Ballymachugh Plough Sunday
For the third year in a row, Saint Pauls, Ballymachugh hosted Plough Sunday – our service of thanksgiving and praise for the farming year to come.
It was a wonderful service of prayers and themes following through the farming year – Plough, Sow, Grow, Reap, Praise and Share. We were joined once again by the local Priest, Father Brady, who opened the service for us. We also were privileged to have the service lead mostly by the teenagers and children of our 3 parishes. At the end of the service, everybody took home a bag of seed to remind us that we are all sowers of God’s word into peoples lives, and that we all have equal opportunity to do that through a smile, a generous act, speaking, and general day to day life.
There was a beautiful chorus of music throughout the building as people arrived, through the service, and as people left. We always find such joy as a congregation when someone takes seat at our organ to play songs of worship.
Once again, the Ballymachugh Plough was positioned at the front of the church, symbolising the all the labour in the fields of the locality. This plough was kindly donated to the church for Plough Sunday a couple of years ago by Louis Leahy whose family used to plough the surrounding lands with that very plough. We hope later in the year to have it permanently mounted and displayed in the church grounds.
Following the service, we held our Children Tractor Run. We were blessed with a lovely window of sunshine for the children to drive their tractors down the lane and back again. The children were delighted with their prizes and goody bags following the tractor run.
Despite the weather, the tractors and vintage vehicles came out in numbers to take part in the annual Ballymachugh Tractor run. We were thrilled to see so many beautiful machines lined up through the church carpark.
On behalf of the people of Saint Pauls, Ballymachugh, we wish to extend a big thank you to all involved in the day. To Father Brady who came to join us once again; to Lorna Walker who came for the 2nd year in a row to sit in granny’s old seat and play the organ for us; to the children and teenagers who helped lead the service; to those who cleaned and decorated the church and grounds before and after; to those involved in stewarding, registration, route planning, and general logistics of the day; to those who donated food, baked goods, and goods for the raffle; to those involved in serving tea and coffee; to those who came along to participate in the day; to Tom Michael and team who so valiantly cooked all the food for after the run; to Alan Coote who so kindly came to do the judging of the vehicles once again; and to all who came with a smile on their face to share in the joys of the day.
We hope that for years to come, this event has and will remain an enjoyable experience that brings us all together for fun and fellowship as a community.
