All are welcome to the St Paul’s  traditional service of Nine Lessons and Carols on Sunday, December 22nd, at 7pm – the real start of Christmas! There will be a collection for the Capuchin Day Care Centre, Bow Street, in support of their work with the needy.
Mulled wine and mince pies will be served after the service in the Parish Centre, to ensure everybody goes home in the festive spirit.

Our annual gift collection for the National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght takes place next Sunday, December 15th, at the 10.30 am service.  The Sunday Club will also participate in this family service. All young people are invited to bring presents to church that morning and the following day they will be brought to the hospital so that they will be available for distribution at Christmas. Please wrap and put a note on the outside – boy/girl/either and approx age. NB For infection control purposes the hospital cannot accept soft toys, even if they are new.

Our annual, candlelit celebration for all ages during Advent, in preparation for Christmas, will now be held on Sunday, December 8th, at 5.30pm in the church. This “worship and wedges” event will be a short, informal service, with contemporary music led by Ciaran Smith, and sausages and potato wedges  served afterwards in the Meeting Room of the Parish Centre.  All very welcome. The 7pm evening service will take place in the church as usual.

It’s the first Sunday of Advent next Sunday, December 1st, and the first candle on the Advent wreath will be lit at the 10.30 am Service of the Word. There will also be Sunday Club, at which the children will be preparing for a Christmas presentation.

People of all ages are invited to our monthly Worship and Wedges this Sunday, November 24th, at the new time of 5.30pm. It will be held in the church and not, as previously advertised, in the Parish Centre. But sausages and potato wedges will be served afterwards in the centre’s Meeting Room. So do try to get along for this short, contemporary-style service, with a chance for families to socialise aftewards.
For anybody interested in singing or playing with Ciaran Smith’s band, there will be a rehearsal beforehand in the church at 4.30pm. He can be contacted on 087 226 0998.
Meanwhile please note that Evening Prayer will take place, as usual, in the church at 7pm.

Thank you to all who contributed last Sunday to the special Bishops’ Appeal collection for relief work in the Philippines, following the devastating typhoon.  There will be another opportunity to contribute to this fund at St Paul’s next Sunday, November 24th.  Archbishop Richard Clarke and Archbishop Michael Jackson have asked every parish to respond generously  in the face of such overwhelming need.

This month’s  Family Service  is at 10.30am in St Paul’s next Sunday, November 17th. (After this service, the Dun Laoghaire branch of the RNLI is selling Christmas cards and providing the coffee in the Parish Centre to raise funds).
 Worship and Wedges,  an informal act of worship with contemporary music, followed by a light supper of sausages and potato wedges, will be on the following Sunday, November 24th, at 5.30pm in the Parish Centre.

See the latest news from Kisiizi hospital in Uganda, which is supported by St Paul’s, on its updated website: http://www.kisiizihospital.org.ug/.  A blog by medical superintendent  Dr Ian Spillman and his wife, Hanna, gives ongoing insight to life out there:  http://spillmanuganda2.blogspot.ie/

Please buy your tickets this week for the gourmet four-course dinner being held in the Parish Centre on Saturday, November 16th, starting at 7.30 pm sharp. Canapes with a glass of prosecco will be served on arrival. Wine also available.
Tickets, at €25 a head, are  available from Mary Heseltine (087 225 6562) or Deirdre Moppett (086 822 3327), or order by email stpaulsdub@gmail.com.

You are invited to participate in a time of quiet reflection at our Annual Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for loved ones in St Paul’s on Sunday, November 3rd, at 7 pm. The choir will be there to provide appropriate music, including items from Faure’s “Requiem” and his beautiful “Cantique de Jean Racine”. If you would like the name of a loved one to be read out at this service, please add their name as soon as possible to the list which you will find on the table at the back of the church.