Cliftonville FC from Belfast had an important away fixture in Donegal at the weekend – to support Presbyterian cleric the Rev Dario Leal as he takes up a new role as minister of Carrigart and Dunfanaghy congregations.
Mr Leal (55) had served as chaplain to Cliftonville and the club’s hierarchy travelled up for the installation service at Carrigart which took place on May 25.
As club patron Jim Boyce, the former senior vice-president of FIFA said, Donegal’s gain is Cliftonville’s loss. He brought greetings to Mr Leal from the north Belfast club’s manager and captain.
Speaking at the service in Carrigart, Mr Boyce (80) said: “In all my football career the most important thing to me was community relations.
“At Cliftonville we have a very mixed team and those lads worship Dario, because his spiritual knowledge is so great but his human knowledge is also great because he brings them all together – it doesn’t matter about religion. Those players all have the greatest respect for Dario.”
Mr Boyce told worshippers he regarded Donegal as “God’s own country” and could claim Donegal antecedents in that his father’s family hailed from Ardara and his mother’s relations were from the Rosses Point.
Some 200 people attended the service which was held to officially install Mr Leal – a native of Chile – into the post. He said he was greatly looking forward to serving the congregations and the wider community in Donegal.
Mr Leal, who will conduct his first services in Dunfanaghy and Carrigart on Sunday June 1, said he, his wife Denise and his four children were excited by the prospect of coming to Co Donegal.
Fifty per cent of Mr Leal’s time is to be devoted to outreach and missional duties, but he told those at the service that he had no fixed plan. He said: “I just want to get on with what the Father is doing in this place and I believe he is doing something. I want people to be bold in their faith.”
Mr Leal, who is moving from First Ballynahinch, first came to Ireland with his wife in 1994 and he subsequently studied and then worked in Belfast, including a church-planting project in north Belfast where he became chaplain to Cliftonville Football Club.
Among clerical guests who attended were Fr Charlie Byrne PP from St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Mevagh, Fr Martin Doohan PP from Dunfanaghy, Fr John Joe Duffy CC from Creeslough, Canon David Skuce from Holy Trinity, Dunfanaghy and Rev Chris Moffett from Holy Trinity, Carrigart.
Fr Byrne said he was very happy to be with Mr Leal on this special occasion. He said: “You are coming, Dario, to a most wonderful community and you will be among great people. The three churches here do get on well and through our commitment and witness to Christ we do our best to do a good job. You will have a great ministry here, shepherding your flock and I wish you so well.”
Mr Moffett said the parishes of Mevagh and Fanad were delighted to welcome Mr Leal to the area and looked forward to working with him. He said that in his time in Donegal he had experienced good relationships across all the Christian traditions.
The other speakers wishing Mr Leal well were Tom Morrow from First Ballynahinch, Joy Buchanan representing the congregations of Dunfanaghy and Carrigart, Azman Khairuddin from Journey Community Church in Antrim, a long-time friend of Mr Leal’s, and Rick Hill, secretary of the Presbyterian Church’s Council for Mission in Ireland.
The service was conducted by the Rev Stephen Hibbert, minister of Glendermott Presbyterian Church in Derry, and the current Moderator of Derry & Donegal Presbytery. He said he looked forward to seeing great things being done in the area in the name of God.
Pictured above: The Rev Dario Leal, the new minister of Dunfanaghy and Carrigart Presbyterian Churches, and former chaplain to Cliftonville FC in Belfast, pictured at Rosapenna Golf Pavilion with representatives of the club who attended his installation service on May 25. From left are: secretary George Walsh, patron Jim Boyce, Mr Leal, president Paul Treanor and chief operating officer David Begley and vice-president Billy Hosie. Pic Francis Diver.
