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On Saturday 9th April, Canon Powell celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his Ordination to the Priesthood.
On Friday 29th April, our parish was delighted to welcome Archbishop Eamon Martin to join in the celebrations by concelebrating Mass in St. Patrick and St. Colman's church, Laurencetown with Canon Powell and fellow priests.
The flags were flying on a beautiful sunny evening.
Nothing happens without a lot of preparation and goodwill and both were in plentiful supply in the days preceeding the Mass of Thanksgiving.
Cobwebs and dust removed.
New Papal Flag flying
Even the gates were washed and polished by Anne and Isabel - when they weren't talking!!!
Linda Savage provided the magnificent floral displays -a very gifted lady.
Another gifted lady - with the vacuum - Margaret Convery
The three schools to which Canon Powell is chaplain provided beautiful artwork for the porch: St. Colman's Bann PS, Laurencetown, St. John's PS, Gilford and St. Patrick's College, Banbridge
Mrs. Sorcha Lyness, St. John's PS with Mr. Darragh Tighe, St. Colman's Bann
Ordination Day 1972 with Bishop Eugene O'Doherty
Four students from St. Patrick's College were on hand to welcome the congregation
The priests processed from the Parochial House led by altar servers Fionn Walker and Jack Agnew
In his opening address, Canon Powell welcomed Archbishop Eamon Martin and Bishop John McAreavey, his fellow priests, parishioenrs, family members and friends.
Unfortunately, some fmaily members couldn't be there - his sister Nancy and brother Colum from Newry and his sister Maire and her family in Vancouver.
Claire Rose Agnew delivered the First Reading
Sean McCartan and Margaret Convery sang the verses of the Responsorial Psalm,' Here I am, Lord'.
Lynn Laverty directed the choir with her husband, Paul, on guitar
Sean Farrell, chair of the Pastoral Council delivered the Second Reading
Reverend Miichael Rooney, permanent deacon, read the Gospel
Canon Liam Stevenson and Archbishop Eamon enjoying the Canon's sermon.
The 6 Prayers of the Faith of the Faithful were read by students from St. Colman's Bann P.S., St. John's P.S. and St. Patrick's College
The choir were in splendid voice
Archbishop Eamon had some beautiful words in praise of the Canon
Sean Farell presented Archbishop Eamon with a gift to mark the occasion - a copy of the DVD 'A pictorial tour of the Linen Houses on the River Bann' and 'From Tullylish to Drumcliff'.
Plunkett Campbell said a few words and introduced the Canon's main men - Dessie and Robert - who presented Canon Powell with a Papal Blessing and a piece of Tullylish Pottery.
The principals of the three schools, Mrs. Sorcha Lyness from St. John's P.S. Gilford, Mr. Darragh Tighe from St. Colman's Bann, Laurencetown and Mrs. Roisin woods from St. Patrick's College, Banbridge presented Canon Powell with a travel voucher.
Sorcha thanked the Canon for his unwavering support for the three schools and his dedication and willingness to be there for them.
L-R Clerical Student from Madrid, Carlos Rojo, Fr. Andrew McMahon, Canon John Kearney, Canon Liam Stevenson, Canon Gerry Powell, Bishop John McAreavey, Archbishop Eamon Martin, Canon Francis Brown, Canon Michael Hackett, Clerical student Andrew Moffatt, Permanent Deacon Reverend Michael Rooney and altar boys, Fionn Walker and Jack Agnew
Canon Powell and Archbishop Eamon with brothers Finbarr and Larry
The Powell family
Canon Powell with Archbishop Eamon
Angela and Oonagh Monaghan with Pauline (Pastoral Council) and Felix McCartan
Jim and Conor McConville with Mary Dougan
Brian Campbell (Finance Committee) and his wife, Berenice (crutch is under the table)
Gerald Agnew (Finance Committee), his wife Kate and daughter Claire Rose (Reader at the Mass)
Clerical student Andrew Moffatt with Oliver and Anne McAteer (Gilford)
Mr and Mrs Thomas Greene (Clare)
Frank McCann and Aileen O'Connor
Patrick O'Donnell (Pastoral Council) and wife Terry
Canon Francis Brown and Clerical student Carlos Rojo (Madrid and Newry Cathedral)
Canon Michael Hackett and Mrs Reilly
Mrs. Margaret Harty and Mr. Bill Reilly
Dessie and Anne Nicoletti
Robert McVeigh and Anne McEvoy
Roisin Woods (St. Patrick's College), Sorcha Lyness (St. John's PS, Gilford) and her husband, Paul
Agatha Larkin, (Secretary to Archbishop) and Julie Hoy (St. Colman's Bann PS)
Julie Hoy and Darragh Tighe (St. Colman's Bann P.S.)
