June 10th 2020.

Dear friends,

As light begins to dawn again, following the three months of ‘lockdown’, and the disruption of your usual school year, I am planning a short reflection which will be transmitted throughout the diocese from the webcam in St Muredach’s Cathedral on Sunday, June 21st at 8pm.

I would like to honour the passing of time and the ending of a school year which has been for all of us a very difficult one. I have chosen as a title, ‘Evening in the Cathedral’. I hope to have a particular focus on the sixth class pupils and to include with them the children scheduled for First Holy Communion; the majority of whom have lived through deep disappointment.

I would also like to celebrate the energy which has come from parents, teachers and pupils working together in a completely new virtual environment. In doing this, I want to pay tribute to all involved.

I would appreciate if you could inform the parents, teachers and pupils in your school of this gesture of thanks on my part for all that has been endured and achieved. And while I can’t say ‘ I look forward to seeing you’ in person, I look forward to feeling your continued support and presence, which I greatly appreciate, in our new virtual world.

Kindest regards and thanks,

Bishop John