19.01.2015
The Revd Adrienne Galligan is Instituted New Rector of Rathfarnham
The night may have been freezing but the welcome was warm as the Revd Adrienne Galligan was instituted as the new Rector of Rathfarnham Parish by Archbishop Michael Jackson yesterday evening (Friday January 16). While the preacher acknowledged that different people came to the service with different emotions, she said Adrienne was answering God’s call in accepting her appointment to her new parish.
Adrienne had been Rector of St Mary’s Crumlin and St Laurence’s Chapelizod since September 2008 and prior to that she served in Seapatrick Parish, Banbridge as Curate Assistant for five years with the Ven John Scott. She is also Taney Rural Dean. Previously she taught in East Glendalough School in Wicklow. She is married the Canon Paul Houston, Rector of Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla.
In her sermon, the Revd Gillian Wharton, spoke about God’s call. She said that earlier in the evening she had visited a patient in Blackrock Clinic where she is chaplain and spoke of the conversation she had with the man during which she was able to enlighten him to the fact that clergy did not just work on Sundays. She also told him that, rather than going out clubbing on a Friday night, she was going to an institution in Rathfarnham. Asked whether Rathfarnham would be a ‘good gig’ to get for an ambitious cleric, she attempted to explain that it was not about ambition but rather it was about the call of God.
“Adrienne did not seek to leave Crumlin and Chapelizod. It was God’s call to her through the parish nominators. If God was in the habit of writing ‘Dear John’ letters he might say to the parish ‘It’s not you it’s me’,” the preacher explained.
Drawing on the Gospel reading (Mark 1:4–11), she said that John the baptiser was constantly having to say ‘it’s not me, it’s him’ in response to people who asked if he was the Messiah. He could have said ‘yes it’s me’ but he always pointed to Christ. She said that Adrienne was coming to Rathfarnham in response to God’s call to journey with the people of the parish and help to point to God’s will.
Caption: The new Rector of Rathfarnham, the Revd Adrienne Galligan with Archbishop Michael Jackson and church wardens Philip Daly and Barbara Wynne.
[More photos from the evening are available on the Dublin and Glendalough Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DublinandGlendalough]