A group of Catholic, Church of Ireland and other Christian clergy and
parish activists from the Mullingar area have come together to launch a
drive to have their churches play a role in helping their town recover
from the recession.
About a hundred people attended an inaugural meeting of the Christian Voices Together group
at the Mullingar Park Hotel to launch the initiative that aims to place
Christian communities at the forefront in trying to rejuvenate the
town.
Fr John Nally, who is parish priest of Ballynacargy, said that as
a Christian group, Christian Voices Together has to differentiate itself from other community groups.
“As Christians, we need to be different, and by that I mean those
GosA group of Catholic, Church of Ireland and other Christian clergy and
parish activists from the Mullingar area have come together to launch a
drive to have their churches play a role in helping theirpel values I keep preaching about – love, peace, justice - they are
the ones that should be at the centre of what we do.”
Church of Ireland rector, Rev Alistair Graham said that
Ireland had developed a culture “where the emphasis is to put yourself
first. What we have seen in Irish society has been such a promotion of
individualism that people only focus on themselves,” he remarked.
“If you begin to reverse it, and put others first, what impact will that have on the common life of the community?” he asked.
Rev. Graham said that when he moved from Dublin to minister in
Mullingar, he noticed that the town still had “a very strong remnant of
community” but people were wary of initiating contact with others and
there were estates where people knew very few of their neighbours.
While the “ground has shifted a lot,” he believed the town could
build on what was left of the concept of community before it died out
completely.
He said that the idea of supporting and helping at a
community level would have to include supporting local businesses.
“Whatever recovery comes around comes from local communities - and
each one might be different - but the idea might be planted from the
same seed.”
While the initial suggestion to set up the group came from the Rev.
Graham’s parish, it was stressed that the initiative was completely
inter-denominational.
The attendance at the meeting included Fr Padraig
McMahon, administrator of the Cathedral of Christ the King in
Mullingar, and in a few weeks, the cathedral will host an
inter-denominational Service of Hope as the next step in developing the
group.