05.07.2019
Dean Philip Knowles Remembered as a Man Who Sought to Make Music and Create Harmony
The Funeral Service of Dean Philip Knowles took place yesterday (July 4) in St James’s Church in Castledermot. Dean Knowles, who was priest in charge of the Narraghmore Group of Parishes (Glendalough) and former Dean of Cashel, died peacefully on Tuesday July 2.
His remains were received at St Mullin’s Church, Timolin, on Wednesday evening and following his funeral service in Castledermot Dean Knowles made his final journey to the Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist and St Patrick’s Rock, Cashel, for the Eucharist in Thanksgiving and Remembrance. Burial took place afterwards in the adjoining churchyard.
Preaching at the Funeral Service with Holy Communion in St James’s Church, Castledermot, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson described Dean Knowles as a person who combined carefulness about worship with carefulness about people in a way that is the hallmark of the parish priest in the Church of Ireland tradition.
“Everywhere Philip went, he sought to make music and to create harmony. This he did by having his finger on the pulse, by keeping his ears to the ground and by seemingly knowing everybody. His ministry brought him to serve right across Ireland and everywhere he went he built up relationships and established working partnerships. His heartbeat marched in time with the heartbeat of the people he met, the people whose situation he understood and the people who, in turn, responded to him openly, warmly and graciously,” the Archbishop said.
He added: “Philip gave more than ever he took and he retained a strong and powerful sense that The Lord indeed would always provide. This stood him in very good stead when his illness struck and when he found himself in the confining and constraining circumstances of hospitals in Naas and in Tallaght, The Silverstream Residential Care Facility in Dunlavin and then in St Brigid’s Hospice in The Curragh. Being in Kildare brought Philip peacefully right back to where his father had been a rector and where he and his siblings would have grown up in earlier times. Not all circles are vicious; this was a very benign circle and one for which Philip was grateful and of which he was appreciative”.
You can read the full text of the Archbishop’s sermon here.
Dean Tom Gordon preached at the service in Cashel.
Dean Knowles was educated in Trinity College Dublin and the Church of Ireland Theological College. He was ordained in 1977 and served as a Curate in St Paul’s, Lisburn (Connor). He was incumbent of Cloonclare with Killasnett and Lurganboy (K,E and A) from 1979–87 and of Gorey from 1987–95. He served as Dean of Cashel from 1995 until his retirement in 2013. He has been serving as Priest in Charge in Narraghamore since 2016.
He is sadly missed by his sister Heather, brothers Herbert and David, sisters–in–law Anne and Jenny, nieces, nephews, good friends Con and Eileen Doyle, his fellow clergy, choir “In Cantorum”, extended family, neighbours and friends.