It has been a time of transition for the people of Ballybrack/Killiney and Loughlinstown over the last year, which has seen the two communities and four churches become gradually incorporated into one parish with Fr Alex Conlan as moderator and Fr Tom Dalzell SM as curate.
Fr Conlan says the parish team is trying to maintain services as much as possible in terms of Mass times and the two pastoral councils will be coming together from September to work on “shared agendas and shared projects, but with independence until such time that we’d be able to work as one parish”.
One of the ideas for joint initiatives is area Masses to be held in housing estates near the individual churches followed by a social gathering. “We’re also hosting a joint venture in October with Fr Peter McVerry to discuss social justice and there’s a joint group planning to go to Rome at the end of October as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy,” Fr Conlan says. “So it’s taking off and moving forward together.”
While the parishes are in transition a strong team of volunteers is keeping the essentials of parish life running in terms of liturgy and sacraments. “We have a funeral ministry and a baptismal ministry, and we have a First Communion club and Confirmation club which meet outside the school with the parents after hours,” says Fr Conlan.
The two clubs follow a specially devised parish programme by trained catechists. “We wanted to reach out towards the parents,” says Fr Conlan. “The First Communion children would focus on the parables, like the Good Samaritan, and they would learn a number of prayers. We would keep some of the traditional prayers to make sure that they’re saying them other than just in school, and then they would cover the Mass.
“They do a little play on the Last Supper in their final meeting and a little bit about Easter then, when it’s coming up to Easter. So it is sort of like a journey and I think it’s been very successful,” he says.
“The Confirmation club would cover the gifts of the Holy Spirit and they would look again at stories like the Good Samaritan but putting that into action. And very often, there would be things that come from themselves.”
Journey
According to Fr Conlan “reaching out and welcoming in” “has very much been our theme in the last couple of years” and that it set to continue as the two parishes journey towards becoming one.
On June 13 Fr Conlan celebrated the 40th anniversary of his ordination with a Mass in Ballybrack’s Ss Alphonsus & Columba Church, followed by refreshments in the parish hall which saw parishioners from both parishes turn out in big numbers.
He says it was “so encouraging to see all parts of our joint parishes gather not around a table for discussion but around the table of the Lord to share the Eucharist” and that he hopes this will be “but the beginning of gatherings and celebrations together in Church as we journey forward to do his work”.