Templebreedy Group of Parishes had a wonderful Christingle (Christ-Light) Service on ZOOM recently. Everyone received instructions of what they needed for the service, which until now was annually held in the Church.
It was a celebration of ‘God: The Light of the World.’
Christmas is a time for traditions, and the Christingle is a tradition with a long history. It has its origins in the Moravian Church dating back to 1747.
It is a physical three-dimensional symbol of God as the Light of the World, and it expresses what he has given for us and to us. As a beautiful reminder of God’s love.
The modern Christingle consists of:
• The orange – represents the world
• The red ribbon – indicates the love and blood of Christ
• The four skewers – represent the four seasons, and they are arranged in a way that from above they show a cross representing the cross Jesus died on.
• The dried fruits and sweets – on the four skewers fruits and sweets, are mounted representing God’s good gifts: the fruits of the earth and the fruits of the spirit.
• The lit candle – symbolises Jesus, the light of the world
• Aluminium Foil – around the base of the candle, which represents the world reflecting Christ’s light.
Check out these amazing Christingles made by the children at home, during our liturgy!
Sermon preached by the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton,
Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork
onChristmas Day 2020
One of the devices used by the preacher is to start by giving examples, or a story of some aspect of life or other, in order to draw people in to an experience that they might themselves recognise or have heard of. No such device or examples are needed this Christmas. We reach this festival in 2020 with our own unique and very personal experiences of this year, and we’ve our shared and communal insights into it all.
No examples are needed; we ourselves are the evidence that bubbles up emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually as we come today to celebrate the birth of ‘the Word made flesh.’ This has been a year of heroism, stoicism, collaboration, voluntary effort and human generosity that has gone further than even the Good Samaritan might have gone. All of these have been, as if I need to say it in response to a year of separation, deprivation, anxiety, exhaustion, wounds, vulnerability, loss and uncertainty. We bring all these – good and bad – to our worship today.
Uncertainty is the word I want to latch onto in this short message, for short it has to be. The pandemic is even clipping the wings and trimming the sails of the preacher this year. From the outset there has been uncertainty, and there still is. Will I get it? How do you get it? Is it safe, or wise, or prudent? What should I do? Way back in March the questions, now answered, we think, or so we think for now, were should I wear a mask? Is it safe to sing or not?
It has been a journey through uncertainty: will it open? When will we be back to normal? Will the schools open or stay open? What is essential and non-essential? How will I get my medicine, or even my food?
Or more profoundly when will I see my children? Will I see you again? Will I survive?
Even the advertising people latched onto the uncertainty. In an ad for one supermarket chain the persistent question has been – “is he coming? Is he definitely coming?’
So we come this year, in the bleakness of this mid-winter – the words of Chrisitina Rosetti’s poem – and I, for one, don’t need to agonise over the question ‘What can I give him…?’ ‘I give my heart’ , of course, yes, but not in a twee sort of way. I want to dump, yes dump is the word, everything that is pent up in me of this year at the feet of the manger because there is nowhere else to go or to turn. And that is ok. For in this manger is the ‘Word made flesh’ Here is God who shares our experience and knows what it is like. This baby is Emmanuel, God is with us. He is the light shining in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome the light.
And as I dump all this at his feet at this altar today, I look around the scene and I see that everyone there in that original manger scene, in that familiar Christmas story, has done the same thing in response to their own uncertainty. They have come, and they have landed their uncertainty at this very place.
Joseph: ‘My fiancée is pregnant. I’m not the father. What do I do now?”
Mary: ‘The strange messenger says not to be afraid, but I’m terrified. What is this all about? I hadn’t planned on having a child. I’m planning my wedding day. What will Joseph think? What will everyone else think?”
The shepherds: getting on with their nighttime work up in the hills: ‘What’s that hubbub? Is it the sound of singing? What’s this talk about good news, and a saviour? Sounds too good to be true? Off the wall really. We’d better go and check it all out ourselves.
The magi: something strange is happening in the night sky. ‘We’ve studied these things. We know about the stars, but this is unfamiliar. I suppose we should take a risk of going into the unknown and to see where it leads us.’
