The Sunday Club is hosting a Soup Lunch in aid of Solas this Sunday, March 22nd, after the main morning service  in the Parish Centre (approx. 11.45 am). It would be helpful to those catering if you could please email stpaulsdub@gmail.com to say if you will be there.
Solas is a Dublin inner-city project providing meals and after-school opportunities for children to study, learn skills, partake in sports, etc.  The vision of the Solas Project is to see communities rejuvenated through education and sport, helping young people to overcome all limitations imposed on them by social and educational disadvantage

There will be a special service for Mothering Sunday this Sunday, March 15th, at 10.30am. Flowers are distributed to all women during the service in thanks for their mothering role. And, for the day that’s in it, an all-male team will be serving tea and coffee in the Parish Centre afterwards.

Area service at 11am in Dun Laoghaire Methodist Church on Northumberland Avenue

A group of Christian women in the Bahamas have prepared the service that will be used in churches around the globe to mark World Day of Prayer this Friday, March 6th. Our local service, which is organised by a ecumenical committee representing various churches in the area, including St Paul’s, will be held in Dun Laoghaire Methodist Church on Northumberland Avenue at 11am. All women and men are welcome.

There was a great turn-out and stimulating talk at the first meeting of our Monday Lent Discussion Group in the Committee Room (upstairs) of the Parish Centre. We regroup there tonight (and every Monday during Lent) at 8 pm for session two of “Embracing an Adult Faith – What it means to be Christian”, introduced by Marcus Borg on a DVD. All are most welcome.  Each session lasts for approx. one hour

A Service of the Word at 10.30 am this Sunday, March 1st, will include an official commissioning of Jeremy Haworth, who recently joined St. Paul’s with his wife, Claire. He is a full-time staff worker with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), a global network in 150 countries. IFES exists to encourage and equip the student Christian Unions to reach out to their campuses with the message of Jesus Christ. We will officially commission him for this work, showing our support for his ongoing ministry.
Meanwhile, later in the day, Worship and Wedges in the Parish Centre at 6 pm will include craft activity, songs led by the music group and a short bible talk, followed by a light supper of wedges and sausages.  All are most welcome. (There will also be a 7 pm service of Holy Communion in the church as usual.)

The Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Rev Pat Storey (pictured below), will be the visiting preacher at three of our services during Holy  Week. Following  the success of last year’s experiment, during which the services rotated around four local Church of Ireland parishes, this is being repeated, with St Patrick’s, Dalkey also joining in. Bishop Storey will preach on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and the schedule for the services, which start at 8pm each evening, is as follows:
Monday, March 30th:  St Patrick’s, Dalkey
Tuesday, March 31st:  St Paul’s, Glenageary
Wednesday April 1st: St Matthias, Ballybrack
Maundy Thursday, April 2nd: Holy Trinity, Killiney 
Good Friday, April 3rd: Christ Church, Dun Laoghaire

An adult discussion group will take place every Monday night during Lent in the Committee Room of the Parish Centre, starting at 8 pm. We will use a five-session study by the liberal theologian Marcus Borg (pictured above), who died last month, called Embracing an Adult Faith – What it means to be Christian.   Each evening we will begin by watching and listening to Marcus Borg on a DVD as he introduces each topic and shares his own insights. Hopefully this will lead to a stimulating discussion.   Borg, who died on January 21st  at the age of 72, was Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland Oregon and author of 19 books.  The weekly topics are as follows:

Monday, February 23rd: God

Monday, March 2nd: Jesus

Monday, March 9th: Salvation

Monday, March 16th: Practice

Monday, March 23rd: Community

All are most welcome.  Each session will last for approximately one hour.

Six young people from St Paul’s – Jordan Murray, Sarah Poole, Hannah Byrne, Michael Hall, Claudia Jones and Lucy Coulter-Smith – will be confirmed by Archbishop Michael Jackson in St Brigid’s Church, Stillorgan, this coming Sunday, February 1st, at 11.30am. They will join other candidates from Holy Trinity, Killiney and Stillorgan/Blackrock at this Confirmation service for our area.

“We want all singers and all instrumentalists to come and join,” says Music Group co-ordinator, Nathan Barrett. The group, specialising in contemporary music for worship, leads the music at two services a month – one at 10.30am and the other at 6pm –  with a short practice before each service.
“There are no midweek rehearsal commitments, and there is always refreshments for the music heads afterwards!” he adds. Think you could give it a try? Contact Nathan on 086 846 0658 or email barretna@tcd.ie ”

And the next gig for the Music Group…

Is Worship & Wedges on Sunday, February 1st, at 6pm in the Parish Centre. Everyone of any age is welcome as we explore doing church in a different way!  Our session will include a craft activity, songs led by the Music Group, a short bible talk, followed by a light supper of wedges and sausages.

The Age of Innocence, a film adaptation of an Edith Wharton novel, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder, will feature at our next Parish Film Night, on Thursday, January 22nd,  introduced by Philip Molloy of Newstalk. Please reserve a seat by emailling stpaulsdub@gmail.ie