Easter at Brannockstown Baptist Church

You are welcome to join us for our services in the church this Easter

Good Friday at 7.30pm.

Easter Sunday at 11am.

All welcome.

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Carols by Candlelight in Brannockstown

The annual presentation of Carols by Candlelight hosted by Brannockstown Baptist Church will take place this year at 7pm on Friday 23 December, writes Brian Byrne.

On a dark night, there will be a warm welcome, traditional carols, bible readings, a choir hymn and a short talk. An hour of calm before the bustle of the Christmas weekend, and everyone's welcome.

It is always a beautifully gentle and intimate affair, and gathers a full congregation, so get there early if you want a seat.

There will also be a special Carols for Kids event held in the church on Thursday 22 December, beginning at 3pm.

New pastor and family in Brannockstown Baptist community

Brannockstown Baptist Church has welcomed a new pastor and his family to join the church. Rich Blayney, his wife Steph and their three young children, are not Kildare born and bred, but have arrived from Coleraine near the north coast of Northern Ireland.

Over the past two years the family was invited to visit the church several times, leading to a longer term invitation! They moved into the manse next to the picturesque church building in August, just in time to settle down before a new term at school and at the church.

At a community welcome party organised by the church in early September Rich joked that the family, who have also lived in the north east of England, feel that they’ve come a long way inland, but that Co Kildare is a beautiful part of the country and one that they’re very excited to explore. He also explained that they left a settled life up north to join the church because the Christian message of peace with God and new life through Jesus is real and true, so it’s a privilege to explore that message with the church and to share it with the community here.

To that end, the church is hosting two special services in September, on the 11th and 18th, asking ‘Aren’t all religions basically the same?’ and ‘Did Jesus really rise from the dead?’. As always, everyone is welcome, Sundays at 11am, and the church can be found online and on Facebook.

Rich and Steph are pictured outside the church, built by John La Touche of Harristown and opened in 1882.

Harvest Thanksgiving Service

There will be a Harvest Praise Service in Brannockstown Baptist Church on Sunday 28 September at 7pm, writes Brian Byrne.

Everybody is welcome to attend what is always an uplifting occasion of thanksgiving for the receipt of peace of mind as much as the products of the fields.

Baptist Summer Club

The Brannockstown Baptist Church Summer Club takes place this year between 14-18 July, writes Annmarie Miles.

From 10am-3pm each day there’ll be plenty of activities to get the children learning, playing, thinking, and all while having great fun.

All children of primary school age are welcome and will need to bring a packed lunch each day. The cost is €30 per child for the week.

On the Sunday before it starts (Sunday 13th) at 11am, the Bible Club Team will lead our Sunday morning service — you’d be very welcome to come along.

If you have any questions you can drop us a note on our Facebook page or call Deirdre on 087 2809917.

CPC award winners

Martin Harrell (pictured right), Director of Human Resources and Communications at Oxigen Environmental, presented three special awards to fifth year students at Cross and Passion College this morning, writes Noel Clare.  

Called the Bright Star Awards, they were presented to students who stood out sjignificantly during recent interviews conducted in the school - students who are quite likely to go places in the future.  

The main award went to David Nolan and awards also went to Gerard Conway (centre) and Ischa Lynch (left). Also in the picture is Fifth Year Head, Gaye McDonnell.

Cross and Passion College is the first school in the country in which students have received the Bright Star Award.

Work on Brannoxtown NS

Work has got going in earnest to have schoolroom facilities ready for pupils at Brannoxtown NS when they come back in September, writes Brian Byrne.

Building work on the current site means that the prefabs are being relocated to the nearby Baptist Church site, replacing the decades-old community hall which has just been demolished. The pupils will continue to use the prefabs at the new location until their new classrooms are completed. The prefabs will then remain as community hall facilities.



Meanwhile, the roof of the original school building is being refelted and retiled this week, with the contractor keeping an anxious eye on the weather.

Bible Camp 2011 in Brannockstown

The annual Bible Camp organised by Brannockstown Baptist Church will take place this year between Monday 11 July and Friday 15 July. 

Sessions will be from 10am-3pm and the Camp is open to children between 6-12 years. 

The cost is €30 per child for the week, and participants are required to bring a packed lunch.

Registration forms and camp fees may be brought on the first day of camp or posted before to the church. Forms can be printed from the church website and are also available from Deirdre by calling 087 2809917.

Meantime, guest speakers at the Sunday services in May include Ron Wilson on May 8 and Adam Jones of IFES Ireland on May 22.

All are welcome to attend these and the regular Sunday Worship at 11am.

Every second Sunday there's an Evening Worship service at 7pm; the message will be 'New Life'. During the month, the first and third Thursdays are Guided Prayer, 8pm; the second and fourth Thursdays are Bible Study, 8pm.

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Baptist services for Easter

Brannockstown Baptist Church will be holding a Good Friday Communion Service at 7pm, and Easter Sunday Service will be held at 11am.

