Greetings from Burundi ~ St Fin Barre’s 150

Posted on November 21, 2020 by Latest News and Photos from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

Today’s greeting, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the consecration-of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork, is from the Anglican Church in Burundi; from the Archbishop, the Most Reverend Martin Blaise Nyaboho. In October 2017 the Archbishop made a visit to Cork, Cloyne and Ross and preached at the Harvest Festival in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral.

As the 150th anniversary of the consecration, on 30th November 1870, of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork approaches, greetings such as this, from Cork, Ireland and around the world are coming in.

The present day cathedral, designed by William Burges, is the most recent building on the site where Christian worship and witness has been offered in Cork since the Seventh Century.

Since the CoronaVirus Pandemic has put a halt to all the traditional celebrations, different ways of marking the occasion have been put in place, including the sharing with you of these greetings.

Cork, Cloyne and Ross, is currently in the second phase of a partnership project with the Anglican Church in Burundi. The people of Burundi have lived through decades of conflict and political instability. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

Since 2016, the Cork, Cloyne and Ross Burundi project is in conjunction with Christian Aid, in partnership with the Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal.  It has been supported by parishes, individuals and schoolchildren from Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

To date €70,000 has been raised. In phase one of the project the money from Cork, Cloyne and Ross was used to form three cooperatives:  Dutabarane and Terimbere. Cooperatives in Matana Diocese, and Igogoretse in Makamba Diocese, working with  Christian Aid’s local partner, the Anglican Church of Burundi. The main objective was to increase maize production and to help the cooperative members to move from a subsistence farming model towards a business model of agriculture. 

Commitment to the project was renewed this year in order to continue training local farmers, providing storage and new machinery for the cooperatives, with the focus on enabling the farmers to get their produce into larger markets.

The Bishop of Cork, the Right Reverend Dr. Paul Colton with the Archbishop of Burundi, The Most Reverend Martin Blaise Nyaboho in October 2017 Picture: Jim Coughlan.

The Archbishop wrote:

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Greetings from Southern Africa ~ St Fin Barre’s 150

Posted on November 20, 2020 by Latest News and Photos from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

As the 150th anniversary of the consecration, on 30th November 1870, of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork approaches, greetings from Cork, Ireland and around the world are coming in.

The present day cathedral, designed by William Burges, is the most recent building on the site where Christian worship and witness has been offered in Cork since the Seventh Century.

Since the CoronaVirus Pandemic has put a halt to all the traditional celebrations, different ways of marking the occasion have been put in place, including the sharing with you of these greetings.

Today’s greeting is from the Anglican Church in Southern Africa; from the Archbishop of Capetown, the Most Reverend Dr Thabo Cecil Makgoba. In Cork, Cloyne and Ross we currently have one priest from the Anglican Church in Southern Africa serving among us, and another who will arrive early in 2021.

Archbishop Thabo Cecil Makgoba – Greetings on the occasion of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral 150th

The Archbishop wrote:

Posted in Anglican Communion, Anglicanism, Cathedral, Cork, Five Marks of Mission, International Church Relations, Sesquicentenary | Comments Off on Greetings from Southern Africa ~ St Fin Barre’s 150

Appointment of new Canon of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral Cork and St Colman’s Cathedral Cloyne

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Latest News and Photos from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, is pleased to announce that he has appointed the Reverend Denis MacCarthy, Incumbent of Bandon Union of Parishes, to be Prebendary of Kilbrittain and Holy Trinity in the Cathedral Church of Saint Fin Barre, Cork and to be Prebendary of Donoughnmore in the Cathedral Church of Saint Colman, Cloyne.

Canon Denis MacCarthy grew up in Gurranabraher on the northside of Cork City with his four sisters Diana, Ellen, Mary and Veronica. His parents were the Late Eileen and Colm Mac Carthy,

He attended the North Presentation Convent, The North Mon and Edmund Rice College.  Dún Laoghaire When he left school his first job was as a delivery boy in Erinville Maternity Hospital in Cork. In 1980 he went to Maynooth to study for the priesthood and was ordained in Christ the King, Turners Cross in 1984.

Upon leaving the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, he worked for eighteen years with early school leavers and teenagers at risk. He also worked as a Taxi Driver and was a member of Cork Taxi Co-op.

Canon MacCarthy recounts how he journeyed back into ministry:

I never thought that I would ever go back into Ministry, but having completed the Bishop’s Certificate in Theology in Cork, I felt the call begin to stir again in my soul.

Sponsored by Bishop Paul, I entered the Church of Ireland Theological College in 2004. In May of the following year I was privileged to be licensed as a Curate for Bandon Union of Parishes, where I served under Dean Nigel Dunne and the late Canon Paddy Hewitt.

In 2008, I was instituted as Rector of Mallow Union of Parishes, where as a family we spent two very happy years. On All Saints Day, 1st November 2010, I was instituted as Rector of Bandon Union of Parishes and have spent ten very happy years here so far.   

