In a unprecedented move, the four main Christian Churches: Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist and Presbyterian, have agreed to share a church in the new town of Adamstown on the outskirts of Dublin. The initiative expresses a deep and ongoing fellowship between the pastors of the churches which has grown steadily in recent years.
“There is extraordinary history here, for instance on Good Friday we do the stations of the cross as a walk to the four churches, and the four advent candles travel from one church to the next. Once a month all the Catholic priests and Protestant ministers of the Lucan parishes meet for lunch. So there is a huge commitment to looking at what we can do together. It is about giving a joint Christian witness but within what we can and cannot do within our own denominations,” said Fr John Hassett, local PP.
He is parish priest at nearby Esker, which already has an 800-seater Catholic church. Like the other ministers, he felt there was an opportunity to do something different in Adamstown and came to the agreement to share.
The new complex will have a place of worship for 220, an oratory for the Blessed Sacrament as well as pastoral and meeting rooms and an office. It will be situated in Adamstown Central – the main hub of the new town with civic, residential and commercial properties, which will open by 2011. The churches have agreed the design for the shared church with architects O’Donnell Tuomey.
So whilst the liturgies will remain separate, the churches will work together on justice issues or other forms of worship like a Taize style service or evening prayers. The unique setting of the church near public urban gardens will make it ideal for weddings. Its location at the commercial and social centre of this futuristic town also offers opportunities for non-traditional times for services. The importance of the Catholic church engaging in new ways with new urban developments like Adamstown was emphasised by Archbishop Martin last year.
Fr Hasset, who now lives in Adamstown, is not sure whether Adamstown will become a parish in its own right over time. “It depends on how things go over the next 10 years,” he said, explaining how parishes are clustering or working more closely nowadays.
“We are already looking at how to prevent duplication of mass times and parishes are being assisted by the Archbishop to work more closely together, so it would folly to be talking about setting up a new parish in Adamstown. What is more important is to engage pastorally in the town.”
Adamstown is a new urban district on a green-field site which will be built over the next 10 years. It will have 10,000 new homes, a projected population of 30,000 and civic, residential, retail and commercial amenities. The plan for the area also estimates about 74 acres of open space with 4 major parks.
Just last week Archbishop Diarmuid Martin blessed the first state owned Catholic school in Adamstown. St John the Evangelist primary school, like all the other civic and social amenities, is being developed incrementally. This means that as the population grows and the various housing and apartments are built and occupied in this new town, the amenities will also be provided. So by next September (09) the number of classrooms at the primary school will have doubled, and secondary school facilities will be up and running too.
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