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Synod address 2009
Address at the Clogher Diocesan Synod held in Drumkeeran Parish Hall by the
Right Reverend Dr Michael Jackson.
Thursday 24th September 2009
…
IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY …
INTRODUCTION
Since we met last year as The Synod of Aghavea, we have lived with the impact
of the Report: Whatever you say, say nothing …written by David Gardiner
and commissioned by the Church of Ireland Hard Gospel Project through the
Reverend Earl Storey. In his presentation on that occasion last year, David
drew our attention to something vital in the life of the church today, namely
the recognition that popular culture itself can express truths of genuine
religious impact. Desperate Housewives, East Enders, Michael Jackson lyrics
may not be the places to which Church of Ireland people conventionally go
for theological sustenance. But with no more than one in five people, as
a generous estimate, now attending church on an averaged regular basis across
the year, I cannot but ask myself: Where do people go for spiritual sustenance
and growth? The answer of the overwhelming majority seems to be: Nowhere
in particular! Popular culture, too often deemed to be beneath the dignity
of church people, is now the first port of call for the majority of our population
for the presentation and exploration of issues and values. We continue to
dismiss it and its impact to our peril.
3000 copies of: Whatever you say, say nothing …were printed. All were
quickly snapped up both within the diocese and well beyond. Many of the Rural
Deaneries have discussed it; many of the parishes have worked through it;
many individuals will have mulled over it of an evening at home. It will
have brought to the surface a number of competing emotions and varied reactions,
but I hope that at every point those who contributed to it will be recognized
for the honesty of what they said. For my own part, I was invited by Bishop
Duffy to discuss the Report with all the Roman Catholic clergy of the diocese.
Every one of these explorations and encounters will have brought with them
insights into old problems and difficulties. Inevitably, discussion will
have ranged between seeing no problem in maintaining the status quo ante
and seeing the impossibility of living emotionally in the past when in fact
all of us enjoy the freedoms and opportunities of the present. One of the
other observations which I have to make is that much of the reaction to the
Report boils down to whatever particular expectations each of us brings to
bear on the church in general and on the Church of Ireland in particular.
This Report holds within its compass a broad range of views – and
this too is to be commended, whether you agree with any of them or not. It
is surely a testimony to the resilience and generosity of spirit within and
across the Church of Ireland that we continue actively to engage not only
with one another but freely and openly with those who differ from us. To
turn difference into division has not been our way, nor indeed has enforced
uniformity through dogmatic intimidation been our route. Freedom to interpret
has been and must remain the catch-cry of Anglicanism and of its way of living.
Room for others not only broadens the scope of experience for everyone else
but opens up more room for ourselves.
If I might stay with: Whatever you say, say nothing …for a little
longer, it is easy enough to see how any of us might get into such a frame
of mind. It is harder to see how we might get out of it. Deep within the
Church of Ireland there is a decent instinct to preserve what you already
have, in the hope of holding on to it - because there is no guarantee that
it will not one day be useful. There is also the sense of duty by which we
preserve what we have inherited because, once again, we have a sense that
is not ours to dismantle and, even if we feel that it is or might be, there
are very quickly many who will tell us that it isn’t. But such cries
of conservatism are not a definition of tradition and do not of themselves
equip us to live today for tomorrow.
But I also need to change the focus. If we are truly to hear the broad range
of voices which permeate this Report – rather than picking out what
we happen to like and pretending that the other voices simply are not there – then
we need to hear a number of things. Let me start with education: sustained
anxiety is expressed in the Report about the educational systems within which
we work; hard questions are posed about the relationship between segregation
and indoctrination and the finger is pointed at all of us who carry responsibilities
in this area. We are asked: Does our multi-layered system of education ‘prepare
young people for diversity’ or are young people ‘hampered for
later life’ by segregated education? (page 50) This is a truly hard
question. Let me also illustrate from society: the question is posed: Have
we the will to be the church in the following way: concentrating less on
solving or fixing whatever are the immediate issues and more on learning
to walk towards rather than away from conflict? (page 57) Both of these,
and there are many more, suggest that whether or not we still think that
saying nothing is the best course of action in the life of the church and
in the ways in which it impacts on issues of importance in the world beyond,
a number of people locally thinks that there are areas and issues which need
to be voiced and heard.
