Tidings June-August 2015 by St Matthias Church

June - July - August 2015

Tidings Summer FĂŞte

Saturday 6th June

View online at www.stmatthias.ie

Email us at stmatthiastidings@gmail.com

A Letter from the Rector

#selfie: William Olhausen and Alistair Doyle at the Aviva stadium to see Leinster play Bath in the quarter final of the European Champions Cup. Dear friends Welcome to this special mini summer edition of Tidings. The main business of the parish in this next quarter is of course the Fête on Saturday 6th June. Please get involved and please come on the day – it will be greatly appreciated. The more the merrier. And for those who help with set up and running the stalls there is the prize of being invited to the afters party at 7pm!

Have a great summer 2015! William

our Lives

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All Hallows College

Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.

This event will be a28th chaired panel discussion with Thursday May audience participation. The topic will be “What the Bible

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24TH - 31ST MAY 2015

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I am very pleased to announce that this yearibSt le Matthias is one of the host specEvening ek churches for the Ecumenical Bible Week. will be held on ial Wesessions even at 8pm. On Tuesday Monday 25th and Wednesday 27th May in St Matthias t m: an exploration of 26th May Fr John Sinnott will be hosting an evening in Johnstown Gparish OD mes run through many church at 8pm. For further details of these evenings and other events movies. rture - Looking at the please visit the website at http://www.bibleweek.ie/

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32 Events 18 Presenters

Cecily writes

Holiday time is drawing near and people will have made their plans for visits to places, near and far. We hope to head off to France, one of our favourite places to visit. One of the many pleasures of travelling in France is the opportunity to visit some of the wonderful cathedrals and churches found throughout the country. Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, Chartres and Toulouse all spring to mind. They are large and spectacular. Their glorious stained glass windows, their stately pillars and delicate arches, the glowering gargoyles, even the flying buttresses all seek to draw our thoughts and prayers heavenwards. Think of the masons who travelled from one cathedral site to another bringing their skill and expertise to create these awe-inspiring buildings to be used for worship and where God’s glory is revealed. It is amazing when you consider that these magnificent buildings were designed and built without any of the modern machinery that is currently available. They stand as a striking monument to man’s ingenuity. But God can also be found in the smaller and more humble churches too. Nestling in the heart of Normandy lies the picturesque village of St. Leonard des Bois. It has a twelfth century church perched on top of the cliff overlooking the village. Inside, lovely murals dating from the 12th century adorn the sanctuary walls and in the body of the church is a modern set of the Stations of the Cross. Crafted in iron, they are stark, simple and dramatic. The image of the two angels moving aside the stone from the tomb on the first Easter morning is particularly effective – no problem is too big for God to handle. Outside in the wall of the sanctuary wall is a bees’ nest enjoying protection as a national monument. A plaque records that in the ninth century a swarm of bees attacked a group of soldiers who were desecrating and attempting to burn down the church. The stinging bees drove the soldiers over the cliff to their death and the church was spared. Watching the coming and going of the bees to their nest I thought of the Biblical account in Second Kings in which the Assyrian army was wiped out overnight outside the city gates of Jerusalem by a plague, possibly carried by rats. It is good to be reminded that God often uses the simple things of life to attract our attention. When all else fails he speaks through other voices in creation and achieves his purpose, in this case through the action of the bees. With God, all things are possible. Cecily West 3

Parish and Diocese News

Parish and Diocese News Annual Parish Raffle As usual, our Annual Parish Raffle draw will take place at the Fête in June. Two books of tickets are delivered with this copy of Tidings. This years prizes include: Original Painting ‘Ballet Girl’ by Mary Reynolds valued at €800, Original Painting ‘Horses Grazing’ by Mary Reynolds valued at €500, Silver Pendant by Barry Doyle valued at €175.00. If everyone sold their allocation the parish would make a minimum of €8,000! Last year the raffle made €2,700. This was €1,000 more than 2013. The reason for the increase was because we didn’t have to buy prizes due to the generosity of some parishioners who donated prizes. The printing of the tickets was also sponsored. Thank you in advance for your help. Philip Salter 2824072 philipsalter@eircom.net

