22.06.2023
From Wales to Dublin: New Curate Welcomed to Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla
Parishioners of Castleknock and Mulhuddart with Clonsilla turned out in great numbers yesterday evening (Wednesday June 21) to welcome their new Curate, the Revd Natasha Quinn–Thomas. Amid glorious sunshine on the longest day of the year, Natasha was introduced to the parish at a service in St Brigid’s Church, Castleknock, celebrated by Archbishop Michael Jackson.
Natasha comes to Dublin and Glendalough from North Wales where she has served as a Curate in the Diocese of St Asaph, near where she grew up, for two years. Her new Rector, the Revd Colin McConaghie was delighted to welcome Natasha and her dog Rufus to the parish.
In addition to the normal role of a Curate, Natasha will have a particular focus on reaching out to young families and young people. Reflecting this, she was presented with a bouquet of flowers by some of the parishes’ younger parishioners. During the service she was presented with symbols of her ministry which included a youth Bible and children’s Bible Story book among other items.
In his sermon, Archbishop Jackson assured Natasha of the genuineness of the welcome she would receive as she came to live in Dublin and he said she would be able to flourish both as a person and as a priest.
“Our prayer for Natasha is for her flourishing and for her fruitfulness as God responds to her faithfulness. Natasha will find that things she has done before will transplant – she will rejoice in this continuity; she will find that new shoots will spring up – she will see herself tending these shoots; and, of course, like everyone called to this particular combination of Christ–like service and leadership in the church, she will have to make judgement calls at various points about letting the unlikely and the incompatible, the obviously good and the downright evil, continue to grow together or to set about weeding them out. Church gardening, ecclesiastical landscaping require of us that we make both operational judgements and value judgements,” he said.
The Archbishop suggested that three words would travel well from the Church in Wales to the Church of Ireland: ‘find’; ‘friend’; and ‘faith. “All three of these words are simple to say and simple to do – and they have a profound impact for good. They thrive on the sort of interaction with people that is at the heart of Natasha’s personality and vocation. Personality and vocation work in both directions in parochial life. They are nourished by our being part of a community and by our having time, making time, blocking out time to withdraw and allow ourselves to centre again and again on the person of Christ and the breath of The Spirit drawing on silence and on Scripture for all the freedom and the focus that they both give so generously. Discipleship concerns the vocation of all those who believe in the saving work of God in Jesus Christ and in The Spirit,” he explained. After the service the Archbishop presented Natasha with a St Brigid’s Cross.
The Revd Colin McConaghie thanked everyone who had helped prepare for the evening including those who prepared the strawberries and cream reception afterwards. He also welcomed Natasha’s boyfriend Peter and members of his family who travelled from Omagh to join Natasha on the evening. He spoke of Natasha’s dog Rufus in glowing terms and said he was delighted Rufus had brought Natasha with him to Dublin. He added that all he wanted in a parish was a wonderful school, which the parish has in Castleknock National School, and to train a Curate. He thanked the Vestry for enabling this to happen and the Archbishop for persuading the Bishop of St Asaph to let Natasha come to join the parish. He told his parishioners: “I know you will support Natasha as you have supported myself and Janice”.
Remarking on the good weather on the evening, Natasha said she hoped that it was a foreboding of the Irish saying ‘the sun always shines on the righteous’. She thanked the Archbishop and the Rector their support.
