Last Sunday, 13th July 2025, Bishop Deon Johnson was the preacher for the popular Compline Service at St Brendan’s Church, Crookhaven. Bishop Johnson is currently a guest of the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and is spending part of his sabbatical in Schull.
The Rev. Terry Mitchell and the Right Rev. Deon Johnson
The most southerly chapel in Ireland, St Brendan’s Church in Crookhaven, resumed its late-evening service of Compline every Sunday in July and August. The services will begin at 8.30pm and the small stone chapel, which was built in 1717, welcomes all denominations and anyone who is on holidays or visiting West Cork. Following is the list of guest preacher for each upcoming service in 2025:
July 20th: the Very Rev. Cliff Jeffers (Dean of Ross)
July 27th: the Rev. Damien O’Cathain (Rector of Castlepollard & Oldcastle Union)
August 3rd: Baroness Julia Neuberger (Member of the House of Lords and retired senior Rabbi of the West London Synagogue)
August 10th: the Rev. Canon Denis McCarthy (Bandon Union)
August 17th: the Very Revd. Chris Peters (Retired Dean of Ross)
August 24th: the Rev. Gary Philbrick (Vicar, St Paul’s, Weston-super-Mare)
August 31st: Denise Stobart (Doctoral Researcher at University College Cork)
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On Sunday, 13th July 2025, during Evensong in St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Dr Paul Colton, licensed Dr Christopher Ashley as Reader to serve in the diocese. Chris has completed a courses approved by the House of Bishops and was presented to the Bishop by the Ven. Andrew Orr, Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross. Chris was joined for the occasion by his wife, the Rev. Elise Hanley, and clergy and lay people from across the Diocese.
The Very Rev. Nigel Dunne, Dean of Cork, Dr Christopher Ashley, newly licensed Diocesan Lay Reader, the Right Rev. Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and the Ven. Andrew Orr, Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
The Right Rev. Dr Deon K. Johnson, Bishop of Missouri arrived in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross last Wednesday to spend part of his sabbatical in Schull, County Cork where, as guests of the Diocese, he will continue to write his book. On Thursday, 10th July 2025, Bishop Johnson was welcomed by members of the Diocese, clergy and laity, for lunch at Garryduff Sports Centre, and he later gave a talk about his work in the Diocese of Missouri.
Bishop and Mrs Colton met the Bishop at Lambeth 2022 where, as guests of the Archbishop of Canterbury at lunch at Lambeth Palace, they found they were seated together. They kept in touch and met up in St Louis, Missouri later that year.
Bishop Colton said:
Bishop Deon had so many insights and practical experience of parish renewal and growth, particularly in the area of children and family ministry which I was also encouraging Cork, Cloyne and Ross to focus on, that I said to him ‘you must come over and talk to us about these things.’ I am thrilled he did come and spoke to us in such an inspirational and challenging way.
Originally from a small village on the Caribbean Island of Barbados, Deon Kevin Johnson was consecrated as the 11th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri on June 13, 2020, at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis. The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri is an inclusive community of faith, made up of nearly 10,000 people in 41+ churches and missions in eastern and central Missouri, a Diocese similar in population size to Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
On Sunday, 13th July 2025, Bishop Deon will preach at Compline at St Brendan the Navigator, Crookhaven.
During this year’s Cork Midsummer Festival, the nave of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral was transformed by a glorious glowing orb, a sun replica, which quickly became the talk of the town. Roughly 12,000 visitors came to the Cathedral in June to visit and to admire British artist Luke Jerram’s installation. Helios, is a six-and-a-half metre exact replica of the sun accompanied by a soundtrack including NASA recordings, birdsong, and other sounds from the natural world.
Jerram, who previously wowed Cork audiences with Gaia (an earth replica he installed in St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh in 2024) and Museum of the Moon (shown at MTU Bishopstown campus in 2017), is often described as working at the intersection of art and science. He is well-known for bringing art to a broad audience and hopes to prompt in them a sense of wonder at the known universe and to provoke important conversations about our place within it.
The hard-working team at St Fin Barre’s welcomed many thousands of extra visitors to the cathedral during the twelve-day run of Helios from the 9th to the 21st of June. Visitors ranged from the very young to the more advanced in years. Cathedral staff were delighted to accommodate numerous groups of school children as well as children and adults with special needs and disabilities. Despite the soaring visitor numbers, the atmosphere inside the cathedral remained tranquil, with a near constant stream of people sitting and even lying beneath the sun, deep in contemplation.
Some special evening events were held beneath Helios, each of which was sold out well in advance. Irish composer, Amanda Feery performed her thought-provoking piece Nest to an appreciative audience, and music producer, Cian Sweeney offered a piano meditation which incorporated guided meditations and breath work into an improvised piano performance. For the more astronomically minded visitors there was an evening talk entitled Cosmos. During this presentation Blackrock Castle Observatory’s lead astronomer Alan Giltinan inspired and delighted attendees as he shared some incredible insights into the lesser-known aspects of outer space.
Luke Jerram’s Helios was presented collaboratively by St Fin Barre’s Cathedral and Cork Midsummer Festival and was kindly supported by Cork City Council and Ecclesiastical Insurance.
Photos: St Fin Barre’s Cathedral
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The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, recently lodged his 1,000th sermon script for archiving and safekeeping in the Representative Church Body Library. The Librarian and Archivist, Dr Susan Hood was in Cork to advise the Bishop about the preparation of his archive of nearly 43 years of materials, including almost 27 as a bishop.
Dr Paul Colton handed over his 1000th scripted sermon to Dr Susan Hood during his recent visit to the Bishop’s Palace, Cork.
‘I’ve preached many more than a 1,000 sermons over the years’ said Bishop Colton ‘but these were the fully scripted ones. Obviously there were many others preached which were from notes or ex tempore as well.’
He continued:
My mother, Kay Colton, who herself had been a legal secretary, gave me a light, portable Brother typewriter when I went to Theological College and it served me well until I bought my first Amstrad computer and a printer in 1987. From the very start, beginning when Bishop Sam Poyntz licensed me as a Reader in 1981, I catalogued the sermon scripts; sorting them, as many preachers did then, in brown envelopes with the details recorded on the outside.’
As the sermons piled up at home, bit by bit, they were lodged with the RCB Library in Dublin together with a catalogue. The 1,000th does, however, mark a milestone.
Dr Susan Hood, the Librarian and Archivist said:
It was an honour to visit Bishop Paul in his working study at the Palace recently to get a sense of where many of his ideas and working papers as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross have evolved from. Throughout his ministry he has systematically organised his sermons (together with a digital index) and transferred them periodically to the safe-keeping of the RCB Library, where they have been accessioned as MS 731. It is a significant landmark to receive his 1,000th sermon, as preached at General Synod 2025, which we will be delighted to add to the collection.
Bishop Colton added:
I don’t know whether anyone will ever be bothered to read them but perhaps in years to come they might illustrate something of my own journey of faith, something of the journey that the Church of Ireland has been making over the last 43 years, and also because of the civic and public functions at which I have preached, there may be a little bit of the Church’s engagement with the issues of the time also from the perspective of one bishop.
Note: RCB MS 731: Sermons (1-1,000) of William Paul Colton (1960-). Curate of Lisburn-St Paul (Connor), 1984-87; Rector of Castleknock (Dublin), 1990-99); Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, 1999.
A digital index to the sermons, created by the Rt Revd Dr Paul Colton, is also available in the Library.
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