The Good Shepherd window by Evie Hone. The parish of Greystones is nestled in an idyllic location between the sea and the Wicklow mountains. “We live in an area which is one of the most sought after places in the world to live,” says Susan Armstrong, chair of the parish pastoral council.
She says it is a “dynamic parish” with over 40 groups servicing the community from the Legion of Mary to prayer groups. “We are doing an outreach programme now to anybody that’s in the nursing home or housebound. We’ve got a finance group, church cleaning, liturgical prayer groups, faith development and sacramental programmes.”
Just a few weeks ago the parish secretary Sadie O’Shea was presented with the Bene Merenti papal award at her retirement party for her 20 years of service to the parish. Mass was concelebrated by some of the previous priests of the parish along with current PP, Fr John Daly and this was followed by a social gathering.
Outreach
In terms of social outreach Susan says there is a very dynamic St Vincent de Paul group which “do an awful lot to help and support the people in the parish”. Five ladies in the Legion of Mary make soup and sandwiches every Monday night which are brought out on the ‘No Bucks café’ bus operated by Tiglin, a faith-based group who help those suffering from addiction, on Tuesdays in Ballymun.
“It’s a great initiative and to think that the youngest lady is over 70,” Susan says.
The parish has two churches, St Kilian’s in Blacklion and Holy Rosary Church in Greystones, which was officially opened in 1909 and has two famous stained glass windows by renowned artist Evie Hone. Last year a webcam was set up in the church so people could watch services from their homes or from abroad. The site received nearly 400 hits at Easter, which shows that there is a strong interest.
Last Easter was also the first time that the five parish choirs amalgamated into one giant choir to sing at the Holy Thursday Mass. “It was a great success and brought the liturgy more to life as well,” says Susan, who praises the new parish priest Fr John Daly for his innovation.
“Fr John is very innovative and has brought a lovely cohesive atmosphere to Greystones and has tried to bring everybody from all walks of life and all different parts of the community together, which is absolutely lovely,” she says.
Fr John is also the new PP of Kilquade parish, which encompasses Kilcoole, Newtownmountkennedy, Delgany and Newcastle, making up the Pastoral Area of Greystones and Kilquade. It’s a large, diverse geographic area with communities of different sizes and churches both ancient and modern.
Kilquade Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) meets in St Therese’s room, Delgany once a month and its priorities for this year have been developing communication links between the PPC and the parish community and building on the active participation within various ministries of the Church.
They are looking into planning a parish mission, preparing a funeral ministry, providing a Ministry of the Word programme and a Ministry of Music workshop as well as adult faith formation programmes for the Year of Mercy.