Participating Parishes from the Diocese of Connor

Carnmoney is an ancient and probably fairly traditional Church of Ireland parish. A church has been on this site certainly since the 16th century and perhaps since the Middle Ages. It is set in a suburban area on the outskirts of Belfast which has seen some sectarian trouble and experienced great demographic shift in the last 30 years. Many families in the church have been connected with it for generations but we are not attracting many newcomers to the parish. The age profile is increasing with most regular members of the congregation being middle aged or older. We do have an active Sunday School and a Church Lads’ and Church Girls’ Brigade with a long association with the parish, but numbers of both have diminished greatly in the last decades. Two years ago we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the current church building and one of our greatest challenges must be to ensure this church continues to grow and thrive in the future as well as to rejoice in its very vibrant past. We recognise we need to reach out to a changing community if the church is to survive beyond the life of those already committed to it.

Posted by Annette McGrath on 27 Feb 09

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