review magazine for 2021 I
pray that at some stage in this new year our lives will have returned to some
sort of normality with our health intact and I hope the doors of our Church
remain open.
God
bless William
 |
| Christmas Tree now a Cross for when we return to 8.30 in the Small Hall |
