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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.



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