CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL GROUP OF PARISHES

consists of the parishes of St Andrew, St Werburgh with St Mary,
St Michan and St Paul and All Saints' Grangegorman.

The Guild of All Saints'

Superior - the Vicar, Archdeacon David Pierpoint
Secretary - the Revd Mark Gardner 087 2660228
Treasurer - Barbara Melbourne

Welcome
You don't have to be a mother to join the Mothers' Union - you just have to agree with its aims! The Guild is the same, and anyone who wishes to be a member or an associate of the Guild is welcome to contact the secretary, and to join in the festival service on All Saints' Day, 1 November.

History
The Guild of All Saints' exists to support the work of the parish, in every way, and is not an alternative to it. It is a communicants' guild, intended to strengthen the devotional life of the people who are regular communicants, as most people are, who attend Church regularly. The Guild was founded in the days when there was a bitter controversy in Ireland over High Church matters, because All Saints' was a Church under Tractarian influence. That meant that the life of the parish was regulated according to the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, with due observance of the Church's round of feast days and fasting days, all listed in the small print at the front of the old prayer book. Not many people, then or now, paid much attention to the small print. But the High Church movement in All Saints' was championed by Dr Maturin, a celebrity preacher in the days of celebrity preachers, and he intended the Guild to be a defence against those who opposed the Tractarian movement and to support those who sought to maintain it in the parish. The North Aisle was built to accommodate the crowds which came to hear him. The Baptistery is a memorial to his ministry. It's hard to believe now how hostile people were towards that form of service. In our own day, there is more generosity and tolerance, and fewer people who believe that the Church service should be the same in every Church.

Function
The Guild takes a supportive interest in all that the people of the parish do to support the work of the Church, and traditionally has a particular interest in the care of the Altar, the colours, the flowers and the proper preparation for services and sacraments. The Guild has a charitable role. The Treasurer will convey any donations she receives to the special fund which is disbursed by the Vicar for charitable purposes. The Guild has an interest in commemorating its deceased members, and traditionally has had a role in funeral arrangements and anniversaries. This has been very much the historic role of similar guilds and societies in other place and in other churches.

Fellowship
The survival of the Guild is in no small way due to the tenacity of its secretary since 1968, the late John Lawton. His great gift and enduring method was to keep in touch with people scattered by time all over the world, but who retained a sense of belonging to this part of Dublin city, and a sense of affection for the place they had once called home. Many of them still regarded All Saints' as their spiritual home, although they had become members of other churches and societies as diverse as the Methodist church and the Salvation Army, in Ireland or abroad. They sent their greetings to the annual meeting even if they could not come, confident in the strength of the doctrine of the communion of saints, and glad to be remembered by their Dublin friends.

Future
A fundamental Anglican principle is ‘the common good’. The group of parishes and the cathedral now joined together in this part of the city centre work together for the good of all. The Guild took on a new lease of life in 1968, the year All Saints' was re-opened after the fire. As we approach the fortieth anniversary of that catastrophic event, we can be glad that we have not forgotten those who have gone before us in the faith, and hope that we ourselves may be remembered for our own contribution to the life of the Church in this small corner of the world-wide family of Anglican churches.

Mark Gardner, Hon. Sec. Guild of All Saints'
Dean's Vicar & Chapter Clerk,
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.