News

Announcements 28 June 2026

Fundraising Meeting
We will have a Fundraising meeting on Tuesday 30 June in Saint Matthias Church n Ballydehob at 7:30pm. We are asking that all church members who have ideas and are willing to take part in future fundraisers come to this meeting.

Saint Anne’s Hospital in Skibbereen: The residents of St. Anne’s Hospital Skibbereen would appreciate visits from Volunteers for social interaction, to read or discuss the newspaper, play cards, play bingo, sing a song, play the piano, assist with outings or be innovative in doing something new. For further details, you are welcome to contact Ms Tara O’Donovan, Clinical Nurse Manager, on Tel. 028-38132.

Cancer Connect is a brilliant initiative between West Cork Rural Transport and the hospitals in Cork City. A rare occasion of the left hand and the right hand actually working together. People who need radiotherapy have to receive a 10-minute treatment every day for 35 days. This radiotherapy can only be administered in The Regional Hospital in Cork, so a really tiresome daily trek is needed. The West Cork Rural Transport provide a daily mini-bus service from Goleen along the N71 to Cork which is free to any patient requiring this treatment. The really excellent part of this is that the Regional Hospital ensure that any patients from West Cork will receive their treatment between noon and 1pm.

A further service is now in place whereby patients requiring chemotherapy and other cancer treatments can avail of a private car and driver. The drivers of both services are volunteers, and so far more than 300 trips to Cork Hospitals have been provided. If you feel you can help with driving, once a month is all that is needed, please contact Helen on 027 52727. Or if you know of any patients who may find the service of use, please call Helen on 027 52727. The proceeds of the Pancake Day coffee morning were donated to this excellent service.

The Aughadown Church Hall If you know of anyone who is having a party, family gathering, wedding reception, children’s party, and are looking for a venue, please suggest the Church Hall at Church Cross. It comes with a well equipped kitchen; good parking; lots of space outside if you have youngsters wanting to run about and let off steam, and is very reasonable to hire.

The Aughadown Walking Group meets every Monday and Thursday at 10am at the GAA Community Hall at Church Cross. All are welcome to join the Group for a walk. The walk lasts about 40 minutes along local lanes, all of which are fairly flat and sheltered. It is not a route march, a race or over-strenuous, but an opportunity to get fit and socialise. There is no charge and for further information please call Brigid O’Brien on 38132.

 
Pause for Thought....

A corner of the web site for news and views from around the parish and beyond

Jesus, Bad Yokes and Better Ways

Canon Tom Kennar 5 July

One of the most useful spiritual disciplines in parish life is learning that some people cannot be pleased. As the old saying goes, ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time’. This is not, I hasten to add, aimed at anyone here this morning. Obviously. Our church is universally famous for its serene contentment and total absence of strong opinions about hymns, chairs, heating, coffee, livestream camera angles, or whether notices should happen before or after the service.

But Jesus knows the problem. “To what will I compare this generation?” he says. “It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’”

In other words: nothing is ever quite right. John the Baptist comes living on locusts and wild honey, wearing camel hair, preaching repentance in the wilderness, and people say, “Far too intense. Needs to lighten up. Probably got a demon in him.” Then Jesus comes eating and drinking, sitting at tables with the wrong people, turning water into wine, and people say, “Far too relaxed. No standards. Calls himself religious? Probably got a demon in him.”

John fasts and is called mad. Jesus feasts and is called immoral. It is the ancient equivalent those internet reviews of our building saying, “One star: the church was insufficiently aligned with my expectations.”

And that, I think, is where the Gospel becomes uncomfortably contemporary.

We live in a world skilled at complaint, suspicion and labelling. Every public figure must be sorted into friend or enemy. Every complicated issue must become a slogan. Every person must be reduced to the worst thing someone has said about them – or they worse tweet they liked at three in the morning, seventeen years ago. We decide, very quickly, who is respectable and who belongs. And who has to be shut-down, excluded, and silenced.

And Jesus will not play the game.

That is why the accusation against him is so revealing: “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” They mean it as a condemnation. The Gospel receives it almost as a job description. Jesus is the friend of compromised lives and messy reputations. He’s the friend of the morally exhausted, the socially inconvenient, the people everyone else knows how to discuss - but whom nobody thinks how to love.