Parish Centre News Earlier in the year, Eve Berea - Principal of the Montessori Pre-School sent this to the Select Vestry... “I am delighted to inform you that the Montessori School is going from strength to strength and we have had five more pupils join after Christmas. I want to take this time to thank you all for agreeing to rent me the Parish Room. The response from parents when they walk in is fantastic and they love the feeling of space and light that the room has. I have compiled the class list for next year and judging by the children enrolled we will be at maximum capacity every morning. I have already turned three potential families away and I have started to think about the possibility of running an additional class”... We are pleased to announce that the Select Vestry have accepted Eve’s proposal and she will run morning classes from September in both the Parish Hall and the Day Room. She is also going to continue using the play area currently temporarily fenced off next to the Scout Den. The Select Vestry approved her proposal to fund the installation of a white picket fence with a gate to enhance the visual appearance of this area and to provide for a more secure area for play. This area will remain available for parish use when needed. Legal requirements for increased student numbers also require an additional sink in the ladies toilets so Eve is providing a small children’s sink alongside the existing one in order to meet this need. The Select Vestry also approved this work. Bookings continue to go well. We now have a weekly Junior Einsteins Science Club as well as all our other regular bookings and parish activities and clubs. It was particularly encouraging to hear from St John of God, Carmona Services that they have been looking for 11 years for a suitable venue for their youth clubs and are absolutely delighted with the facilities we offer. Our Fête will be the next big event in our parish calendar and we look forward to full usage of all the facilities being a blessing to our community. Please pray for the continued success of the Centre and for all those that use it to be safe and secure while on our premises. 5

Parish and Diocese News Easter Services Once again this year Holy Week Services were shared among the local parishes, the week had a great atmosphere and there was great attendance at all services by parishioners from St Matthias. We had our annual â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donkey Serviceâ&#x20AC;? on Palm Sunday and the weather was kind to us.

Parish and Diocese News

On Easter Sunday the annual “Sonrise” service took place on top of Killiney Hill, there was a good crowd gathered at the obelisk at the break of day and breakfast which was sponsored by Lidl was served in the Carry hall. Rob Waters climbed the hill well before daybreak to catch it all on camera for those that were still sleeping but alas the day was very overcast and gloomy with the morning sun being hidden by cloud the only ‘Son’ that rose that day was the Lord himself. Hallelujah!

St Matthias’ Clubs and Societies 55 Club News

Book Club

The 55 Club had 3 activities since the last report in January. We visited Primrose Hill on 11th February, a private garden in Lucan, with its special attraction of a delightful tree lined avenue leading up to the pretty James Gandon designed house underplanted with drifts of Springtime bulbs. This was our first outdoor activity for the year and we got lucky with the weather and, we were told, to see the special double tulips, which apparently do not come out every year but it did this year on our visit.

At our last meeting at Jean’s home, the crime fiction lovers had their day in the sun as we discussed PD James “ The Private Patient”.

On 26th March, The Book Club kindly extended an invitation to our Club to join them in watching St Patrick’s Dramatic Society rendition of Terence Rattigan’s classic play ‘The Deep Blue Sea at the Dalkey Town Hall’. It was a very emotional watch but enjoyed by everyone. On 27th March at the Parish Hall, Chris Stillman once again kindly gave us a talk on his recent travels. His talk was called ‘New Land from the Ocean - the history of the Atlantic Volcanic Islands.’ It was accompanied by a Powerpoint Slide Show and he spoke about the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, explaining their origin and development, and showing pictures of some of the splendid scenery. Chris’ talk as always was thoroughly enjoyable and informative.

Whist Drive For this season, the last Whist Drive is on Thursday 14th May. We will meet again at 7.45pm at the Parish Centre on Thursday 10th September. Thanks to all Parishioners who make these evenings very enjoyable and to those who contribute to the teas and prizes. 8

Our next book is “Ghost Light” by our local writer Joseph O’Connor. The story is a fictional romance between the playwright Synge and the actress Molly Allgood. We will meet to discuss this book at Adele’s house on Friday 24th April. Truda will choose the book title for the following meeting. Contact, Bill, 01 2824247

For the bookshelf: “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges. When President Obama spoke in parliament at Westminster in 2011, he noted that the most important British contributors to science were Newton, Darwin and Alan Turing. Alan Turing was the mathematician who cracked the encrypted codes of the German communications during the Second World War. At this time he invented the concept of the universal machine and he turned this into the first design for a digital computer. In the 1950’s, homosexuality practice was a criminal offence and having suffered humiliating treatment, in 1954 this brilliant man took his own life at the age of just 41. This book was first published in 1983 and was revised with new information in 2014. It is highly recommended. The film “The Imitation Game” based on this book, was on general release recently.

