Tralee & Dingle Newsletter August 2018

Rose of Tralee Festival: The Rose of Tralee festival will take place later in the month, It is a wonderful occasion for the town and its hinterland.  On the 19th August at our Sunday service we hope to welcome some of the Roses and their entourage to our service. This will be a united service for Tralee, Ballymacelligott and Ballyseedy.  It would lovely to have a nice crowd in Church on that Sunday to welcome them and to meet with them in Teach an tSolais afterwards for refreshments.

Church Gates: The Church gates and the Teach an tSolais gates have been very tastefully painted in the last few weeks. Many thanks to Robert Groves who secured the funding and organised the cleaning and painting.

Opening of St Johns: It is hoped to keep St Johns open for a few hours each day during the festival. Mona is organising a rota , If you have an hour or two to spare please contact Mona.

Seasons of Creation: The season of Creation runs from the 1st September to 4th October this year. The theme across the diocese of Kerry will be 'Be part of the solution to plastic pollution'.  This will be launched on September 1st in Tralee Town Park with a prayer and commitment event at 11am on that Saturday.

Golden Jubilee: Congratulations to Robert and Betty Groves who celebrated their Golden Jubilee on the 21st July. Best wishes to them and their families.

Blue Sapphire: I discovered that Blue Sapphire is the term or the colour associated with those who are celebrating sixty-five years of marriage, so congratulations to Billy and Alice Mason of Farmers Bridge who have celebrated sixty-five years of marriage recently.

Weddings: Congratulations and every happiness to those couples who have just begun their married lives and who were married in July.

To Brendan and Emma Poff who were married in Portugal and to Jason and Fiona Peevers who were married in Waterford. Congratulations to them and their families at this time of joy and celebration.

Welcome home: Welcome home to David Tough and Robert Hoffman after their trip with CMS to Kajiado Diocese in Kenya.  We look forward to hearing from them and reading more details in next month’s newsletter.

Fund Raising Quiz: A fund raising pub quiz will be held in O’Riadas bar in Ballymac on the21st September.  Please keep a note of this in your diary

Sympathy:

To Kevin and Lorna McMahon and their family on the death of Kevin’s Brother Donagh in the UK.

The Boys' Brigade leader appeal: The Boys Brigade hopes to start up again on Friday September 28th. However, we urgently need more leaders as we do not have enough leaders to run the company. We currently have one full time leader (Collette Price) and 2 part time leaders (Daniel and Rory Giles). To run on Friday evenings, we need a minimum of 3 leaders each week, with the current leader set up we will not be able to start up again in September. If you are interested in becoming a leader please contact Collette Price on 086 318 8736 as soon as possible so we can have Garda vetting in place before September. The First Tralee Company has been running in Tralee for nearly 30 years and it would a huge loss to the parish if we had to disband the company.

St. John’s Youth Club: The Youth Club had a very busy year, last year with Rev Jim joining the leadership. We had a Games Session, a Cookery demonstration, visited Fenit Lighthouse by boat, went wall climbing in Dingle/An Daingen and went for a short cruise on the Killarney Lakes.

This year we plan even more activities and extend an invitation to last year’s confirmands to join our group. Membership fees are minimal and activities will start in October 2018. Parents can also become involved in a very informal manner. Watch this space for an update and good luck to all 1’st years starting Secondary School in September.”

News from the West – August 2018

 Kilgobbin Parish Fundraiser: Monday 6th August in the Old School Rooms at Camp from11.00am. Stalls – Baking and Produce, Bric-a-brac, Plants, Toys and Baby Items, Raffle.

Bingo Night: Sunday 19th August, in the Old School Rooms, Camp, commencing at 7.30pm, including a raffle. All proceeds to the St. James Restoration Fund.

Advance Notice: There will be a Pub Quiz in Ashes Pub sometime in September/October.

Congratulations to Revd. Angela Lewis and Gerrard Hannafin who were married in St. Mary's Church in Dingle on Saturday 28th July. Angela is a priest from Bardsey, Leeds and Gerrard has family from the Dingle area and elsewhere in Ireland. The service was conducted by Fr. Joe Begley, assisted by Revd. Phyllis and Revd. Andrew Sheard from Emsworth, UK – very much an ecumenical occasion! It was a joy to meet Gerrard's family and many of Angela's family and friends who had made the journey from the UK. Following the beautiful service, we were all rewarded when the sunshine came out, with some amazing views from The Dingle Skellig's Hotel. We wish them every blessing for their future life together. 

To Members and Friends of St. James, Kilgobbin & Killiney Churches: We now have a Fundraising Committee established to work on grant applications and raising money for the Restoration of St. James Church. However, we still have a responsibility to keep our other two churches in good repair. Work is scheduled to begin on essential repairs to The Church of St. Brendan, Killiney, but the grant will only cover part of the work and we still need to raise funds for an upgrade to the electrical system together with some form of heating, and the renovation of the floor. In the near future, Kilgobbin Church will require work carried out on the guttering and brackets. The Committee has a wide scope of talents to pursue fundraising events but we are dependent on the support of all members and friends of our churches.  We have two fundraising events planned for August 2018: our first is 'Kilgobbin Parish Fundraiser' which will be onMonday 6th August in the Old School Rooms, Camp (Bank Holiday weekend). The second, also in the Old School Rooms, is on Sunday 19th August, which will be a Bingo Night.

Please, we need all hands on deck to make these events a success!

Prayersonthemove.com

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian (1892–1971

Parish Website :  www.traleedingle.ardfert.anglican.org/