But maybe the most alarming thing is that in a Report stretching to seventy
one pages, the person of God is not explicitly mentioned once. This is a
shocking reality which resonates loudly with the statistic which I offered
you right at the beginning – one in five people attending church services
on a regular basis. And still we cling on to more parish churches than we
really need. And still we seek to fill individual incumbencies without any
real sense of the need for a broader picture and a living diversity of ministry,
ordained and lay, shared with people who have a whole range of interests
and abilities outside the church which they feel are not wanted or welcomed
within the church. And so there emerges a rather shocking reality – have
Border Protestants let themselves become nothing more than a cultural entity?
Have Border Protestants for too long taken for granted a cultural definition
of themselves, branded as religion, which neither seeks nor finds God at
the heart of personal and corporate identity? Coming out of the whole Report:
Whatever you say, say nothing …the question which remains with me is
this: What are the members of the Church of Ireland in this diocese willing
to set to one side in what matters to us most, in order to make room for
those with whom we disagree and who disagree with us?
There is, self-evidently, no future in the past but my hope remains that
there is a future for the best of the past – named, understood, owned,
celebrated, shared with others. There is scope for us to bring our identity
into the future. This is part of the work which God invites us to do not
least because God invites us to transformation, to be who he is making us
to become. This is even more vital than the particular things he asks us
to do. Who we have been, who we are, who we are yet to become – these
are what make up the identity of an individual and the identity of a community.
These are the memories and the possibilities which we carry, with which we
seek to deal and which follow us as time moves on. Identity is challenged
at all points in contemporary life. However irritating it may be to us, it
is part of the world which we inhabit. There are many factors which lie behind
this and many of them we are powerless to influence or to change. The pace
of life itself gives us reason to explore the relationship between what we
are expected to do and what we really need to do. The vast range of global
communication and information technology again can tend to bewilder but need
not demoralize. The reality of change is as old as the Greek philosopher
Heraclitus who is remembered for his sixty-century sound-bite: Everything
is in a state of fluidity. As Christian people today – with so many
calls on our loyalty and our time – having priorities and principles
is a vital component in who we are. Such priorities and principles give shape
to our best efforts. We nonetheless live in a world of fluidity so much of
which is genuinely exciting.
When I seek inspiration and guidance in the whole question of Christian
identity, I draw strength and sustenance from those tremendously powerful
words of 1John 3.2: Dear friends, we are now God’s children; what we
shall be has not yet been disclosed, but we know that when Christ appears
we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Twenty-five per
cent of British adults regard it as an ‘amazing coincidence’ that
Jesus Christ was crucified on Good Friday. Let me explain – they know
that there is something significant about Good Friday but they do not make
the connection between the day Good Friday and the event of the Crucifixion
of Jesus Christ. The First Letter of John is so strong because from the outset
it makes explicit the connection between the incarnation, or enfleshment,
of Jesus Christ and the eternal life which was with the Father and was made
visible to us. (1 John 1:2) But immediately this realization spills over
into the essential character of community in the self-understanding of the
Christian person. There is no: me without there being an: us and there is
no: us without there being a: you. This is a bitter pill for the contemporary
generation of clergy and laity for whom there has always been a: me –priority
long before what we call The Credit Crunch. The overflowing joy of the First
Letter of John has not got to do with: me but with you and with them, the
invitation to the sharing of a common life, shared horizontally with one
another in Spirit because already shared vertically – if you will allow
me to indulge in such spatial crudities – with Father and Son. How
far indeed this is from so many aspects of contemporary church life and how
alien to the eighty per cent of members of our diocese for whom worship in
church is now something alien!
