St Gabriel's Parish

The first Pastoral Council in our parish was commissioned in 2005, for a two year term. Our present Pastoral Council was commissioned for a three year term in October last.
It consists of:

Lay parishioners:

John Burke, Helen Daly, Don Ennis, Jean Flanagan (chairperson), Seán Gaine, Mary Hoy and Mary Hynes (secretary)

Priests of the Parish:

Fr. Pat McManus, Fr. Gareth Byrne,

The Pastoral Worker for the three Clontarf parishes:

Deirdre McDermott.

The work of the Pastoral Council is focussed on:

Developing the parish as a vibrant Christian community that promotes Gospel values of love, justice and peace.

We aspire to be:

a welcoming parish,
a parish to which our parishioners are happy to belong;
a parish in which the pastoral needs of the parishioners are catered for;
a parish in which the liturgy is rich and meaningful;
a parish which is inclusive and
encourages all parishioners to be involved in whatever way they can for the good of all, whether this be in the various ministries, the social activities of the parish, or the managerial or administrative aspects of parish life. We value the contribution that all our parishioners make to the life of the parish.

Parish Pastoral Council Meetings:

The Parish Pastoral Council meets once a month, except in the summer months of July and August. In 2009, St. Gabriel’s parish was clustered with the other two Clontarf Parishes of St Anthony’s and St John’s. The full pastoral councils of the three parishes have met on three occasions since then and it is proposed that they will meet twice yearly, In November and April. At the first of these meetings, the areas in which it would be advantageous for the 3 parishes to work together, were identified. They included:
Child Protection,
School supports for the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation in liaison with the Parish Pastoral Worker;
Co ordination of one-off events
Development of a communications policy
Development of websites for the three parishes with links
Share resources
Compile a Directory of the three parishes
Make procedures uniform to facilitate the priests.

At the October meeting of our own Pastoral Council we set out our plan for the year to come. We have focussed on:

Child Protection (in consultation with the other two Clontarf parishes).
Setting up a Hospitality Group
Celebrating the Sacrament of the Sick twice a year
Up-grading the Parish Website
Organising a series of talks given by inspirational speakers on matters of spiritual significance.
Looking into the feasibility of providing a suitable Gathering Area at the back of the church
Co-operating with the other two Clontarf parishes on joint parish initiatives.
Development of the Youth Mass
Training up and commissioning of new Ministers of the Eucharist
Organising a Parish Forum in the new year.
Looking at how we can prepare for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012
Development of Adult Faith Programme in conjunction with the Word on Web
Seek training for members of the Pastoral Council.

We welcome new ideas and comments which can be made to any one of us or through the Parish Office (ph. 8333604); email address: stgabrielschurch@eircom.net