Even the powers that be – King Herod – are faced with uncertainty: ‘What’s this rumour about a new King?’. Of all those in the story, Herod alone does not go to see, to check it out or to kneel and worship. And, as a result, more uncertainty ensues – for the newborn,for Mary and Joseph. It’s not safe for them to go back to their home place in Nazareth. They find themselves as refugees, escaping to the safety of Egypt; the irony of that – the place of slavery for their people all thsoe centuries before, becomes the place of sanctuary.
Yes, friends, this has been a year of many challenges, sadnesses and griefs, but there has also been stoicism, determination, valiant effort, and the work of many Good Samaritans.
I seldom end a sermon by quoting a hymn, but, exceptionally, in an unprecedented year for us here in our time, I venture two verses from one of my favourites – and it is inspired by a verse from today’s Psalm: ‘O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;…’ WHich is indeed the first line of the hymn – an Epiphany hymn, appropriate, therefore, to these 12 days – written by the Irish clergyman Dr John Samuel Bewley Monsell, a person greatly influenced by the Oxford Movement. He and his wife, Anne, lost their eldest son in a shipwreck while he was on the way to fight in the Crimea in 1855. The boy was 18. Their eldest daughter died when she was 28. In spite of all that, perhaps because of it, who knows, he wrote 300 hymns. Monsell himself later had an accident – he fell off a stone to be used for work on the roof of his church; he injured himself and died from infection in the wound.
The hymn refers to our ‘burden of carefulness’ – carefulness – in the sense then of ‘heavy care, worries and anxieties.’
What he wrote seems like an appropriate invitation as we come to meet the Lord in Word and Sacrament this Christmas – at the end of 2020 and as we journey towards the uncertainty of 2021:
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
With gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
Kneel and adore him, the Lord is his name!
Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
High on his heart he will bear it for thee,
Comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
Bishop Paul Colton has recorded a short Christmas greeting to reach the people of Cork, Cloyne and Ross ‘because’ he says ‘meeting people in 2020 all over the Diocese has been nigh impossible. ‘I have really missed all that!’ he said. His greeting is called ‘The GToy Trumpet.’
So much of our human activity and organisation is about gathering together as people and the restrictions imposed by the CoronaVirus Pandemic have been necessary, but deeply frustrating, throughout 2020.
The Church is no exception. Bishop Colton says that one of the things he has missed most during the pandemic is the Church’s gatherings, formal and informal:
I have really, really missed being out and about in Cork City and County and all over the Diocese in 2020. The Coronavirus Pandemic has clipped the wings of our travel and our ability to meet. So many gatherings have been affected; life events such as funerals, weddings, baptisms, ordinations, and not least meeting the young people and their families for Confirmation.
The measures designed to keep us safe and to protect each other have been necessary and vital, but that doesn’t mean that I, and I am certain, most of us have not missed being together.
Our travel to be together has been limited by the regulations on gatherings and on travel and then, in my own case, at the very time things opened up a bit, I had an accident followed by surgery which confined me to barracks.
I happily agreed, therefore, to a request from the clergy of the Diocese to put together a very short Christmas video greeting to be played at Church Services, both in person and online, on Christmas Day.
I called it ‘The Toy Trumpet’.
To view ‘The Toy Trumpet’ – a short Christmas Greeting from
As schools come to the end of a challenging and demanding academic term before Christmas, and as 2020 heads towards its close, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Dr Paul Colton, has singled the education work of the Diocese and everyone involved in it, for special mention, praise and thanks.
‘Everyone involved in running our schools in these extraordinarily demanding times is truly a frontline worker’ he said. ‘I am thinking not only of principals and teachers, but also of special needs assistants, secretarial, maintenance and cleaning staff, local clergy, as well as the voluntary support given by members of Boards of Management and Parents’ Associations. Without the huge extra effort being put in by all these people our schools would not be open. I have seen it first hand in my own home and in my on-going regular contacts with our schools.’