Therefore, I return in a real and tangible sense, obedient to Holy Scripture
and its interpretation in the light of God’s self-revelation and in
the continuing self-presentation of God in the Holy Spirit, I return to the
Report: Whatever you say, say nothing…At its heart it seems to me to
be a cry for recognition by a part of the total tradition which seeks, however
falteringly, however late in the day, to be reconciled with the whole of
the total tradition, wherever that reconciliation may bring either it or
the part with whom it is yet to be reconciled. My justification for saying
this lies in the following telling phrases from the Report: Protestants tend
to sit back and whinge rather than get on with changing and improving things
and: People don’t want to hear this but they need to face up to it – they’re
too focussed on individual interests and not sufficiently interested in the
overall sustainability and prosperity of the Community. If people don’t
co-operate and act strategically there won’t be a Protestant community
in some areas in 5-10 years and: We shouldn’t blame anyone else, we
should take responsibility ourselves for what we didn’t do, could have
done, should have done – we have all been complicit in allowing wrong
things to happen. The picture is more varied than seemed, perhaps, to be
the case at first sight. There clearly is work still to be done by each and
by all of us. There is also a sign of hope in that there is a realization
that simply blaming others for things for which we ourselves were in part
responsible will not take us into any meaningful future. Neither will it
enable us to carry forward the memories which we must carry with anything
other than a sense of our own utter loneliness. God calls us to particular
patterns of life and ways of acting in our time and in our place. We, I firmly
hold, are called:
never to forget the people who have suffered and who have lost their lives;
never to diminish the tragedies which we and others have suffered;
always to be generous in understanding and forgiving;
always to be ready to take the risk of reconciliation with those with whom
the future, built on truthfulness, lies.
There is no magic formula but again I firmly hold that the combination of
identity and involvement together can take us there as we live them both,
confidently and generously.
The reason this work is so important is that throughout the life and thought
of the Christian tradition, our understanding of God and of ourselves has
always required a recognition of the stranger. Both in relation to ourselves
and in relation to the God whom we worship, the stranger lies at the heart
of our identity. It is this thread of continuity which connects the generous
instinct for hospitality of Moses at the Oak of Mamre in the book Genesis
with the abject enforced departure of Romanian families from Belfast in June
2009. It is this thread of challenge which many factors and many factions
seek to break in a country such as ours, suffering as it does as much from
religious indigestion as it does from religious hunger. We are also a country
which has yet to make really good use of The Peace of the last ten years
politically, socially or religiously. Either cutting ourselves loose or cocooning
ourselves from others, sooner rather than later deprives us of identity as
well as separating us from a functioning participation in community. It is
for this wider set of reasons that, as we agreed at the end of last year’s
Diocesan Synod: Whatever you say, say nothing… has to become: Whatever
we say, let us do something …
A number of events and issues affecting us locally and more widely afield
has taken us into new areas of exploring our identity, however willing or
unwilling we are to do so. I name but a few. The continuing impact of the
global economic downturn, referred to as The Credit Crunch, is now so pervasive,
so complex and so engulfing as to become part of the weave of our total life.
Poverty in so many ways has come to meet us and many who never expected to
be touched by it have found themselves its slaves. The complexities of contemporary
economics; the ways in which what happens in one place really does affect
what happens elsewhere with almost instantaneous effect – these things
are now not only on our doorsteps but in our kitchens. Suddenly and overnight,
we all became economic theorists but every day new implications came to light.
The deeper implications of decline will be with us for at least a generation.
We were initially told that what was happening bore no comparison or relationship
to the Wall Street Crash; yet it is now regarded as a modern version of that
event. Those who have spoken of green shoots are scorned for being hopeful
in a way which is entirely unrealistic. Many infrastructural projects will
not now have a beginning let alone a completion. Rash speculation may indeed
have had its day for the present cycle but many people who rejoiced at last
to have work close to home, instead of being forced to emigrate, can neither
work nor rejoice any more. Those who wish to do something relatively simple,
such as save to survive in an increasingly privatized world, do not now know
what to do. The insecurity enforced on people by the squeezing of credit
margins continues to result in many people looking in the eye and with a
certain disbelief decent, established employers who cannot afford to continue
to employ them or indeed remain in business. Within the church itself there
are, of course, short- and long-term ramifications. And still the parishes
resist any consideration of combining forces with neighbouring parishes simply
because it will involve amalgamation. And still we ourselves concluded after
a thoroughgoing Diocesan Review within the last five years that the status
quo ante is unsustainable.
