Little Bray’s big heart

Mags Gargan reports on the vibrancy to be found in the parishes of Bray deanery in Dublin archdiocese

The stunning state-of-the-art parish hall in the old St Peter’s school is perhaps the first thing that strikes you when you walk down the little laneway that leads to St Peter’s Parish in Bray. However, while the white church beside it looks modest in comparison the beautifully renovated interior is nothing to be sneezed at. 

Based in Little Bray, which is a small commercial centre, the parish has a mixture of an elderly population and a number of parish schools. The community no longer has a parish priest but is part of the Bray and Enniskerry Pastoral Area and is serviced by a team of priests from the area, headed by Fr Larry Behan.

Sr Patricia Mulcahy, an Ursuline sister and former teacher, is the full time parish sister and she has been busy over the last few weeks co-ordinating the sacramental preparation of the four local schools.

She says St Peter’s has a number of voluntary groups which keep the parish vibrant including the Parish Pastoral Council, Eucharistic Ministers, Ministers of the Word, Church Care Ministry, Children’s Ministry, St Vincent de Paul and a “very active Baptism team”.

The parish hall is constantly busy with rooms booked out to facilitate local groups such as the Scouts and Cubs and the Teach Failte group which provides English language classes to non-nationals. There is also a Christian Mothers Group which meets once a month at the parish hall to pray and chat, and a Young at Heart social group for anyone over 50 years old, which meets every Friday for dinner and bingo. 

Renee Kane, who cooks the dinner for about 40-50 people at the Young at Heart meetings, says it gives the older people “a little day to themselves, and they’re able to have a chat and meet people that they might not have seen during the week”.

St Fergal’s – a Living Community

The Dublin archdiocese originally asked the Franciscan Friars to undertake the pastoral care of St Fergal’s when it was first set up in 1976. The order handed the parish back to the diocese in the year 2000 because of the reduction in their numbers and Fr Larry Behan is just the second diocesan parish priest.

“I can see the legacy of the Franciscans,” Fr Larry says. “They didn’t just build a parish, they built a community and people are very proud of their parish.”

St Fergal’s marks its 40^th anniversary this year and one of the main celebrations of the year so far was the official opening and blessing of St Anthony’s room, an extension which will act as a parish centre facility named in memory of the Franciscans.

Fr Larry explains that the extension was made possible as a result of generous parishioners who donated as part of the ‘Living the Joy of the Gospel’ fundraising campaign operated by the diocese. “We were one of the five pilot parishes and the first to reach and exceed our target,” he says. “The extension was badly needed because we don’t have a community centre or a parish centre. We needed to have some space where we could cater for meetings and to have proper sanitary facilities, as well. We only have the one toilet in the church, so this new building now gives us a disabled/baby-changing toilet. We also have a kitchen where people who are using the room can make tea and coffee.”

Fr Larry says the parish is very lucky “that we have beautiful church grounds. The grounds are very well kept by Matt Byrne. We wanted to create a space within the grounds to remember people who died alone or troubled, maybe by suicide, and then to have another space to remember families who had a child born and died before, during, or after childbirth and Matt is working on that.”

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin celebrated the official opening of St Anthony’s room and grotto on June 19, and said both were places where “we can come together and reflect on what faith means in today’s world”. “They are places where we can come to reflect on what being Church community means and how the Church can witness to true community through witnessing to a Jesus who cares.”  

Fr Larry says as the usual groups that form the backbone of any parish community, such as readers and Ministers of the Eucharist, St Fergal’s has a very active funeral ministry team.

“They would be involved with myself with arranging the funeral liturgy and being on hand at the funeral for the grieving family,” he says. “It will be our hope, over the next year, to train the members of the team to actually go to the cemeteries. They’re empowered to go out and to represent the parish, so you don’t have to be a priest to go to the graveside. They are members of the community supporting members of the community who are grieved, and they’re leading them in prayer at the gravesite.”

A greater lay involvement in parish life will certainly be a feature across Ireland in the future as the number of priests decline and parish priests come under an ever-increasing workload. Fr Larry is also moderator of the Bray and Enniskerry Pastoral Area which is made up of St Fergal’s, Holy Redeemer, Queen of Peace and St Peter’s in Bray and Enniskerry parish , which includes Curtlestown, Glencree and Kilmacanogue. A team of five priests, with the help of three retired priests and two students, take care of the needs of the pastoral area which from the outside seems like a logistical nightmare of arranging Sunday Mass times and sacramental preparation along with funeral services and administrative needs. However, the team work very well together and it runs like a well-oiled machine.

It means the pastoral area has a strong lay participation and the parishes pool their training and some of their resources. “Anyone who wants to become a Minster of the Eucharist will be put on a course for the five parishes,” Fr Larry says. “So we’re connecting the parishes up, and the parishioners, I think, now have a greater understanding that it’s not just we as a parish on our own anymore. Rather, we’re part of a wider grouping working together for each other, so that’s a positive.”

The pastoral area has engaged a part-time sacramental coordinator, Aideen D’Arcy and she assists the priests in the parishes in running the Do This in Memory programme for First Holy Communion and the You Will Be My Witnesses programme for Confirmation. She ensures the smooth running of the sacramental programmes which are held on the same Sundays in each parish and under the same themes.

Each parish has its own parish pastoral council and parish finance committee, and according to Fr Larry they are all very active. “We work very closely with them and the priests meet as a team usually every second Tuesday morning for half an hour, just to make sure we all know what’s happening.

“I think at this stage now, over the last five years, people have gotten used to seeing the various priests around the various parishes. Some people might say ‘how can you possibly manage everything that has to be done?’ and while it is difficult, there’s tremendous goodwill. And I think the people themselves, if they want to have a priest, if the faith and the transmission of faith is important to them in their lives, then they’ll step up to the plate and they’d help out more where they can. So there’s a tremendous willingness on the part of the people in Bray and Enniskerry which is very encouraging from my point of view as a moderator of all the parishes. I think it’s great.”