The scandal of Jesus is not that he has no moral vision. It is that his moral vision begins with mercy rather than disgust. He does not start by asking whether people are pure enough, respectable enough, Anglican enough, sober enough, sorted enough, grateful enough, or familiar enough with the second verse of “Lord of the Dance.” He starts with invitation. “Come to me.”

And notice who is invited: “all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.” Not all you who have achieved spiritual excellence. Not all you who have mastered inner peace while keeping on top of your emails. Not all you who have somehow become a fully integrated human being despite the parish Facebook page. “All you that are weary.”

That word matters. Weariness is not just tiredness. Tiredness can be helped by a nap, if you are lucky enough to find one – as I often do. Weariness goes deeper. It is what happens when the soul has been carrying too much for too long.

Some people are weary because of grief. Some because of illness. Some because every appointment, form, bill, bus journey, prescription, hospital letter or care package has become a small battle. Some because they are trying to hold a family together while pretending that they are coping. Some because poverty is not merely the absence of money, but the constant presence of calculation. Can I afford the fare? Can I put the heating on?

And some are weary because religion itself has made them tired. That may be the saddest weariness of all. When faith becomes one more measuring stick. One more voice saying, “Not enough.” Not pure enough, orthodox enough, committed enough, cheerful enough, certain enough. Churches can be very good at proclaiming grace in theory while distributing anxiety in practice.

Against all that, Jesus says, “Come to me.” Not “come to the system.” Not “come to the committee for assessment.” Not “come when you have improved yourself.” Come to me. Now. As you are. Bring the burden here.

But then Jesus says something odd: “Take my yoke upon you.” Which, at first glance, is not the most obvious sales pitch for rest. “Are you exhausted? Excellent. Here is some agricultural equipment for you to carry.”

A yoke is a wooden frame placed on animals so that they can pull together. It is an image of work, discipline, direction. Jesus is not promising a life without responsibility. He is offering a different kind of burden: one that is shared, one that fits, one that does not crush the life out of the bearer.

“My yoke is easy,” he says. Easy does not mean trivial. It means kind. Well-made. It means the way of Jesus is shaped to the truth of being human. The burdens we invent are often brutal: pretending, competing, consuming, judging, proving, resenting, always being right, always being impressive. The burden of Jesus is lighter because it is made of love.
And the key is hidden in the middle of the reading: “I am gentle and humble in heart.” That is the revelation. At the centre of all things, at the heart of God, there is not contempt. There is not a divine headmaster waiting to mark us down for poor presentation. There is gentleness and humility.

Let’s remember this, though: gentleness is not weakness. It is strength without cruelty. Jesus is gentle enough to receive the weary, and strong enough to challenge the systems that made them weary in the first place.

So the invitation today is not to become more religiously impressive. Thank God. The invitation is to come honestly: with the grief, the irritation, the bills, the unanswered letters, the private failures, the half-formed prayers, the bits of ourselves we would rather not have written about in the parish magazine.

And then, Jesus invites us to learn from him. To learn mercy before judgement. To learn courage without contempt. To learn to dance when grace plays the flute, and to mourn when love calls us to tears.

“Come to me,” says Jesus.

So come. Come weary. Come burdened. Come doubtful. Come cross. Come half-believing. Come just as you are.
And find, not a heavier demand, but the gentle heart of God.

Heidi Montgomery sent this extract from 'Pearls in Paradise' published by the Southwest Radio Church in Oklahoma. It's a book that she and Steve read daily, and she wanted to share these thoughts with us.

From another parishioner comes this:

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

is the commonly used name for a satirical letter that was written at the beginning of the 21st century as a response to Dr Laura Schlessinger, a radio personality who at that time practiced Orthodox Judaism, condemning homosexuality by citing Leviticus 18:22, which says "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

The letter is a rather snarky response, drawing attention to Schlessinger's cherry picking from scripture (although not mentioning Proverbs 31:10, which requires "virtuous women" to be seamstresses and clothing merchants, dress in purple, and make sure everyone else in their household is dressed in red.)

The exact origins and authorship of the letter, and whether it really was sent directly to Laura Schlessinger, are unknown. The name most frequently attached to it is James M. Kauffman, a special education scholar in Virginia who has since received a ton of funny hate mail.

Dear Dr Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord — Leviticus 1:9. The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness — Leviticus 15:19-24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

Leviticus 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination — Leviticus 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Leviticus 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? — Leviticus 24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Leviticus 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,

Jim