Farewell to much-loved Reverend
A mix of emotions swept across Virginia last weekend as the town bid farewell to their friend and Reverend, the Venerable Canon Craig McCauley.
Rev Craig’s used his last sermon to say goodbye to the friends he made during his tenure before taking up a new ministry in Naas, Co Kildare.
“It’s been hard this past week, it’s difficult. Over those years I’ve been part of people’s lives in so many ways and so, in the moving, you’re not just packing up a house. Packing up is okay but the packing up of friends and relationships and people and homes and tears and laughter and all those things, it’s not easy to quantify really,” he said.
Rev McCauley moved to Virginia with his wife Vida and their children in 2004, having felt a calling within himself.
“I arrived here from a parish in Dublin with my wife and my family. My daughter was four and my son was four months old when we arrived in Virginia. It’s been a long time, 18 years, two months and three days,” the clergyman told the Celt last week.
“I was installed as a rector in the Virginia group of parishes which covers four churches, Billis, Killinkere, Lurgan and Munterconnaght, the 26th of November 2004, so a long time ago.”
Through the years, Rev McCauley has seen the extremes of ups and downs throughout the parish, and is proud of his involvement in some of the high points.
“For me one of the great joys is community, so the highs of seeing a community come together and work together and form a loving community together within the Church is always a high point,” he sums up.
While the committed reverend is pastor to members of the Church of Ireland, he is widely known for the generosity and kindness he shows to those of all denominations.
“I’m very proud we have such a close knit community across faith denominations and beyond, the people of non faith, there’s a very good working relationship between the churches and we’re really proud of that.
“On St Patrick’s Day before Covid, for 10 years, we had a fantastic St Patrick’s Day gathering where we went on a pilgrimage to the mass rock on Murmod Hill. We would have had well over 200, maybe 300 people gathering together for an ecumenical service up on the mass rock,” he recalls.
Something that stands out most about that day was the coming together of Catholics and Protestants to celebrate as one.
“I remember the first year I said ‘this was something that would have divided us as Christians in the past but here we are standing together’ and that was really special.”
During lockdown, Rev McCauley organised a Christmas Tree Festival, where businesses, clubs, sports organisations, schools and more came together to sponsor Christmas trees, which lit up the beautiful Church of Ireland grounds in Virginia.
“This year we put 83 trees in and that to me really represented a fantastic community spirit,” he says.
Members of the Ballyjamesduff Municipal District came together earlier this month to commemorate Revd Craig’s time in the parish, offering him a small token of their gratitude.
Cllr Shane P. O’Reilly, chair of the Municipal District, said: “Craig was a tremendous servant to everyone in Virginia and the wider region. He has provided support to the entire community and is greatly loved and appreciated by all. It is only right that we should recognise his service to the local community.”
Cllr O’Reilly’s comments were echoed by all the members at the meeting, who hailed Rev McCauley’s tremendous service and wished him and his wife Vida and children, Matthew and Laura the very best in the future.