January 2022

Happy New Year

 

Date	Ballyseedy 9.45 am	Tralee 10.45 am	Ballymac 12 noon	Kilgobbin 10.00 am	Dingle 12 noon
2nd January	MP	MP	MP	MP	No Service
9th January	MP	MP	No Service	HC	HC
16th January	MP	HC	HC	No Service	MP
23rd January	No Service	MP	MP	HC	HC
30th January		HC		MP	MP

 

 

Feast of the Epiphany

Thursday 6th January   HC Tralee at 11am

 

The Marriage of Emer Blennerhassett from Camp and Dan McMahon took place in St Marys Church Killarney on the 18th December. It was a lovely occasion and we wish Emer and Dan every Happiness as they begin their married life together. They will reside in Limerick.

 

Christmas services.

It was wonderful to be able to gather in Church for services this year and we had good enough numbers in attendance on the Sunday before and at the four services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning and at Ballymacelligott for the first Sunday of Christmas.

 

Thank you to all who took the time to prepare and decorate our five churches.

Thank you to all who took part, readers, singers and musicians and to Susie and Marion who organised the seating plan for both services in Tralee. Hopefully the Christmas Eve Service will return to Ballymac this year.

Christmas fair and gofundmepage

We recorded a short selection of carols and readings as we prepared for Christmas in St Johns as part of a gofundmepage fundraiser to try and bridge the funding gap that has resulted as a loss of our wonderful Christmas fair.

Just click on the link below if you wish to donate and please check to see if you received a receipt from GoFundMe and your bank shows the deduction ,as some donations have not gone through even though it may look like they have on your computer.So check the above and check the gofundme link from another device

https://gofund.me/ef723fc4

Many thanks to all who have supported this page and to the singers and readers who took part, and to Maurice who put so much time into the recording and editing.

 

Sympathy,

To the family of the late Anna Catharina van der Walt who was buried in Kilnanare burial ground after a short service on the 22nd December. She lived all of her life on a farm in Vaalwater South Africa and had two daughters Annalie & Nicolette and two Sons-in -Law Herlo & Endaf, and moved to Ireland to be with her daughter and family in Tralee in 2020 after an attack on her farm on South Africa.

We also extend our sympathy to Belinda and family on the death of Richard Southwell, her husband of 59 years. Richard and Belinda bought the Rectory over fifty years ago and have been regular visitors to Kilgobbin in the intervening years, bringing, children and grandchildren and friends with them on many occasions. Richard has been a great friend and very generous to Kilgobbin Church. They were so generous and nearly always invited parishioners for coffee after the morning service in the Church. He was man of faith, committed to helping others. I learnt from Belinda’s email that he was committed to his charities right up to the end.

 

Medical History of Tralee 1763 – 2010. By Robert Fitzsimons.

Christmas is a time for rest and reading and I took the opportunity to read Dr Bob Fitzsimons book. Bob gave me a copy of his book one morning after the Wednesday service as two of doctors mentioned in his detailed account are associated with St Johns.

Dr Alton who served in the Workhouse during the famine has window dedicated to his memory in the Church and the family tomb is in the church grounds.

Dr Crumpe served in the Infirmary and he is also buried in the church grounds.

The preparation that went into this book involved  months and years of painstaking research. We should be proud of Bobs work as it illustrates the challenges that these men and women faced as they struggled to treat diseases such as Cholera, Typhoid, Polio Dysentery, Measles and whooping cough that ravaged the population. With the introduction of vaccination many of these diseases have been banished and consigned to history. We certainly owe these medical professionals an enormous debt of gratitude. 

Today many of our parishioners continue their good work,many pof them in the institutions that succeeded the workhouse, the fever hospital and the infirmary and we are thankful to them for all that they do for us.

Reading Bob's book reminded me how thankful we should be for the health care that we now have and for the developments since those early days of medical care in Tralee and to the scientists and medical personnel who have made them possible.

 

Thought

We sometimes spend the early days of January walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws but for potential.’ ~Ellen Goodman

Shortly we will celebrate the Wisemen and the gifts that they brought, Lets begin the year thankful for our own gifts, for the gifts of those around us and indeed for the wide range of gifts that our parishioners so generously share, enhancing the life of our parish.

Wishing you all a happy new year and thank you for your support and generosity to the parish during 2021.

Jim

Parish website: www.traleedingle.ardfert.anglican.org   Email: stjohns.ashestreet@gmail.com