All are very welcome to attend. For more information, visit www.BrannockstownBaptist.ie or telephone 045 420 811.

Mark and Alisha well settled in Brannockstown

"I've never felt more at home, with the church, with the Brannockstown community, with the whole area."

Pastor Mark Hamblen and his wife Alisha have been in Ireland just three years, and have been associated with Brannockstown Baptist Church for around two of those. But, no more than they have made their own impact on their new community, the people of their church and their adopted village have equally affected them.

Mark was told by someone that he had 'big shoes to fill' when word came that he had been asked to take over the position vacated by Robert Dunlop. "I haven't even tried," he says with a grin. "But the graciousness and support which Robert showed towards me has been a great help."

Living in Athy at first and working as a 'public supply' pastor with a church in Newbridge, as well as with the drugs rehab group Teen Challenge, Mark had preached occasionally in Brannockstown during the early part of 2008.

"I realised that I wanted the position there, and I prayed specifically for it," he admits. "But I didn't want to ask straight out. I wanted to see if they would come to me, that way I'd know we were playing on the same pitch."

Which is what happened. There were meetings with individuals and families in the Brannockstown Baptist community. There was a bit of mutual getting-to-know-you, and then the hoped-for request came.

"It was different to some of the places where I had been back home. This time we knew the people, they knew us. And what happened here was just brilliant."

Mark recalls that he and Alisha 'hit the ground running' when he took up the position at Brannockstown. It has been a busy time, especially with the complete renovation of the church building itself being the major task of 2009.

"We have also established a new monthly evening service that is totally different from the ordinary one. It's dark, with candles and is very informal. The extraordinary thing is that things like this were embraced by the community with absolutely no issues. For instance, having me just sitting on a stool in casual clothes, with the pulpit removed for the evening service ... I have been in churches where that kind of thing would have been a big problem."

Included in the renovation was 'turning the church around', physically reversing the way people sat. "Which actually was how the church was originally, so we were only going back to that."

There's more music too, and the organ has been replaced with a digital piano, another move which has been easily accepted. "We have other musicians too, including some who hadn't played together before, so we regularly have violins and flute in addition to the piano."

The Baptist community in Brannockstown is growing too, with six new families added last year, and two babies on the way. "I find it more diverse than other churches I have been with. We don't seem to have any people in their 40s, or teenagers, but otherwise it's quite varied. And the families are always doing things together -- there are very strong connections."

But what the Hamblens find absolutely charming is something Mark describes as a 'unified energy'. "It is just amazing. When we were doing the renovations, different people would just turn up on different days, and put in 12-hour stints of work. I never asked how they got the time, who looked after the children, they just came."

Mark made it clear from the beginning that the renovations were not just about the church community itself, but that the building would be a resource for the whole community of Brannockstown. And that's how it is already turning out to be. "The local school used it for their Christmas carols, with around a hundred children on stage and as many parents watching. I never thought that 200 people could fit in that church."

Mark acknowledges the help that came from other Baptist congregations in the area, and he looks forward to a future where Brannockstown's resources will be used to give back to them.

The Hamblens were aware that coming to Ireland would be a bit of a culture change, and it was so. But in a good way. "I guess I came with a 'check-list' expectation, that we would be straight into the work of church just as I would have back home. I thought that I would be 'growing' as many people as I could, as fast as I could. But I found that it is much more about relationships, about examining things that we need to take care of. And we found that interactions are longer here, that an invitation to lunch is not just a half-hour and then leaving before you feel you have outstayed your welcome."

Turning 40 this year, Mark also found that coming to Brannockstown gave him and Alisha an opportunity to reflect on their own church beliefs. "We spent a lot of time, many late nights, just talking. I was able to try and sort out what parts of my faith were cultural and what parts are authentic. It has been a time of pruning, of cutting away a lot of things that are not really part of our faith."

Against his experiences in his homeland, which for many years embraced the concept of 'mega-churches', the Brannockstown Baptist community reflects something which he feels there is a discernable returning to. "I think that people want community, and they're trying to get back to it."

Although there is a general air of crisis in most churches, Mark doesn't spend much time thinking about it. "What I do understand is that most people believe in a higher power, and most people want to live good lives. They may want to kick against structures, and against performance, but there's no shortage of spirituality. Just look in any bookstore, and the section on the subject is huge."

For the coming year, there's no physical project, which means that Mark and Alisha can give some time to building on the relationships which have already become such a part of their life in Brannockstown.

After all, that's what church, any church, and all of life is, isn't it? People.

Brian Byrne.


This article originally appeared on the Kilcullen Page of the Kildare Nationalist.

Evenings@Brannockstown

Evenings @Brannockstown are held at Brannockstown Baptist Church on the 2nd Sunday evening of each month, and all are very welcome to attend this casual evening worship service, which includes praise music, a short devotional, scripture reading and meditation.

Our next evening service will be on 14 March, 7:00pm and will last about an hour. For more information, visit www.BrannockstownBaptist.ie or tel. 045 420 811.