The Annual General Meeting of the Cork Church was held on the 14th March 2010 following the Service, which was led by Rev. Bill Darlison, Senior Minister at Dublin. The Meeting was well supported and we welcomed three New Members to our Congregation.
The Main Points of Discussions were:-
The Church building. The building work has not been satisfactorily completed, and the matter has progressed to the Courts. This matter is ongoing and is being handled by Fritz.
Decisions
It was decided at the meeting that the flower beds should be covered with a membrane that acts as a weed suppressant and then covered with stone chippings.
A “Finger” sign is to be erected directing people to the church, this is to raise the Church profile.
Active steps are to be taken to have the Cork Silver returned to a Cork Museum and to be put on display. The hand over will be used to attract publicity to raise the profile of Unitarians in Cork, with emphasis on their proud history in Cork and the surrounding areas.
Finances.
In order to raise funds for the Church we need to hire out the building to outside groups. There were some suggestions as to areas that can be explored to bring in Revenue. A novel idea is that the Church could be used as a location for filming.
Worship
The Notice Board has been instrumental in bringing in visitors to the Church. A wayside pulpit is to be sources and hopefully our positive message will reach more people. Services continue to be held on 2nd & 4th Sundays.
POSTERS
Naoise O’ hAnnain has produced posters which we hope to circulate at meeting places in Cork. The Poster is designed to get people interested in the rich history Unitarian Movement in Cork.
Leonard Gay of the Festival Committee;
Cork Lord Mayor,Cllr Dara Murphy; and
Fritz Spengeman, Secretary of the Princes Street Unitarian Church at the 21 July launch of the 2009 Cork Cycling Arts Festival.
You will be pleased to know that on the 29 February 2008, your web site was acclaimed and granted the status of “Total Accessibility”. ‘this is the way to design a web site for vision impaired’ the report reads; that any screen reader used did not cause the pages to ‘crash’, this should be the accessability standard. Well done Cork Unitarian Church.
This is why the links are at the bottom of each page and there is no banner at the top of a page.
The Synod of Munster appointed Rev.Bridget Spain
as Minister in Charge to Cork Church on 26th May 2007.
Rev.Spain said in Oscailt Magazine ;
The future of the Cork Church is looking more and more positive.At a meeting of the Synod of Munster in May 2007 I had the honour of being appointed Minister in Charge of the Cork Congregation.
I am looking forward to the task of supporting the Cork Congregation in the months and years ahead.
I replace the Reverend Brian Cockroft who has been Minister in Charge of Cork for the last number of years. I take this opportunity
to say thank you and to pay tribute to Reverend Cockroft and to the Ministers in Northern Ireland who have kept the Cork Church alive. For a long time the Church was on Life Support – the life support was provided by the Northern Ministers who refused to give up on the Cork Church even when the future looked very bleak indeed. I would also like to pay Tribute to the stalwarts Members of Cork who also kept the flame alight through the difficult times when they did not have the use of their own Church and had to take refuge in many locations to hold Sunday Services. I believe that all these efforts are now bearing fruit and that the “Patient” is now showing distinct signs of making a full recovery.
The celebration of Rites of Passage in Princes Street is a sign of the recovery of the Cork Church.
There have been two weddings in Princes Street Church during 2007. The beautiful Unitarian wedding Service gives us an opportunity to broadcast our existence as a Religious Movement and this will lead to the growth of the Church Community. Progress has been made and much work remains to be done but I have confidence in the Unitarian Church, Princes Street Cork.
Rev.Bridget Spain
Minister in Charge