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Diocese of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory

The Revd Ann Wallace

The Reverend Ann Wallace

(née Marchant) 

1929 – 2015

Abbeyfest 2010 launch 04 copyThe Revd Ann Wallace passed away in the loving care of the staff of Oakdale Nursing Home, Portarlington.

We extend our sympathies to her husband Bruce and Edward, Andrew, James and Beth.

She will be sadly missed by her family, her grandchildren Becky, Vicky, Nicole, Ben, Tim and Matthew, her sister Elizabeth (Gordon), daughters-in-law Marie, Sharon and Jane, sister-in-law Violet (Howard), nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.

Her funeral took place at St. Michael & All Angels Church, Abbeyleix on Friday 16 October 2105 followed by burial in adjoining Churchyard.

Hymns included Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,’ ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want,’ ‘Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face’ and May the mind of Christ my Saviour.’

Tribute

The Address was given by the rector, the Revd Canon Patrick Harvey and he offered this tribute to his

friend and colleague and based on his address:

The Reverend Ann died peacefully in Oakdale Nursing Home, Portarlington on Tuesday 13 October where she received such wonderful care.

We keep Bruce in our prayers, along with Edward, Andrew, Jim & Beth, as well as Ann’s sister Elizabeth and the wider family circle.

I want to pay tribute to the family’s care of her, in particular Bruce, who faithfully and devotedly visited her twice and sometimes three times each day. How appropriate then that her funeral took place on the 62nd anniversary of their marriage, Friday 16 October.

Space will not do justice here to her life and influence, but readers will know of her many involvements with organisations and individuals.

As I said in my address at her funeral she and I would travel together to Dungarvan to the annual diocesan clergy conference. Ann loved the conference … meeting all the clergy from the Diocese, listening to various speakers, contributing to discussions on many issues. One of my abiding memories is of Ann carefully taking notes in every lecture and discussion. We had many conversations on our journeys there and back. Topics were covered which we never got a chance to talk about ordinarily because of the punctuated equilibrium that is parish life.

She told me about her musical father. As a teenager she became interested in sacred music and how it was used during the different seasons in the church year and undoubtedly seeds were sown which would develop into an interest in the varying types of worship later on in life.

Ann loved the ordained ministry, she loved priesthood, and being able to celebrate Holy Communion was very much part of that. Without Bruce’s support, she told me time and again, she would not have been ordained. Ann also told me that celebrating Holy Communion was for her the pinnacle of her ministry as a priest and something she had longed for. She loved enabling people to join in the celebration with her and I quote her ‘to celebrate in their hearts reverently and joyfully’. How appropriate it was that we celebrated Communion at her funeral.

Amongst many other involvements Ann sat on the Abbeyleix Union Select Vestry, as well as Diocesan Council. She was Education Officer of the Mothers’ Union and then their Diocesan Chaplain, as well as becoming one of their Diocesan Trustees. She was on General Synod, and was an Episcopal elector, which means she was for a while one of the people who elected clergy onto the House of Bishops.

All the while being sister, wife, mother, and grandmother amongst many other roles.

I could not have asked for a more supportive or helpful clerical companion and I want to pay tribute to her multi-faceted ministry amongst us. Patrick.

All-Ireland Mothers’ Union President Phyllis Grothier also writes in paying tribute to Ann and her involvement in the Mothers’ Union.  See her words in the MU notes in this edition of the Magazine.