03.11.2025
Moving Service Marks 155th Anniversary of All Saints’ Blackrock
Parishioners of All Saints’ Blackrock recalled those who had gone before them in an act of worship for their Patronal Service yesterday (All Saints’ Day, November 2) at which Archbishop Michael Jackson presided. The congregation remembered all who had died in faith from both All Saints’ and St Brigid’s Stillorgan and as each name was called a white rose was placed into a floral arrangement in a moving tribute.
The service also recalled those who have ensured the continuity of worship and witness at All Saints’ throughout its 155 year history. Celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the church, which took place on April 21 1870, had to be cancelled due to Covid in 2020. Events have been taking place throughout this year to mark the anniversary.
All Saints’ Church was built on Proby Square and Newtown Park between 1868 and 1870 in the Early English style to meet the needs of a growing Victorian suburb. This part of the Carysfort Estate was developed between 1840–1880, and the parish was created in 1868 from parts of Stillorgan, Kill o’ the Grange and Monkstown. All Saints’ Church has a strong liturgical tradition that continues the legacy of the Tractarians and the Oxford Movement.
Speaking on the theme of remembrance and saints for All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day, Archbishop Jackson suggested that November provided an opportunity to remember but also the become more connected to the saints and saintliness.
“So often we say: We must always remember, We must never forget … November gives us the opportunity in quiet moments to do this and not to let it slide. All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, along with Remembrance Sunday, are strategic points in this journey of memory. But such remembrancing need not be orchestrated for full brass. It can be scored for the piccolo and be equally effective. That is equally good,” he said.
Marking the 155th anniversary of All Saints’ Church Archbishop Jackson said: “Its constancy of presence and witness together with the loyalty and service of its community of faith has now straddled many generations from its beginnings in 1870. The church was part of the response made by the archbishop of the day, Archbishop Richard Chenevix Trench, to the rapidly expanding suburbs of the city of Dublin in Victorian times. It also gave visible and tangible hope in the future at a time when the newly–Disestablished and newly invented Church of Ireland felt somewhat battered and bruised by its loss of public status and truncated political influence”.
He also commented the continuation of the tradition of worship which reflects the ideals and the aspirations of the Tractarians, the Oxford Movement of the day. He said it is part of the rich tapestry of worship, of parish and of people in these United Dioceses. “On such maintaining and on such developing of a singularly important tradition in the life of Dublin and Glendalough, the rector of today and the people of today are to be congratulated along with their and our predecessors. There have been storms along the way. The important thing is that the tradition, and the affection for it, continue and we are here to rejoice in it on this day of days,” he stated.
You can read Archbishop Jackson’s sermon here.
