The priests of a Dublin parish received a welcome surprise last
weekend when parishioners’ revealed a secret project they prepared to
bring the community together in celebration of the Year of Faith.A team of parishioners in St Anne’s Parish, Shankill decided to form a ‘secret choir’ to perform at Mass on Pentecost Sunday with the theme ‘Celebrating Community Spirit’.
“At the end of March the first meeting was held and the plan of action was agreed to recruit singers and musicians to sing upbeat and uplifting hymns for the evening Mass on Pentecost Sunday, but to try to keep it a secret from the priests,” said Elaine Hogan.
“The first rehearsal took place in April and nearly 40 people turned up.”
Meanwhile the staff in the parish office distributed laminated flames to every group, club, business and organisation in the parish with an invitation from the parish pastoral council to send a representative to attend the Mass.
On Sunday over 100 people accepted the invitation from Fr John O’Connor PP, who also received a flame on behalf of the Pallottines, to come forward to mount their flame on a board at the altar.
In place of the parish choir about 60 people, from children to grandchildren, performed with the secret choir of singers and musicians, and after Mass all present were invited to St Anne’s Resource Centre for refreshments.
“They did it as a surprise, we knew something was going on, but we didn’t expect anything like what I saw. I was thrilled to see lay people taking on ownership and it was great fun,” Fr O’Connor told The Irish Catholic. “It was a nice surprise, especially for Pentecost, to see the church being so vibrant and alive.”
“This is a celebration we hope to repeat again next year for Pentecost. There was a huge sense of team spirit for all those involved and they all pulled together and worked hard to make the occasion a huge success,” Elaine Hogan said.