Legion of Mary
The Legion of Mary meet every Tuesday evening in the Library at 8.00pm. under the leadership and protection of Mary Immaculate. They attend their weekly meetings to pray and plan their apostolic activities. The members are involved in visitation of older people in their homes or in nursing care in the different hospitals or care institutions in the town. They also visit families and invite them to pray the Rosary or welcome the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady into their homes for an agreed period. New Members are always welcome. Further information from Alan Melly, care of St Anne’s.
St Vincent de Paul Society
St Anne’s Conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society, formed to assist those who are experiencing poverty or living on the margins of society, meets on Wednesdays.
They offer advice and practical support to needy families and individuals in the parish. New members are always welcome.
Should you wish to apply for assistance, letters, which will be treated with the strictest confidence can be posted in the St Anne’s Library letter-box, which is exclusively for SVP use. Local telephone number is +353719160713
Globe House Sligo
Globe House is the asylum seeker centre in Sligo. It is located in the former Mercy Convent on Chapel Hill, which accommodates for over 200 people from different parts of the world. St. Anne’s seeks to embrace all Sligo’s new residents. The legion of Mary, which operates from St. Anne’s has members from the African community who live there. A new St. Vincent de Paul conference was established in 2017 whose aim is to assist educational and social needs of the residents and former residents who have attained citizenship. This conference meets in St. Anne’s on Thursday evenings. Diversity Sligo was also set up a number of years ago to support the residents. They have an office from the Diocese in the St. Bernadette’s building on Rockwood Parade. In 2016, St. Anne’s hosted a special night of praise and worship led by the Sligo African Churches after which African food was served. We hope that this can become an annual event. The telephone number is 0862325951 or email diversitysligo@yahoo.ie.
The New Irish
In recent times many people and families from abroad have come to Sligo. On any given Sunday people from the African continent, India, the Philippines, Poland and the Ukraine come to worship with us. Whatever your nationality, you are most welcome. We are delighted that you worship with us and you are very welcome to become involved in our parish groups and activities.
Senior Groups
There are two groups who cater for our elderly parishioners, though they are not directly managed by the parish now, the inspiration for them came from St Anne’s and Sligo Social Services.
The Avalon centre, formerly St Anne’s Club, in co-operation with the Health Services meets three half days a week, and the Cranmore-Abbeyquarter group meet every Thursday evening in the Community Centre.
Prayer Groups
A prayer and meditation group meets regularly in Sr Rita’s house,
34 Cranmore Drive. Anyone who is interested in joining may contact her care of the Parish Office.
Scripture Groups
During Advent and Lent, there are Scripture Sharing groups : All are welcome to join these groups which are usually led by Cluster Catechist Collette Furlong with the assistance of Fr. Pat.
Contact Personnel
No account of our parish would be complete without grateful mention of our Contact Persons – parishioners who distribute the Collection envelopes, the Church calendar, the Trócaire boxes and special notices and invitations to the people of their area. It is a difficult and sometimes thankless task, and so we appreciate their work in keeping the parish in the consciousness of the people.
Choir and Organists
St Anne’s is grateful to our dedicated church choir under the musical direction of Edel Murray of Ursuline College and our Organist, Enya McCaffrey. The Choir meets for practice once a month on Wednesday evenings in our Day Chapel. There are some few parishioners involved in music ministry for funerals as Organists and Soloists. We are grateful to all of them for putting their talents at the service of God’s people.
New voices are always welcome.
Mr. Joe McDonagh plays the organ and leads the singing at the masses where the choir are unavailable. Joe has done this for many years and his kindly presence is a great addition to Parish Liturgy.
Mission Awareness
Awareness of the Mission of the Church in other places is an important dimension of our parish life, and there is a sub-committee of the Parish Pastoral Council involved in financially supporting poorly off Missions in Africa.
For years Fr. Dominick has been the diocesan representative for Trócaire, organising collections and the Lenten Campaign, assisted by the sub-committee, while Fr. Walsh served on Mission in Kenya for about 30 years.
Altar Society
We are greatly indebted to our very active Altar Society for keeping our church looking so clean and beautiful throughout the year. Altar linens are kept sparkling and the floral displays for the major feasts are spectacular, giving parishioners a great sense of pride.
New members are always welcome and contact can be made through the Parish Office.
Maintenance
We are most indebted to a small group of people in the parish who help out with the maintenance, cleaning and repair of the church.
For the big feasts bunting is displayed with illuminations for Christmas.
The Mercy Congregation in Sligo.
We in St Anne’s parish owe the Mercy Sisters an enormous debt of gratitude for their selfless service over over 170 years. Though almost all have now withdrawn from education, they have left a great legacy of service and we have to acknowledge our indebtedness also for the generous and unheralded response they have always made to all parish needs. They contributed greatly to Youth Work in Sligo through the provision of the football field, the girls’ club premises and the hours of voluntary work and money the Sisters themselves contributed in the club.
Collectors
Unfortunately, money is needed to sustain the work of the church, to keep it in repair, to pay pastoral and office staff. We are blessed with a small team of voluntary collectors who carry out their ministry at all the weekend and holy day Masses.
Volunteers always needed and most welcome.
Counters
A necessary part of the parish is the counting of the Parish collections, its preparation for banking and the keeping of records. We have five very faithful counters who devote their Monday mornings to this ministry.
Parish Library
Once a very popular asset in St Anne’s, in recent years with the toll taken by death or people moving out of the parish, the library fell somewhat into neglect. Since Fr Pat’s arrival it has been restocked and there is a volunteer organising the books ready for lending as a remedy for the ignorance of our faith. Her work is greatly valued.
Ministers of the Word & Eucharistic Ministers
God comes to us in Word and in Sacrament.
We have a number of committed parishioners who are on a rota of Readers to minister the Word at our Sunday and weekday Masses.
To minister the Sacrament of the Eucharist we have a rota of Eucharistic Ministers at the Parish Masses, who additionally bring Holy Communion to the sick and housebound in their own homes.
New volunteers for both of these ministries are always welcome, and special training takes place regularly.
Baptism Team
Since about 1995 there has been a Baptismal Team in the parish. They visit the parents of children who are getting ready for baptism. They help the parents towards a deeper understanding of what Baptism is and they guide them to a greater awareness of the responsibilities and privileges involved. Here again, new volunteers are always needed.
Bereavement Group
Not currently active. We invite people who have experienced bereavement themselves to share the pain of bereavement and grief as a help to others who are recently bereaved. Please contact the Parish Office for details of training and preparation.
Avalon Center
There was a girl’s club in the Legion of Mary house in John St. but its scope was limited. Some time in the early 1960’s the Sisters of Mercy agreed to give the old orphanage school in Chapel St. as a premises for a girls’ club. Called St Anne’s Club, it was under the women’s Conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Games were organised by the Conference including table-tennis, dancing etc. A cookery class under the auspices of the Sligo Town V.E.C. was organised and the class had the novelty of sitting down to eat a meal they themselves had just cooked.
A number of the Sisters of Mercy helped out in the running of this club on a voluntary basis, including the person who became synonymous with the club, Pamela Culkin, still active in it under its new name as the Avalon Centre. It has proved to be one of the most valued assets for the area, a nursery for young talent and catering for a range of activities, the most popular being the dancing, the summer camps and the annual and immensely popular musical – ‘Our Show.’ Tickets for its run in the Hawks Well Theatre are like gold-dust and long queues form the minute they go on sale.
For Youth ministries, click here.