28.11.2022
Changing the landscape to the glory of God – 200 years of worship in St Andrew’s Malahide
Two hundred years of worship and witness to God were celebrated in St Andrew’s Church in Malahide yesterday morning (Sunday November 27). There was standing room only in the church as people gathered to mark the bicentenary at the special service which was celebrated by the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson and at which the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell, was the preacher.
The congregation, which included local TD Minister Darragh O’Brien, was welcomed by the Rector, Canon David Gillespie. Prayers were led by Dr Tom Healy. Retired Rector, the Revd Dr Norman Gamble, read the first reading.
St Andrew’s was opened for worship in 1822, funded by means of a gift of £830 15s. 41l. 2d. donated by the Board of First Fruits and Tenths, a loan of £276 18s. 53l. 4d. from that Board and a donation of £92 6s. 13l. 4d. from Col Talbot, which came to a total of £1,199 10s.
When the church was built 200 years ago, Archbishop McDowell noted, it changed the landscape of Malahide. “Your calling and my calling is to do the same. To change the landscape where ever we find ourselves, so that the glory of God may be seen in the land,” he said.
“Now, you may be looking at the person beside you and saying to yourself ‘he/she doesn’t look very glorious’. Or you may be looking up at rector and me and thinking “they don’t look very glorious either”. But this is the glory of God and it is his glory that we reflect in the world – to go to the places where people find it very difficult to be fully human for whatever reason, and to bring the humanity of Jesus with us. And of course, to search out those places within ourselves which are not fully human either– those elements in ourselves which are self–regarding or ugly and self–satisfied, which are vindictive and devious. We all have them,” he continued.
He said Christian holiness was to be an “involved goodness” not the goodness that was very often associated with Christianity which was pure and correct and aloof but had no love in it and therefore no redemptive power. “The holiness of God enables people. It helps them to see themselves differently. To see themselves as people who have a part in God and to whom he has joined himself in a solidarity which will never fail. It changes the landscape for them,” the Archbishop said.
Archbishop McDowell spoke of the importance of church buildings, of which the Church of Ireland often complained they had too many. However, Covid taught the value people put on these places. “When it was possible to travel round churches again as society opened up again, I was struck by the palpable feeling of joyfulness and gratitude in people. They were glad to be together again, but especially they were glad to be together in this place, and hundreds of places like it, because these were the places where they had encountered the holiness of God in one way or another; in darkness as well as in light,” he said.
During the service, Archbishop Jackson dedicated a number of gifts which had been given to the parish. These included the anonymous presentation of a piano; an altar frontal from the Anton family in memory of their mother and grandmother, Kathleen; a brass cross from the Rector and Tanya Sewell; a set of ribbon Bible markers presented by the clergy and parishioners of St Sylvester’s Parish Church, Malahide, and a crib and nativity figures presented by the Mothers’ Union.
The service was followed by a reception in the parish centre at which a celebratory cake was cut. Those gathered also bade farewell to Diocesan Reader, Dr Tom Healy, who has moved to Kilkenny. Parish treasurer Brian Brown made a presentation to Tom and thanked him for all he had done in the parish saying he had been a friend to all. Tom thanked the parish for their support over the years and for the welcome he and his partner Bridget had been given.