On that Sunday morning in the late eighties when I slipped quietly into the back pew of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, little did I think that it would become my spiritual home, that it would help me pick up the broken pieces of my life, refresh me and lead me back to ministry. I continue to endeavour to love God, love my neighbour and try not to make a hash of it.

Canon MacCarthy is married to Noelle Burke, and they have two daughters, Nell and Beth, who attend Bandon Grammar School. Noelle works part-time as a school nurse in the Lavanagh Centre in Beaumount in Cork.

Canon Denis MacCarthy
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Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral Choir Launches New CD

Posted on November 16, 2020 by Latest News and Photos from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

The current Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral building is 150 years old in 2020, although worship has been offered on the same site since 606AD when Saint Fin Barre founded his monastery.  The Cathedral was consecrated on 30th November 1870. 

Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral Choir, in existence since 1324, composed of 40 children and 8 adults, has recorded an album of favourite anthems in celebration of this anniversary.  

The CD entitled Let All the World in Every Corner Sing, officially launched online on Sunday 15th November, includes the premiere recording of a new set of canticles, written for the anniversary by Composition Competition winner Nicholas O’Neill.  

The Cathedral’s Director of Music, Peter Stobart said:

We are pleased to be able to celebrate the Cathedral’s anniversary through the release of this CD.  We were all delighted to have a new set of canticles to sing, and we really enjoyed the challenge of learning and recording them.

Welcoming the new recording, the Dean of Cork, the Very Rev. Nigel Dunne explained that the recording was completed during the February half term break, just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic: 

This recording is the second in recent years, and it was most fortunate that our hard-working musicians, singers and choristers put in such hard work, often late into the night, to bring it to completion.  I greatly welcome the inclusion of the new setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Nicholas O’Neill, which are so wonderfully presented on the CD. I can’t wait to hear them premiered live in the Cathedral when we get past the current Coronavirus restrictions.

The CD is available from the Cathedral’s webstore: 

www.corkcathedral.webs.com/apps/webstore.  

Early ordering is advised to allow delivery in time for Christmas.

Peter Stobart, Director of Music, St Fin Barre’s  Cathedral Cork presents copies of the new Choir CD recently to (left to right) Bishop Paul Colton, Dean Nigel Dunne and Bishop Fintan Gavin.
Picture Gerard McCarthy Photography
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Bishop Paul Colton launches Book for Children and Young People to Mark the forthcoming 150th Anniversary of the Consecration of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork.

Posted on November 13, 2020 by Latest News and Photos from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

On Friday, 13th November, Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, has made available to schools, parishes and youth groups a book he wrote in recent months for children, young people and parishes to explore the 150th anniversary later this month (30th November) of the Consecration of one of Cork’s, indeed of one of Ireland’s, most iconic buildings:  Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork.

The book itself maybe downloaded from the Diocesan Website at: http://cork.anglican.org/our-story/sfb150/

The website also includes useful links to individual pages and worksheets, as well as photographs and other materials.  For children (and adults who do colouring too), the graphic designer, Jonathan Leahy Maharaj, has taken some of the window designs and cartoons of the Cathedral architect, William Burges, and recreated them for colouring according to the person’s own interpretation of the biblical stories they portray. Jacqui Wilkinson has created Google slides for use with the book, and also a school assembly, which alongside many other resources, are also linked to on the website.

The cover of the new book

Hard copies of the book entitled ‘Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral; resources for Children, Young People, Schools and Parishes’ will be distributed free of charge next week, having been generously sponsored by the Diocesan Education Committee.  

Launching the book this morning, Bishop Colton said:

As Bishop, I have put together this activity booklet for use in schools, children’s and youth groups and, who knows, it may get some grownups thinking as well. It is not a lesson plan or single activity programme; it is a resource of ideas which I have no doubt that teachers and those who work with children and young people in our parishes will be able to draw on, to adapt, to amplify or to simplify as necessary. Your skills in this area are greater than mine. It is up to each teacher, youth leader or children’s leader to choose or to select from the materials and suggestions that follow according to the age group they are working with.

I want to thank those who have advised me and supported me in this work:  John Ardis, Susan Colton, Nigel Dunne, Jonathan Leahy Maharaj, Alicia St Leger and Jacqui Wilkinson.

Dean Nigel Dunne said:

I am most grateful to Bishop Colton for providing this resource as part of our 150th celebrations and to all those who have contributed to it.

Whilst primarily designed for children this resource opens up a world of creativity and learning for all age groups and shares some of the amazing architecture, art and stories which we here at St Fin Barre’s are so privileged to enjoy every day.

Posted in Anniversaries, Bishop, Bishops of Cork, Book Launch, Books and Publications, Cathedral, Children's Ministry, Church History, Church of Ireland, Churches in Cork, Cork, Dean of Cork, Diocese, Education, People from Cork, People from the Diocese, Schools in the Diocese, Sesquicentenary, Youth Work | Comments Off on Bishop Paul Colton launches Book for Children and Young People to Mark the forthcoming 150th Anniversary of the Consecration of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork.