Parish Pastoral Council

Saint Mary’s Parish Lucan have established a new Parish Pastoral Council. Every parish in our diocese is required to have such a council in place.

The Parish Pastoral Council is entrusted with nurturing the faith life of the parish. This involves: listening to the concerns and ideas of the people of our parish; giving leadership and planning so that we can help build a real and vibrant Christian community in which we pray and reach out especially to those who feel on the margins of the Church and society. This is no small task and your prayers and support is requested and much appreciated!

The Parish Pastoral Council is made up of the priests of the parish and a number of parishioners. We have had some zoom meetings during the lockdowns and we have since had in person meetings in December and January. The members of the PPC are: Fr Philip Curran; Fr Tom Kennedy; Sr. Geraldine Smith, Christopher Okereke, Sr. Julie Carmody, Yvonne O Shea (co-chairperson); Niall Kelly (co-chairperson); Marie Peelo (Secretary); John Gormley (communications officer), Mark Beegan, Jimmy Miller, Bernie Martin, and Maria O’Mahony. We live in a society and a Church that has seen great changes over the past years and more recently in the time of Covid. There are many challenges ahead in our Church among which is the need to re-engage much of our parish population with the message of Christ and with actively participating in the life of our parish. It is no longer enough to say “business as usual” in a rapidly changing world. As the saying goes, ‘if you are not moving forward you are probably moving backwards’.

On a global level, Pope Francis has called a synod for the whole church, a time of reflection and prayer in which people will be encouraged to pray, reflect and share their ideas on the Church as the people of God in our time. The challenge is to find new and relevant ways to live and proclaim the exciting message of Christ in today’s world.

Here in Lucan, we in the Parish Council will be doing our best to enable the people of Lucan to participate in this synod through prayer and facilitating meetings and opportunities to share our faith and our ideas. There will be more on this in the coming weeks and months.

We ask you to keep the work of the Parish Council in your prayers. Contributions, suggestions and ideas are welcome and you can contact us by approaching any of the members by writing your thoughts and ideas and leaving them in the parish office or by emailing:
[email protected]

John Gormley
St. Mary’s Parish Pastoral Council