The interior of Holy Redeemer Church. For anyone driving through Bray town, the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer is an unmissable landmark perched on a hill on the main thoroughfare.
While Holy Redeemer is a small geographical parish, “it has always drawn in a lot of people because it’s a church within the centre of the town”, says Fr Enda Lloyd, who is co-PP with Fr Dan Nguyen.
“A lot of people in Bray would feel a link to Holy Redeemer, even though they might not be geographically within its parish boundary. People will come back for things, even though they may not be living here, because they would have a great affection for Holy Redeemer Church and for the parish,” he says.
Welcoming
“Fr John O’Connell was appointed here about 40 years ago and he’s retired now, of course, the last seven or eight years, but a lot of people would have a great affection for him. He was somebody who was always very welcoming and very open. They would be the words I would use for our parish. Our aim would be that people feel very at home and very welcome at Holy Redeemer.”
There are a number of parish groups which provide that welcome and aim to make the community as inclusive and supportive as possible, such as the baptismal team and the funeral team.
“One of the things we love to do after a funeral, if our Little Flower Hall is open, is that people maybe who have travelled could go over and have a cup of tea. It would be part of that welcome,” says Fr Enda.
“Another thing would be our wonderful music ministry. We have all kinds of choirs and music groups. We have two Irish choirs and at 10.30am Mass on Sunday, we’d have the most wonderful folk group. Then at the 12 o’clock Mass on a Sunday, we’d have Phillipa Bridges’ choir or we’d have Pat Carey’s choir.”
Fr Enda says the parish also has a strong emphasis on Gospel sharing groups. “These would be groups that would meet regularly to pray the Gospels and to reflect upon them. That would be one of the things that personally, I love more than anything else. I feel that that’s our future – that we would meet as believing people. We do it usually around the Sunday Gospel coming and we reflect on that and pray about it.”
A wonderful parish initiative that sprang from a concern for people who may be isolated or lonely is Bray Community Helpers. Running for many years now through the organisational skills of Helen Dolan, the volunteers offer their time to visit the elderly and housebound and even do odd jobs for them or give them a life to Mass or out shopping.
“We try to match personalities and we have a rota of volunteers who commit to visit the house-bound person once a week,” Helen says. “They might want to go for a walk, to be brought shopping, or have some food prepared, or they might just sit and chat.
“The volunteers have said to me a hundred times over and over, ‘my God, thank you for putting me in touch with that man or that woman because I love it’, and volunteers have said they get more out of it than the person they’re visiting.”
The group has about 120 volunteers visiting 50 people and many people have said they have made “lifelong friends”.
Across the generation gap the parish also runs a purpose-built youth centre on the church grounds, which is a safe place for 12-16 year olds to meet and hang out. There are over 90 teenage members who under the supervision of five young adults enjoy a range of activities and facilities including the Wii, X-Box 360, a pool table, a range of board games and a sound system which allows members to freely play music. The centre also provides a homework or study space on Wednesdays, an ‘Event Night’ (films, quizzes etc.) on Fridays and ‘chill time’ on Saturdays.
Young people
“It’s not that we have an organised programme, as much as it’s more a place for young people to congregate,” says Sean Reynolds.
The centre recently ran a ‘Stay-Awake’ overnight marathon fundraiser which raised €1,135 for the Five Loaves, a local charity that supports people who are homeless and disadvantaged. A number of events are planned for the summer and one of the supervisors and three members will attend World Youth Day in Krakow next month.
With a Gaelscoil in the parish, the church has an Irish Mass at 9am every Sunday, usually celebrated by Fr Eddie Griffin (retired) who also celebrates the parish First Holy Communion through Irish.
There is also a family Mass each Sunday at 10.30am which encompasses three locations in the church. “In our side chapel, we have parents in with toddlers, and they stay in there for the first part of the Mass, and then they come out onto the altar for the Eucharistic prayer. And in the Little Flower Hall, we have older children who’d be in there getting a little bit of catechism, and then they’d come into the church for the second part of the Mass,” Fr Enda explains.
“That would be a Mass where we do get a reasonable number of younger people and some of our ministers at that Mass would be young adults.”
