Trim Parish Centre registered to accommodate Ukrainian family

Trim parish priest, Fr Paul Crosbie, has registered the Trim Parish Centre with the Irish Red Cross with a view to accommodating a Ukrainian family in the former parochial house. Fr Crosbie is calling a meeting on Wednesday 4th May at 7pm to bring together people interested or helping out Ukrainian families in Trim and Boardsmill.

He says: "I would like the schools, volunteer organisations, local representatives, host families and others to be present. I hope the meeting will help to co-ordinate how our parish can be a welcoming place for Ukrainian families."

Trim parish has raised over €45,000 in its appeal for Ukraine. The donations have been sent to parishes in Poland and Romania that are accommodating refugees, looking after their immediate needs and planning for longer term requirements.

Meanwhile, parishioners from Enfield, Longwood, Summerhill and Trim were told that faith becomes lukewarm and parishes lose their Christian spirit unless they engage in renewal. "Some families who used to practise their faith with regularity have now gotten out of the habit or drifted away and Covid hasn’t helped," Fr Paul Crosbie told the congregation in Trim at the end of the programme of weekly consultation meetings in the local deanery.

The parish priest of Trim and Boardsmill said that parishes "will not attract people unless they can see the joy and hope in us that we get from our faith". He suggested that "parishes may need to let go of some of the things we try to hold on to so as to make sure that Jesus is at the centre of what we do".

Fr Crosbie referred to the theme of being inclusive and welcoming and listening to people that featured in the local Synod meetings. "We cannot forget that it was Jesus who put inclusiveness at the heart of the Gospel" he said. "Any failings in this regard are because we as followers of Jesus have failed to practise what we preach."