Carrickmacross,
Magheracloone and Ardragh Group of Parishes
Worship
Service Times (monthly rota, Holy Communion as announced)
Time
|
1st and 3rd Sundays
|
2nd and 4th Sundays
|
10.30am
|
St. Finbarr's Church, Carrickmacross
|
St. Finbarr's Church, Carrickmacross |
11.45am
|
St. Molua's Church, Magheracloone
|
St. Patrick's Church, Ardragh |
We call these services 'Public Worship' which means that
everyone is welcome to attend. Mid-morning services last about an hour
Services
The
monthly rota of worship is outlined in the Table above. There are
occasional deviations from this rota, for example on Patronal
Festivals, Harvest Thanksgivings, Carol Services etc. which are
announced locally. All
our services are from the Church of Ireland's Book of Common Prayer.
There is be a mid-week celebration of Holy Communion or
ante-communion on Wednesday's
at 10.30am to observe the major saints days and other minor feasts and
fasts.
Holy
Communion
One of Our Lord's clearest instructions after
he had broken bread and shared wine with his disciples on the night
before his crucifixion was that they should continue to do this in
remembrance of him. So our Holy Communion Services is our way of
following this request. The service has a very simple shape based on
reading
Scripture and sharing Bread and Wine. There is a time of
Preparation followed by
Bible Readings based on a three year rota or Lectionary of readings
each year focusing on either Matthew, Mark or Luke's Gospel with St.
John's Gospel intersperced. The
readings are
followed by a Sermon which usually refers to the readings.
After a statement of faith, or Creed, there is a time of Prayer,
leading
into the second section of the service which is shaped around the
taking, blessing, breaking and sharing of the Bread and Wine. Hymns
and songs are sung at various places during the service. We
exercise Eucharisitc Hospitality and welcome to our Table accredited
members of other churches.
Morning
and Evening Prayer
These services are derived from the Monastic
Hours or services from the monasteries of the Middle Ages - Morning
Prayer looking back to
Mattins, Lauds and Prime, Evening Prayer to Terse, Sext and Nones.
After the Preparation there are Lectionary based Bible Readings
followed by
a Sermon and finishing with Prayer. Singing, of
modern Hymns and chanting of ancient Canticles, mostly based on Psalms
or Bible texts, is an important part of these services.
Service of the Word
While similar to Morning Prayer
these services are much more flexible in content and somewhat more in
shape. Again the general outline is Preparation
followed by
Lectionary based Bible Readings and a Sermon with Prayer and Singing
but not necessarily in that
order.
Seasonal
Celebrations
Week by week through the year the services
follow a
fairly regular
pattern of themes stemming from the readings. From Advent to Pentecost
the Readings follow the events of the
life of or Lord Jesus, and in the Trinity season, which occupies
roughly half the year, we look at the teaching of or about our
Lord.
The pattern varies insofar as the different Gospel accounts
vary. Intersperced
with this there are special occasions for worship auch as Advent
Carols, Christmas Communion, New Year Watch night, Unity
Week, Women's World Day of Prayer, Holy Week, Resurrection
Sunday, Ascension, Pentecost, Harvest Thanksgiving, Patronal Festivals,
All Saints, Saint's Days.
Worship
Leaders
Our worship leaders are the
Rector, who presides at virtually all the Communion services, Diocesan
Lay
Readers and Parish
Readers, who lead Morning or Evening Prayer occaionally. We have four Pariosh Readers who assist the Rector. We are also
building a team of Lesson Readers and Prayer Leaders, and while we do
not have a resident Musicians at the moment we are developing this
Ministry over time. Currently we use a computer based MIDI system to
double up as piano, organ, guitar, music group, band, brass bnd or even
orchestra depending on the occasion.