Bishop Colton said that he wanted to single out the children and young people for special mention:
I want to make special mention of the children in our primary schools and students in our second level schools and to thank them for the way they have adapted and entered into an education process that has been far from normal.
Bishop Colton, who is involved either as Patron or in others ways in 20 primary schools and 3 second-level schools in County Cork said:
I know that in recent days schools have had messages of support and gratitude from the Minister for Education and Skills, from the Chief Medical Officer, and from Dr Ken Fennelly in our own Church of Ireland Education Office, but I wish to add my local voice as Bishop or as Patron, as appropriate, to say that I am full of admiration and praise for what our schools have been doing and I want to thank everyone involved in them.
The fact that the work of education continued from home earlier in the year at no notice, for which huge credit is also due to parents and guardians, the work put in throughout the summer months in preparing the school buildings for re-opening, and the day to day exploration of the far from normal realities in the school setting have all been truly inspiring.
Thank you all so much.
Last week, Bishop Colton also recorded a Christmas Message for schools in the Diocese.
Christmas approaches and, more than ever this year, in Advent and beforehand, a lot of planning is going in to the practical arrangements for our joyful celebration of the nativity of our Lord.
In spite of the challenges we all face during the Coronavirus Pandemic, worship at Christmas remains the focus and at the heart of all the planning. In addition to the Church Services listed below, there are many opportunities to join acts of worship online from your home.
Online Services – live and recorded – from Cork, Cloyne and Ross, are listed HERE.
Listed below – Cathedrals first, and then parish by parish and chaplaincies – is the schedule of Services planned in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day only.
It is a challenging Christmas to organise as each local setting is obliged to take account of all the regulations published recently by the Government concerning Religious Services. You can read those regulations HERE
The HSE has issued detailed guidance and it is HERE
Numbers permitted in church buildings, with social distancing, are limited, and it is a requirement that the ‘numbers permitted to attend’ be displayed at the entrance of church buildings. Those numbers are publicised in relation to each church building in this list also for your information.
Consultations locally have resulted in decisions as to whether or not places should be on a first come basis, or if booking is possible or required.
Speaking about the arrangements, the Bishop, Dr Paul Colton said:
All of this is necessary in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic, but it is also heart-breaking for clergy and parishioners to have to limit the numbers attending Church. It goes totally against the grain. The instinct of our vocation and our approach is always open-armed and to say “All are welcome’ .
The Coronavirus is even thwarting that this year. It is new but it is not normal.
‘Booking’ for church also goes completely against the grain, but pragmatic approaches have had to be found locally by clergy in consultation with the people of the parishes about how best to face up to the limits that have been imposed by the Level 3 regulations.
I ask everyone to cooperate with the voluntary churchwardens and stewards without whom it would not be possible to hold public worship at all this Christmas. In thanking them I thank also all the volunteers in our parishes, not least those who will do the cleaning between the extra Services as required by the regulations.
I appeal to everyone, therefore, to understand and to work within the challenges faced by parishes and to see the practical dilemmas being worked through as part of our solidarity to ‘protect each other’ and to ‘stay safe’ as we continue to fight this virus together.
Unless otherwise stated the Service in each case below is a celebration of Holy Communion/The Holy Eucharist.
Where the Service is Holy Communion by Extension (the sacrament being brought to a church for distribution by a Deacon or licensed lay person from a previous celebration of Holy Communion) this too is indicated.
11.30 a.m. – Little Island. (18 maximum) – booking required
Saturday 26th December, the Feast of St Stephen
10.30 a.m. – Little Island. (18 maximum) – booking required
Cork – Saint Anne, Shandon
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
7.00 p.m. – St Anne, Shandon – 36-50 maximum – booking required
25th December, Christmas Day
10.15 a.m. – Shandon – 36-50 maximum – booking required
Douglas Union with Frankfield: Douglas, Frankfield, Blackrock and Passage West
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
7.00 p.m. – Passage West (50 maximum on a first come basis)
9.00 p.m. – Frankfield (50 maximum on a first come basis)
25th December, Christmas Day
8.30 a.m. – Blackrock (50 maximum on first come basis)
10.00 a.m. – Frankfield (50 maximum on a first come basis)
11.15 a.m. – Douglas (50 maximum on first come basis)
Fanlobbus Union – Dunmanway, Drimoleague, Drinagh and Coolkelure
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
5.00 p.m. – Dunmanway – 50 maximum – booking – Crib service for children
9.00 p.m. – Drinagh – 48 maximum – booking
11.00 p.m. – Coolkelure – 46 maximum – booking
11.00 p.m. – Dunmanway – 50 maximum booking – Holy Communion by Extension.
