Aughaval Group of Parishes

  Maundy Thursday This evening's services in the parishes are as below. Why not come along to one? -  Last Holy Communion before Easter , 6.30pm  in St Mary’s. The Right Revd Michael Burrows,  Bishop  TLK, will  preside and preach. -  Tenebrae , 8pm in Christ Church Castlebar.   With musical contributions by Opera singer Hubert Francis and organist Siobhan Kilkelly. For all in the community.  Washing of the Feet    14th century Capella dei Scrovegni, Padua Public domain, photo by  José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro Wikimedia Commons https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Washing_of_the_Feet_-_Capella_dei_Scrovegni_-_Padua_2016.jpg : John 13:1-15 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.   A...

  Tenebrae You are warmly invited to come and experience Tenebrae on Thursday in Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) in Christ Church Castlebar at 8pm. Tenebrae (Latin, “darkness” or “shadows”) dates back to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Since medieval times tenebrae has been the name given to the monastic morning and night-time services (Matins and Lauds) of the last three days of Holy Week.  Our partly candlelit version of the service is composed of Bible readings, music and song and poetic interjections, all capturing the last hours of Christ’s life, dramatising his Passion. It reminds us of the extreme price God in Christ paid to redeem us and the world.  Each part of the service brings us closer to the barrenness and darkness of a world without Christ. Yet darkness and hope are held in tension with the conclusion of the service and our shared anticipation of the Easter event to come! We are delighted again this year to welcome international opera singer Hubert Francis ...

  Monday in Holy Week, at Croagh Patrick "Monday on the Mountain" Pilgrims on Monday in Holy Week, at Croagh Patrick. With thanks to Fr John Kenny for the photos and leading the group.

Thank you to everyone who brought the dramatised readings of the Palm and Passion liturgies to the Palm Sunday services in Turlough, Castlebar, Westport and Dugort, and special thanks to Kenn McLaughlin (Christ Church Castlebar) for the production. Here are two photos from Chris Church Castlebar and Westport  (Holy Trinity in St Mary’s, where Fr John Kenny played Jesus. Thank you also to the families who brought the children along to take part in the simple Palm Sunday processions. The children did great and are such important and precious members of our congregations and communities. 

Lent, Holy Week and Easter  Everyone is warmly invited. Children and young people are especially welcome on Palm Sunday to come in traditional costume (tea towels, dressing gowns, etc.) and to bring suitable foliage and to help with the Palm Sunday procession.  Please come a few minutes early.  Palm Sunday, 13 April (also, Eve of Palm Sunday, 7pm in Turlough COI Parish Church) : The Liturgy of the Passion, with  The Mark Drama  which   is being organised by Kenn McLaughlin, Castlebar Parish, with others from across the parishes.  - Turlough Sat 12 April, 7pm in Turlough - Christ Church Castlebar, 10am on Sun 13 April - Westport, Holy Trinity congregation, 12 noon in St Mary's Westport, on Sun 13 April  - St Thomas’s Dugort, Achill, 3pm, with Palm Sunday Eucharist  Monday in Holy Week,14 April: - 11am, Monday on the Mountain.   Meet in Murrisk carpark for a gentle walk to the St Patrick statue, and prayers. Suitable for all ages....

  Latest notices Tues 8 April - Castlebar Easter Vestry, 7.30pm in the church (Christ Church)  Wed 9 April    - Midweek Lenten Holy Communion , 10.30am  in St Mary's Westport    - Lenten  Online Prayer and Bible Reading , 8pm    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82781900766?pwd=b2YEVeJHqhnprNxoLHjd5sqg492wbn.1    - Mark Drama Workshop  for Palm Sunday, with food from 6pm in the Rectory. Please let Kenn ( +353 85 715 4139)  know if you plan to come along.             Final Confirmation preparation - Friday 11th April, 7.45pm in the Rectory, Westport   Lent, Holy Week and Easter  Palm Sunday, 13 April (also, Eve of Palm Sunday, 7pm in Turlough COI Parish Church) : The Liturgy of the Passion, with  The Mark Drama  which   is being organised by Kenn McLaughlin, Castlebar Parish, with others from across the parishes.  If you are interested in getting involved in this ‘low...

  Dundrum Bay, Co. Down Today’s gospel    John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30  After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish  to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths  was near.  But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were  in secret. Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?  Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah  comes, no one will know where he is from.’  Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’...

  ‘April is Autism Awareness Month’ Banner at Carrowbeg House, St Mary’s  Westport, like Castlebar, is taking seriously its commitment to actively catering for people with autism and neurodivergence issues. This commitment manifested itself recently, for example, on St Patrick’s Day, with a designated quiet area (along the bottom of James Street) in the parade. This practical demonstration of consideration seems to have been greatly appreciated by those directly concerned and affected. Well done and thank you to those behind this positive change and expression of care.

  The Resurrection of Christ Contemporary Greek icon, by Surgun100, own work Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8724640 Wed 2nd April, 10.30am: Midweek Holy Communion, followed by coffee in the Clew Bay Hotel. This week Canon Andrea Wills will preside. You're welcome! Today's gospel      John 5:17-30 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gi...

  Midweek Holy Communion in Lent  Midweek Holy Communion, which usually takes place in Holy Trinity Church, Westport, will be at 10.30 a.m. again on Wed 2nd April, in St Mary's Church Westport.  Canon Andrea Wills will preside and this short and intimate service will be followed by tea/coffee in the Clew Bay Hotel.  Everyone is welcome!

    God says,  'As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.' (Isaiah 66:13) The Gospel Reading      Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable: Then Jesus said,  ‘There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. H...