Page 10 - Moravian Messenger October 2019

Summer in the Irish District
The congregation at Holiday Church
© Sr Sarah Groves
It has been a wonderful time to be a Moravian in Ireland - we have gathered together from across the District on four Sundays and one Saturday.
This year the Golf Open
was in Portrush and this
meant that we could not
hold our usual four Sunday
Holiday Church Meetings
in Portrush Town Hall. So
the first of our Holiday Church Sundays became a Barbeque and Games Afternoon at Crawfordsburn Country Park. This beautiful park rolls on down to a lovely beach on Belfast Lough. Folk from all five Irish District Churches came together and the children played in the lough and some of us attempted to play a game of horseshoes which Jared assured us was a popular game in the country areas of the US. However, horseshoes thrown at pegs in the sand sink and much time was spent trying to locate the chucked horseshoes, but it provided great amusement. The barbeque was lovely, Mark and Mandy Kernohan were the cooks, and everyone enjoyed the burgers, sausages, cake and traybakes. It was a perfect afternoon except for the rain: it poured down and by the end we are all sheltering under trees and brollies,
but still laughing.
The following three Sundays found us all up at Portrush enjoying fellowship and relaxed worship in the Town Hall at Holiday Church. These services have been going for six years now and are really appreciated by all who attend. We are so grateful to Mark and Mandy who organise them and faithfully supply the refreshments. There have now been 24 Holiday Church Services with an average attendance of 19 - long may they continue!
The last event of the summer was the Moravian Historical and Heritage Society Annual Outing. This first outing was to Kilkeel to learn about the Moravian Church in Kilkeel. Br John Costly, whose ancestors came from Kilkeel has been researching the history of the Church there and started the
afternoon with a talk about the Church and the hardships of the area.
We then toured the Moravian Burial Ground that is situated in the Presbyterian Minister's back garden and saw the old Moravian Church building that was sold to the Kilkeel Presbyterian and is now used as a Church and Community Gym. It was built at about the same time as Brockweir and Ballinderry Moravian Churches and old pictures show that it looked much like them too before changes were made roughly 100 years ago.
There was just time for another barbeque and then we headed for home. Some of us stopped off on the way to see Binnian Hall which is just below Wee Binnian in the Mourne Mountains. It had previously been a Moravian Preaching Place and was later sold to the Presbyterian Church in Kilkeel.
The day gave us much to think about, reflecting on the hardship of ministers and their congregations in times gone by, the sadness of seeing closed Moravian Churches but thankful that the premises are still of use to the Presbyterian Church and local community.
Sr Sarah Groves
Gracehill
Some of those who came on the Kilkeel trip
Hornsey
As Harvest approaches, our caretaker and his team of volunteers are already harvesting the first of their crops that they have planted and tended in the land behind the church halls - hitherto an unvisited and unloved plot of ground. They have tomatoes, sweet corn, cabbages, pumpkins and squash either ready or nearly so. They've done a great job.
Br James and Sr Annette, with a little help from a
few members, continue their sterling work with 'Who
let the dads out?' This is a Church of England
initiative that focuses on getting dads and male
carers to socialise with each other in the same way that mums and female childminders do at playgroups during the week. So, one Saturday morning a month, dads, grandads and other males looking after children meet together and, while the children play with each other, can have a coffee or tea and a bacon roll and get to know each other. And who knows? in time some may express an interest in what happens in the church ...
Finally, the congregation has been deeply saddened by the recent loss of one of our most active members. Sr Cathy (Geraldine) Skepple passed away at the end of August following a period of illness and she is greatly missed. Condolences have been extended to the whole Skepple family at this time.
Sr Jackie Morten
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CONGREGATION NEWS
© Sr Jackie Morten
© Sr Sarah Groves