Sunday Club News On Sunday the 26th of April at Sunday Club, we made the story of Jesus rising up to heaven. Alistair and Tanya helped us hang up our pictures of the story. We got a ladder and hung the pictures up. Alistair and Tanya read us the story about Mary going to the tomb and seeing that Jesus wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t there. We also learnt that Jesus and the disciples went on a hill called Mount of Olives and the disciples watched Jesus go up to heaven. We had lots of fun. By Mia Lyons

Sunday Club Barbecue - Change of Date The Final Sunday Club and familiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; barbecue has changed from Sunday 31st to Sunday 17th May. 9

Articles of Interest A Home Swap Travel Experience! We have the good fortune of owning a little corner of paradise in Brittas Bay County Wicklow, we have enjoyed many summers in our second home by the sea however last year we felt like taking a different kind of holiday. We had heard from friends about home-swapping or home exchange and we thought we’d give it a try. We registered with a home exchange website and ticked the box which said ‘we are open to travelling anywhere’ then sat back and waited. The first offer of exchange we received was closer to home than we expected, it was an offer to swap with a family in Galway, they were swapping their primary home, which I felt was very brave but they were very open to it and told me they had travelled all over the World in this way and were very experienced exchangers. So we went to their gorgeous house in the Countryside just 20 minutes from Galway City and it was a fantastic experience, the house was much bigger than what we needed, with a real farmhouse kitchen and garden and we were pleasantly surprised to find the owner had left us some freshly baked brown bread and told us to help ourselves to eggs from the chicken coup, a ready made lunch on arrival! The house was a real family home, so comfortable and lived in with loving care, you could see they embraced the country life, it wasn’t sterile the way we have our homes in Dublin, the muddy wellingtons were by the back door and the squashy sofa’s were strategically placed around the huge stone fireplace for afternoon naps in front of the TV. We felt we had not only swapped homes 10

Maria Waters

but lives as well, being woken by the rooster, collecting the eggs for breakfast and feeding the other animals, it was real experience for us Dubs. Our next experience was in the opposite end of the Country, we went to a holiday cottage in Portrush owned by a family from Belfast. From the moment we took the key from under mat (yes, they still do that!) and let ourselves in we felt at home, the house was comfortable and warm, due to the fact that they had asked a neighbour to pop in before we arrived and turn on the heating. We got our first breathtaking glimpse of the Wild Atlantic Way and visited the Giant’s Causeway. We stopped off for a wee nip (or is it a dram that far north?) at Bushmill’s Distillery and visited the vibrant town of Port Stewart, Ireland’s smallest church in Portbradden and braved the perilous Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. We packed so much into the four day weekend yet it was great to have a comfortable home to relax in the evening after the days sightseeing. By this time we felt we were no longer home-swap novices and felt brave enough to gamble the annual summer holiday as well so I went back to the web and put out feelers for home swaps in Florida, we have spent many holidays in Orlando but have never really travelled the rest of the state, we were determined to have a beach holiday so that meant travelling to the coast, we decided on Tampa and I set about finding people who were adventurous enough to want to swap with our home in Brittas Bay, this may sound like an arduous task but actually there are lots of people in America who own vacation homes or “condo’s” and they are only delighted to be offered an

Articles of Interest exchange to Ireland, especially somewhere so close to Dublin.

More about Home Exchanging...

We found two families who wanted to swap, however they had already organized their vacations so they allowed us to stay in their homes and in turn they would “bank” the time in our home for next year. So we were lucky enough to spend two weeks in a condo in Clearwater which is on the Gulf of Mexico, it was 5 story block of apartments on a long peninsular with the whitest sand beach I had ever seen on one side and Tampa bay on the other and another two weeks about 2 hours away in a townhouse in a yacht club community in St Petersburg with our swimming pool!

You don’t have to own a second home, like the family from Galway - if you have a relaxed attitude you can swap your own home. Some people offer ‘hospitality’ exchanges where you will go and stay with them in their home and they in turn will come and stay with you.

Total cost of this extravaganza - Not a dime!

You can browse the homes available for exchange on the following websites but you have to pay an annual subscription (of roughly 80-100 euro) to list your own home or contact other members. www.homeexchange.com, www.lovehomeswap.com, www.homelink.ie and www.intervac.ie

Cliff Kirker & Associates - Taxation Consultants 78 Glenageary Park, Glenageary, Co. Dublin. www.kirker.ie How do you fill in your tax return? Are you confused by Form 11 or Form 12? The deadline for getting your tax form in is October 31st Can you get tax relief for medical bills? The deadline for tax payment is October 31st Is your tax getting more confusing every year?

HELP!!

For a personal service and help in sorting out your tax, please contact Cliff Kirker at Phone: 2351442 or Email: cliff@kirker.ie For a personal service and help in sorting out your tax, please contact Cliff Kirker at Phone: 2351442 or Email: cliff@kirker.ie

St Matthias’ Fête 2015

Holy Land Tour

24th October - 2nd November 2015 Led by Rev. William Bennett and Rev. Dr William Olhausen 

Visit Petra, one of the world’s most amazing heritage sites



View the Promised Land, as Moses did, from Mount Nebo



Walk in the footsteps of Jesus through Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem.



Visit the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Via Dolorosa



Sail on the Sea of Galilee and float in the Dead Sea

Further information from: bennettwilliam1@gmail.com Telephone William Bennett 087 948 0317 William Olhausen 087 166 0356 13

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