This article by parishioner Lynn Toner was first published here in March 2019.

Rev. John McGarry, through his Diaconate ministry, served the Parish of St Bride's, East Kilbride and the wider community from September 2011 until February 2019. John was ordained a Deacon by Bishop Joseph Devine in his home parish church of St Bride's on 1 September 2011, and it was with great joy at the end of the Ordination Mass that the congregation heard from the Bishop of his intention to appoint Deacon John to his home parish. A greater contrast to that joy could not have been felt than when the sad news came early in 2019 that Deacon John was taking up a Diaconate appointment in the service of another Parish, Our Lady and St Anne's, in Hamilton.

There was something very natural in John's first appointment being to St Bride's, somehow a sense of things having gone full circle. He had come to St Bride's as a young child with his family in the 50's and it was in St Bride's that John made his First Communion and received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Later John's family moved to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in East Kilbride, but his roots had been established in St Bride's and so it seems appropriate that he settled many years later in St Bride's with his wife, Rosaline. Both John and Rosaline pursued careers in Social Work in and around the City of Glasgow and indeed it was in the context of their work that they met. They settled quickly into St Bride's and soon embraced the life of the parish. Each became involved in various ministries over the years; John was a member of the charismatic prayer group, a cantor in the choir and a reader at Mass. He undertook other roles, such as coordinator for child and vulnerable adult protection. Additionally, he was a member of the RCIA team for many years, where he felt privileged to share and accompany people on their faith journey and made deep and lasting friendships both with members of the team, and with those newly-baptised and confirmed adults, many of whom went on to offer their service to the parish community in different ways .Rosaline ran the coffee morning after 12.00 noon Mass for a number of years, was a reader at Vigil Mass and also a volunteer driver for SPRED, an organisation which delivers religious education to people with learning disabilities. John recalls that both he and Rosaline felt called to these ministries and felt blessed by their experiences and the opportunity to have them.

John also recalls that his vocation to the Diaconate arose from these parish experiences; the calling came partly from within the parish community of St Bride and it was in that community that his vocation grew and was fostered. And, of course, the most important factor was his vocation to marriage, where he and Rosaline have had to extend themselves to looking after other members of their families, as well as supporting each other in mutual love. The support, perseverance and practical love needed to serve in the Permanent Diaconate is an extension of that family support, perseverance and love. The spark of his vocation to the Permanent Diaconate was ignited by a reference to it by his Parish Priest, Father Michael Ryan, during a Vocations Sunday sermon in 2004. This vocation, John realised, was not going to go away, or rather God was not going to go away, until he had explored the possibility of a response to it, a response which was to be a six-year period of discernment, study, formation and prayer.

During his years of service in St Bride's, Deacon John baptised children, celebrated marriages, took communion to the sick and the dying, and assisted at funerals. He assisted at Mass in specific ways such as proclaiming the Gospel, assisting with prayers or serving at the altar. One of John's special charisms was his ministry at the local hospitals, where he will be sorely missed; another was his gift of preaching, where he broke open Scripture in a meaningful, thought-provoking and always joyful way.

Deacon John's departure from St Bride's parish has left a huge gap which is personal, practical and, perhaps most importantly, spiritual. We in St Bride's wish him well in his new Ministry as well as time to rejoice in the company of Rosaline, daughter Claire and her husband James, and their beautiful granddaughters, Olivia and Meghan. We send him prayers, gratitude and love.