13.04.2014
New Lay Ministers Commissioned to Serve the Dioceses and their Parishes
Two new Lay Ministers were commissioned this morning (Sunday April 13) to serve in their parishes and in the wider Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough. David Reynolds from Bray and Helen Gorman from Grangegorman were commissioned by Archbishop Michael Jackson in All Saints’ Church, Grangegorman.
The Palm Sunday service began with a Blessing of the Palms by the Archbishop. Children then distributed the palm crosses to the congregation. The Archbishop also dedicated a funeral pall during the service.
Following the service Archbishop Jackson thanked the congregation and Archdeacon David Pierpoint for their welcome and the work that had gone into preparing the service. He said it was a great joy to be present at the start of two new ministries in the dioceses and wished them well.
Both Helen and David had already been commissioned as Parish Readers.
David Reynolds is a long–time parishioner of Christ Church Bray, interrupted by a 10 year sojourn in Amsterdam. After a long career in IT, David is now CEO of DCM Services to the Older Person, part of the Methodist Dublin Central Mission. He is also on the Boards of Delgany National School and CMS Ireland, and an active supporter of Fields of Life. He and his wife Carol have a daughter, Alison, a research geneticist and a son, Mark, a London–based lawyer.
Helen Gorman is married to Fran and the couple have a son and a daughter. Helen trained as a literacy tutor and worked as a volunteer teaching adults to read and write. Her parish church is All Saint’s Grangegorman, in Phibsboro’ which is part of the Christchurch Cathedral group of parishes. She has worshipped there all her life and was baptised and married there. Recently she has been vicar’s church warden and then people’s church warden and has been a member of the select vestry. She completed the Archbishop of Dublin’s course in theology in 2010 and following that began training for the Lay Ministry.
Photo captions:
Top: David Reynolds and Helen Gorman with Archbishop Michael Jackson.
Bottom: David Reynolds and Helen Gorman cut a cake made to mark their commissioning as Lay Ministers.