03.07.2020
Closing Service at St Mary’s, Donnybrook
Today, Friday 3 July 2020, marked the end of an era for one Dublin church. St Mary’s Church, Donnybrook, was deconsecrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, following a decision of the Select Vestry earlier in the year.
The decision was made due to the structural instability of the church building and the decline in the size of the congregation.
The foundation stone of St Mary’s, which is located on Anglesea Road, was laid in 1827 and the church was consecrated in April 1830.
The solemn Closing Service, which fell on the Feast of St Thomas, was attended by a number of parishioners from the United Parishes of Irishtown and Donnybrook.
Archbishop Michael Jackson presided along with the Rector, the Revd John Marchant and the Diocesan and Provincial Registrar, the Revd Stephen Farrell. The Archdeacon of Glendalough, the Ven Neal O’Raw, was also in attendance.
In his sermon, the Archbishop pointed out that the thing we remember about Thomas is that he doubted. However, he suggested that Thomas needed to have the opportunity to see for himself and make the connection between the Jesus he had known as a human being and the Jesus who was dead and had risen.
“Given the opportunity for something we don’t have today – that is physical proximity – Thomas’s faith and the human recognition, along with all the shared human experience, carried him forward. Is it sufficient to describe Thomas as someone who dropped the ball and doubted? Where did Thomas go? His faith took him to India and that mission was continued by a young woman who lived across the road from this church: Elizabeth Ferrar [who went to India as a teacher in 1939 with the Dublin University Mission to Chota Nagpur],” he said.
Archbishop Jackson said it was a sad day but it was also a day in the life of faith. “On this day, which is a particularly poignant and sad day when we say goodbye to this church as a place of worship, we give thanks to God for faith in God. It is a gift we take with us, like all of those who have worshiped here,” he concluded.
The service ended with prayers for all who had worshipped in St Mary’s who had gone to their eternal reward before the Act of Deconsecration was read.
