Evensong at the Church of All Saints Dysert Galen, Ballinakill, Co Laois. It is Palm Sunday. A small girl stands at the entrance to the nave, which is decorated throughout with an array of charming stencil designs in chalky pastels. The paintings date from the early 20th century. On entering the church, a neo-Gothic structure built in 1821, you pass through a small baptistery. First-time visitors are told to look up - the faded blue ceiling above is decorated with gold stars.
Worshippers invariably glance up at it on their way to service. The girl smiles at each new arrival, she knows them all. She is holding a basket and greets each member of the congregation with pale yellow crosses made of African palm fronds. Having collected their cross and their books, they move to the pews. Vases of daffodils are in position throughout the church, while it has taken two women several minutes to light all the candles and the candelabras, as well as the large globe gaslights. Three elegant sandstone steps lead to the altar dominated by the fine east window. The interior is glittering, a series of points of light.
After a day of heavy rain, a calm has settled and the evening is mild enough for people to pause on their way in and inspect the restoration work carried out on the roof and tall spire. The clock is yet to be returned to the tower, but an element of homecoming colours the scene. Because of the restoration work, this is the first service held here since last summer, apart from a concert of carols at Christmas. The Rev Ann Wallace welcomes the congregation, has a brief discussion with the organist and leaves to robe in the vestry. Ride on, Ride on in Majesty is the first hymn. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the darkest week in the church year. The Rev Wallace points out: "It starts slowly and works up in intensity as we approach Good Friday, once known as God's Friday. For long years, custom saw it as a day of prayer and penance, of quiet. Now it is the same as any other day." Palm Sunday, the day of short-lived triumph, retains its aura of ambiguity. "Was the crowd that greeted Jesus on his way into Jerusalem the same as that which later in the week shouted for him to be crucified? If so, why did they change? We sometimes see crowds today swayed by emotion. Perfectly ordinary people can be influenced by apparently irrational shifts in mood."
The service of Evening Prayer is conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer (introduced to Ireland 450 years ago, next Tuesday) and is in keeping with the simplicity of worship as practised in All Saints Church, Ballinakill. To read the lesson, the Rev Wallace walks to the lectern facing down the nave. It is flanked by two candles and served by the only electric light in the church, a recent addition thanks to the new plug that now also powers the organ.
The lesson from Isaiah's Prophecies [50:4-9a], the source of the recitatives from Handel's great oratorio, presages the sufferings of Christ. "The Lord has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word . . . I did not turn backward. I gave my back to those who struck me . . . Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let me confront them. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty? "There is a green hill far away,/ Without a city wall/ Where the dear Lord was crucified/ Who died to save us all". As the final notes of the hymn fade away, the birds outside continue singing. Distant sounds of the boys kicking football in the playing field beyond the church briefly intervene and then is gone.
Instead of an address, she has chosen to read the Gospel of the day, St Luke [23; 149], the account of the trial, passion and death of Jesus. "It tells the story more eloquently than any sermon," she says.
Standing in the sandstone pulpit, the Rev Wallace begins: "Then the assembly rose as a body and brought Jesus before Pilate. They began to accuse him, saying, `We found this man perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.' Then Pilate asked him, `Are you the king of the Jews?' . . . When they came to the place that is called the Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, `Father, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing.' "
The famous passage, heard so many times in churches throughout the Christian world for 1,000 years, is as familiar as breath and yet never loses its power to move. The Rev Wallace returns to the white marble reading desk for the prayers.
Following the evening prayers, she reads a special prayer composed for the churches in Wales and offered in support for those involved in agriculture at this time of crisis. On the recommendation of the Right Rev John Neill, Bishop of Cashel and Ossory, the prayer was suggested for use throughout the diocese. In a rural area such Ballinakill, there is a deep cultural as well as practical understanding of the despair caused by the foot-and-mouth crisis. The Rev Wallace points out how interdependent we all are on one another: "God of the heavens and the Earth, you call us to share in the care of creation and to bring food and fruitfulness from field and farm. Hear our prayer in this time of crisis and anxiety for all who make their living on the land. Hear our prayer for the veterinary officers and all who have to implement the policy of slaughter and to police the restrictions. Hear our prayer for those in authority and for scientists, who are struggling to find the best way to care for all in the community, protecting the livelihoods of people, and the lives of animals. These prayers we offer in the name of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Easter has been increasingly and wrongly overshadowed by Christmas. "I would like to see Easter celebrated with the same prominence as that granted to Christmas," she says. On the morning of Palm Sunday, she had officiated at the Sacrament of Baptism at Killermogh, Ballacolla, between Abbeyleix and Rathdowney. The baby is the son of Lutheran and Church of Ireland parents, the service was conducted according to Church of Ireland rites.
In place of a sermon, as is the custom in Abbeyliex-Killermogh parishes, there was the dramatised reading of St Matthew's account of the Passion with parts being taken by members of the congregation. Parts of the text provide the source of Picander's libretto for Bach's St Matthew Passion. As Rev Wallace points out: "it gives those present an opportunity to ponder what it might have felt like to be in the crowd at that time". Referring to the juxtaposing of the celebration of Baptism with the darker story of Palm Sunday, she says: "This is a celebration; yet without Palm Sunday, without the Crucifixion, without the Resurrection, we would not be welcoming this baby into the Church because there would be no Christianity."
The Rev Ann Wallace assists Canon Patrick A. Harvey, rector of Abbeyleix
Killermogh, a group of six churches spread over an area of about 100 square miles.
"To God be the Glory. . ." begins the closing hymn. Rev Wallace walks down the nave to the main door where she waits. Goodbyes are exchanged. The candles are extinguished. It is the beginning of Holy Week, during which daily evening services take place, culminating in Good Friday. "We look forward to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian year."
At 9 a.m. tomorrow, the Rev Wallace will celebrate the Eucharist in Aughmacart, Co Laois. A small stone church, its ancient church yard used by both traditions is surrounded by farming land, fields and low stone walls. A monastery is said to have been founded nearby in 550 AD. Aughmacart is an atmospheric, peaceful place with a powerful continuity of worship dating from the medieval period.