Paul Monaghan (Finance Council) and John Monaghan
Canon John Kearney and Oonagh Monaghan
Larry Powell, Canon Liam Stevenson and Bishop McAreavey
Canon Powell and his brother Finbarr
Sean Farrell (Pastoral Council) and his wife
Paul Moore and Helen McGrath
The music makers - Paul and Lynn Laverty
Catherine and Pat McEvoy with Pat Smyth
Welcome
A warm welcome to our church in Laurencetown named after the saints of our diocese, Patrick and Colman. Thank you for coming to share in this great grace, you who have done so much for me. Simon Cowell has awarded me A Golden Buzzer.
Céad mile failte to Archbishop Eamon Martin and Bishop John McAreavey, joined with my colleagues in the diocese.
Welcome to my family members, parishioners and friends.
Since Tullylish parish is very much a global parish through social media and webcam throughout the world. From Newry I have my sister Nancy and brother Colum who cannot join me physically because of infirmity.
Hello or Hi to my sister Maire’s and family in Vancouver, Canada.
Also my cousin Freda in New York, whose home is full of my nieces Bernadette and Catrina and families from Warrenpoint and Newry anxiously awaiting the big event in Madison Square Garden, tomorrow evening. Come on Katie Taylor.
A special birthday wish to my sister-in-law Marion who has travelled from London to Abu Dhabi to visit her son Tom and family. 84 years young today.
Welcome to all the Tullylish diaspora who are joining us at home and abroad.
Homily
"The trouble with jubilees is how family and friends use the occasion to tell us how old we are and the more charitable people who tell me you haven’t changed a bit. Time for them to get to Specsavers I think.
I972 – a time of great hardship in the country. People asked for work and were given a place in a dole queue. We saw people ask for a home and were given the possibility to emigrate. Time of the early Troubles – Bloody Sunday in Derry, in Newry a famous Civil Rights march.
1972 – Pope Paul the sixth, was in Rome, Jack Lynch was Taoiseach, Ted Heath was in Number 10 and Richard Nixon was in the White House with the beginning of the Watergate scandal.
It was a different time: dishes in those days were for washing, not receiving tv programmes from satellites. Fast food was what you ate during Lent. Time sharing meant Catholic Action, not Spanish holiday homes.
The Church I was trained for in Rome was confident, powerful and widely respected. The wind was at our backs, the environment was supportive, and the culture was mostly benevolent. Now it’s a new era, the carnival is over, Pope Francis tells us. Through a process of Synodality we are to move from maintenance to mission. We are to develop a missionary mindset and prayerful outlook. “I am with you always” was not an empty promise.
My father was a Keady man.
There’s a song that Tommy Makem, a Keady man, used to sing called “the Parting Glass”. It’s about a man who at the end of his days “sits beside the road and weeps for all the songs he didn’t sing and the promises he didn’t keep”.
Life is about songs and promises, those we sing and don’t sing, those we keep and don’t keep. And out of the songs and promises of life we quarry our own unique existence in this world. Today, after 50 years, I thank God for the songs and promises that have gone to make up my life in serving the Lord and the people of God.
They say the search for the Holy Grail is not in the finding but in the journey. Thank you for being part of that journey - you have done so much for me, as I shared your joys and sorrows, your dreams and journeys. I thank you my family, parishioners, colleagues and friends who have supported me with example and encouragement down through the years. You have always had my back. I have had enough success to keep me dreaming so that the power of Christ can shine through me as his priest. I hope I have had enough failure to keep me humble.
50 years ago, I offered my life to God. It was a laying down of my life for God, taking for granted, or on faith, the words of Our Lord that you can have no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends. To lay down one’s life whether in married, religious, single or priestly life is to discover that there is more joy in the service of one another or many others, than in the pursuit of one’s own way. In this way you become another Christ.
I would be the last person to say that life has been all a bed of roses. Sharing a house with Fr Frank Kearney in Westacres, Craigavon, in the new parish of Moyraverty 50 years ago, we also shared the housing estate with the British army who searched our cars going in and out of the estate at all times of the day and night when we got sick calls to Craigavon Hospital. Night shift on the hospital duty was never easy. Frank summed it up well when, on returning to the house after a couple of call outs in the middle of the night, he shouted in at me : “God, Powell, money wouldn’t pay you”, or words to that effect.
Joy is the by- product of suffering and sacrifice. We all have to tread our stony paths. As one writer said “ if God sends us on stony paths, he also provides us with strong shoes”. This evening with the psalmist I can pray:
“ It is you, O lord, who at my hope, my trust, O Lord, since my youth.
On you I have leaned from my birth,
from my mother’s womb you have been my help.
My hope has always been in you.”
Thank you and please pray for me.
Amen."
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