2021
The new Church committee with 21members from 12 family units took over charge on the 21/03/21. Rev. Fr. Jilson Kokkandathil came to Ireland in July and took over charge as our Chaplain on the 1st of August 2021. With great gratitude we acknowledge Fr. Sibi Joseph Arackal’s hard work and activities for our community for the last four and a half years and we wish him all the very best in his life.
St Theresa unit was divided into two in July and a new unit named St. Jude unit was formed. At the end of 2021, we had a total of 193 families from 13 family units (9 family units in Cork Diocese and 4 units in the Cloyne Diocese). There were 10 committee meetings in 2021. No GBMs were called due to COVID. We reopened our public worship at SMA Church from May 2021. I 2021, Our community donated 4000 Euros to India when they were hit by the Covid Pandemic. Our Sunday School classes were online in 2021 and there were about 190 children in Catechism. A fee of 50 Euros/ child were started for non-members to avail catechism. Different online competitions were conducted for adults and children during the Christmas period in 2021.
2022
The 2022 activities began on Sunday, the 2nd of January at SMA Church, Wilton with Holy Qurbana and New year prayers. The 2021 committee continued in 2022 until the 15/10/22. With the old committee we had 3 pradhinidhiyogams and one GBM.
Pastoral Visit
The first, ever official combined Pastoral & Apostolic Visitation by Bishop Fintan Gavin, Bishop Stephen Chirappanath and Fr. Clement Padathiparambil took place on the12th & 13/03/2022. Some important decisions were taken during the 2-day visit. It was announced that our community will be known as Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Community in The Diocese of Cork & Ross” (SMCCC). Amendments were made on the Church and Catechism registration forms based on that.
Bishop Finton Gavin has the exclusive jurisdiction of Syro Malabar Catholic Church Community in the Diocese of Cork and Ross and as such all the Syro-Malabar faithful should respect him as their shepherd and abide by the regulations and directives given by him. Syro-Malabar Faithful in Cork are kindly requested to follow the guidelines given by the Chaplain of SMCCC Cork, the National Coordinator and the Apostolic Visitator regarding the Spiritual, Liturgical, Theological and Religious matters related to Syro-Malabar Faithful. In case of any clarification, or if there are matters of serious issue Bishop of Cork and the Apostolic Visitator will jointly discuss and decide for the welfare of SMCCC. It was also agreed that non registered people can join for Catechism by paying an administrative fee, which is 50 Euro/Child/year.
They also made clarity about the “church” and the “Trust”. Trust and our faith community are different. Trust is meant for administrative purpose and as such, all have to cooperate in a manner suggested by the trust. Our church community is formed for nurturing the faithful, in the Christian faith.
The main activities in 2022 were,
Fermoy Corrin Hill Pilgrimage- was on the 9th of April (the 40th day of Lent). Celebrated with Way of the Cross and Rice Porridge (Kanji) afterwards.
Holy Week Retreat- was on April 10-12 by Fr. Sebastian OCD from Dublin and it turned out to be a good revival for the community.
First Holy Communion-10 Children from our community received their 1st HC on the 24th of April from Bp. Stephen Chirappanath.
Ukraine Help-When Ukraine was hit by the War, together with SMA, our community donated 1300 Euros to help Ukraine.
Knock Pilgrimage- Our annual all Ireland Knock pilgrimage, to venerate Mother Mary was on the 21st of May and our community also participated in it. Vanakkamassam were conducted at unit level in the month of May.
Parish Feast Day was on the 29th of May with Banquet.
India’s Independence Day and the Assumption of Our Lady was celebrated on the 15th of August at SMA Church with Flag Hoisting. Sweets were distributed on that day.
In the month of October, Rosaries were conducted in families and in the Church.
Other Feast days like, Dhukhrana were also remembered and celebrated by our community. Our Church services are in Wilton SMA parish, every Sunday at 5pm and Catechism classes are at 3.30pm.
Our Christmas Mass was on the 24th at 4pm at SMA followed by cake cutting in the SMA hall. A Christmas Tree Raffle was conducted by the SMYM.
The 2022 Sunday School Annual Day, Parish Day, Christmas new Year celebrations were held on the 29th of December at Togher GAA Hall. Fr. Clement Padathiparambil was the chief guest for the day.
Sunday School
Our Catechism department is working efficiently and we have around 260 children from Calss 1 to 12. Viswassadeepthi – Manglish prayer book. The 2nd edition of the Viswassadeepthi were printed this year for our children.
Safeguarding and GDPR
We have four safeguarding reps now for our community and they work under the Diocese child safeguarding department. They monitor the Garda vetting needs and other child safeguarding matters for the community.
We had 2 GDPR training this year. The Diocese DPO helps in the data protection matters. Our data protection policies were updated this year with the help of the Diocese DPO.
Church Support
Church support of 10 Euro/ month by the members are greatly valued by the administration for the smooth functioning of our community. At present, we are renting the Church and the SMA hall for our worship and Catechism.
Trust. Our community was registered with Charity Regulatory Authority in 2019. Our registration with Revenue is now complete for Tax exemption and Charity Tax Back Scheme.
Website – https://syromalabarchurch.ie/
SMYM
Syro-Malabar Youth Movement is very active in our community. Our 1st Sunday Masses are dedicated for our youth. They have monthly prayer meetings and is very important for our youth to grow in faith & fellowship. The All-Ireland SMYM Football Tournament was held in Cork, Mallow this year and our team won the trophy consecutively for 2 years. Our Youth Participated in the Grand Awake and Awake Ireland and the leadership training programmes organised by SMYM Europe. They also represented the international leadership programme which was held in June in Rome this year.
Different competitions like Bible Quiz (11/12/22), Christmas Crib Competition and Cake competitions were conducted for our members and prizes were distributed on the 29th of December.
Academic Awards
We honour our children who acquire more than 500 points in their LC exams and 4 distinctions or more in Junior cycle exams.
Election
We had our election in September this year and the new 2022 pradhinidhiyogam took over charge on the 16/10/22 with 21 members from 13 family units. One GBM and 3 pradhinidhiyogams were done by the new committee. By the end of 2022, we have around 251 registered families and 33 single registrants.
We, the members of the community, with great gratitude, acknowledge the support, guidance, encouragement and hard work of all the Bishops, including Bishop of diocese of Cork and Ross, Priests and Preachers for upbringing us as a worshipping community. We also thank and acknowledge the service of all our Trustees, Parish Council members, Catechism Teachers, Altar Servers, Sacristans, Choir & Sound system team, Safeguarding Reps, Accountants, Auditors, Mathruvedi & Pithruvedi leaders and other timely volunteers for contributing their valuable time in building Christ’s Church in Cork.
(Updated on 17/02/2023)