St Michael the Archangel Parish in Andersonstown, west Belfast, celebrated its golden jubilee with a Mass on Saturday evening.

Bishop Alan McGuckian of Down and Connor led the service, joined by nine concelebrants including former parish priests Fr John Murray and Fr Martin Kelly.

The parish church still bears visible signs of the Troubles, with bullet holes remaining in its brickwork. Bishop McGuckian acknowledged parishioners who lost loved ones during the conflict, saying they carried deeper wounds. He prayed for the healing of every wound.

The church was initially built as a chapel of ease due to overcrowding at St Agnes' Church in Andersonstown. It was declared a parish in its own right in August 1976 by Bishop William Philbin.

Bishop McGuckian noted that 1976 was the year of ABBA, Taxi Driver and Rocky, and joked that he was far older than the parish.

He said the people who built the church faced real hardship but simply got on with it.

They were not only thinking of walls, bricks and mortar and stained glass, but hoping for a place where children would be baptised, couples married, and the lonely welcomed.

Priests ordained from the parish include Fr Tony Devlin, Fr Patrick Devlin, and Fr Gabriel Lyons, who concelebrated the Mass.

Parish Priest Fr Ciarán Feeney said the parish faced challenges over the decades, including the Troubles, rising secularism, decline in vocations, and the Covid pandemic, but new opportunities emerged through social media, pilgrimage, and new ministries.

During the Mass, Bishop McGuckian was presented with an icon of St Michael the Archangel written by parish sacristan Tess Molloy and a newly minted jubilee coin.

The coin bears an image of St Michael drawn by local artist Andrew Hazlett and an aerial photograph of the church by parishioner Kevin O'Brien. A coin was given to every member of the congregation.

Bishop McGuckian urged parishioners to build up the Christian community in Finaghy for the next 50 years, saying a jubilee is not a moment to rest but to say yes to the present.