25th December, Christmas Day
9.00 a.m. – Drimoleague – 50 maximum booking
11.00 a.m. – Dunmanway – 50 maximum booking
11.00 a.m. – Cox’s Hall Dunmanway – 50 maximum – booking – Holy Communion by Extension (If the capacity is required from the bookings and can not be facilitated elsewhere).
Fermoy Union – Fermoy, Glenville, Ballyhooly & Knockmourne
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
7.00 p.m. – Glenville (50 maximum – first come basis)
9.00 p.m. – Ballyhooly (45 maximum – first come basis)
25th December, Christmas Day
9.45 a.m. – Fermoy (50 maximum – first come basis)
11.15 a.m. – Knockmourne (30 maximum – first come basis)
Kilgariffe Union – Clonakilty and surrounding areas
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
3.00 p.m. – Kimalooda (50 maximum – booking required)
8.00 p.m. – Clonakilty (50 maximum – booking required)
10.30 p.m. – Clonakilty(50 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
9.00 a.m. – Kilmalooda (50 maximum – booking required)
10.00 a.m. – Timoleague (30 maximum – booking required)
11.30 a.m. – Clonakilty (50 maximum – booking required)
Kilmocomogue Union – Bantry and Durrus
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
8.00 p.m. – Bantry (30 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
10.00 a.m. – Bantry (30 maximum – booking required)
Kilmoe Union – Schull area
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
25th December, Christmas Day
11.30 a.m. – Schull (40 maximum – booking required)
Kingston College in Mitchelstown
Contact details and location of the church are available HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
9.00 p.m. – Kingston College Chapel (22 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
10.30am – Kingston College Chapel (22 maximum – booking required)
Kinneigh Union – Ballineen and Enniskeane areas
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
25th December, Christmas Day
10.00 a.m. – Kilmeen – 50 maximum – booking
11.30 a.m. – Castletown Kinneigh – 50 maximum – booking
Kinsale Union – Kinsale, Ballymartle and Templetrine
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th Decenmber, Christmas Eve
6.00 p.m. Ballymartle (40 maximum – booking required)
11.00 p.m. Kinsale (90 maximum in separate pods – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
8.30 a.m. Kinsale (90 maximum in separate pods – booking required)
10.00 a.m. Templetrine (40 maximum – booking required)
1130 a.m. Kinsale (90 maximum in separate pods – booking required)
Mallow Union – Mallow, Doneraile and Castletownroche
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
7.00 p.m. – Mallow (50 maximum – booking required)
11.30 p.m. – Doneraile (50 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
10.00 a.m. – Castletownroche (35 maximum – booking required)
11.45 a.m. – Mallow (50 maximum – booking required)
Moviddy Union – Aherla, Kilmurry and Templemartin
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
7.00 p.m. – Aherla (20 maximum – booking required)
11.00 p.m.- Aherla (20 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
9.45 a.m. – Templemartin (20 maximum – booking required)
11.30 a.m. – Kilmurry (20 maximum – booking required)
Ross Union – Rosscarbery, Leap, Union Hall and Castleventry
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
24th December, Christmas Eve
5.00 p.m. – Ross Cathedral (43 maximum – booking required)
11.00 p.m. – Castleventry (21 maximum – booking required)
25th December, Christmas Day
9.00 a.m. – Union Hall (13 maximum – booking required)
10.00 a.m. – Leap (22 maximum -booking required)
11.30 a.m.. Ross Cathedral (43 maximum – booking required)
Templebreedy Group – Crosshaven and Nohoval
Contact details and location of churches are available for this parish HERE
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