Although mission agencies struggle valiantly, the future is bound to bring
with it the sort of restructuring which, when seen in the cold light of day
or met in the narrow corridors of real life, means shrinkage. And the outcome
of lesser revenues at home would tend to lead to lesser scope for giving
abroad. Even as I outline it, this scenario presents to us the mirror opposite
of the optimistic canvas of globalization which we have often painted for
ourselves: the opportunities, the networking, the new connections, the new
people and the bigger numbers. And in light of what I have been saying earlier,
many of you will be saying: If things are as bad as he is making out, then
we really do have no time for the stranger and all of that. But to my way
of thinking, this is entirely the wrong way to go. We as Christian people
need to dig deep within the widest possible definition of generosity to meet
this crisis, thinking both for ourselves and beyond ourselves. There have
been times of crisis before and there will be times of crisis again. One
of the very important things that I notice as I talk to people in all sorts
of circumstances and situations is that generally they are in good heart.
They are knuckling down and getting on with it as best they can. They are
offering support and assistance to one another and are mindful of one another’s
needs. This bodes well for our solidarity with one another and I applaud
people for it.
The report which in many ways took Northern Ireland by storm in the year
past was The Report of the Consultative Group on the Past. I simply cannot
tell if its authors were able or unable to foresee the reaction and furore
caused by the suggestion of a payment of £12,000 per person killed
in The Troubles. However, it seems to be the only thing for which it is now
remembered. If ever we needed to be reminded of the depth of feeling and
sense of loss still experienced throughout Northern Ireland by the legacy
of The Troubles – as people continue to experience this legacy – this
was it. Tremendous opposition was voiced and not only was there confusion
but also a resurgence of deep hurt – instantaneously. Consistently
the Church of Ireland has expressed, as indeed we sought to do throughout
The Troubles themselves, solidarity with those who suffered and continue
to suffer. At the same time – and in many ways a more thankless task,
and I speak with a certain degree of understanding as I chair the Committee
responding to the process at various points in its unfolding – we have
considered it as essential to take the invitation offered in the Report as
follows: ‘significant forward movement is required on the part of everyone
to enable society to become more defined by its desire for true and lasting
reconciliation.’ I draw this to your attention fully aware that reconciliation
is a much overused word, but aware also that it contains within it: a new
morality for the future. How often in Northern Ireland - to our sadness and
to the sadness of countless international partners wishing us nothing but
well – how often have we found ourselves facing a brick wall called:
the future? Why do we do it? Are we there once again? Is the deadly cycle
of inertia and opportunism in any sense re-inventing itself once more? I
sincerely hope not.
The most sustained response which we have made concentrates on a number
of factors which will at some point need to be addressed. They express firmly
the understanding that Christianity is a future-focused religion. Briefly
stated, they comprise some of the following. Unselfish acts of goodness ‘across
the divide’ achieve more than does crying for new blood. Weighing the
scales of justice take us only so far in the quest for grace. Enemies and
friends are both entitled to moral understanding, if all are to exercize
moral responsibility and contribute in a new moral framework. In the sharing
of stories please do not look to offer the best of yourself while at the
same time presenting the worst of your partner in dialogue. Remembering and
education go together; education will have no bite to it unless those who
learn also experience positive change in the society. The Report of the Consultative
Group on the Past has displeased many and delighted few. However, it is my
opinion that history will yet judge it as an honest, broad-ranging and, of
course, controversial contribution to a maturing of generous and challenging
thinking particularly at a time when, strangely and with a great degree of
disappointment, Northern Ireland finds itself in severe difficulties in dealing
with The Peace. Time and again members of the Protestant community have rejected
initiatives because they do not see enough of themselves in them; they do
not see enshrined in black and white the things that matter most to them.
But if The Troubles which still define our identity have taught us nothing
other than fear of the future, then they still need to teach us the strength
of accommodation which comes out of common suffering.
Education is also an area where questions of identity remain highly charged
and impassioned. The sudden guillotining of Free School status and the consequent
withdrawal of the SEC grant at the beginning of 2009 hit very hard at an
agreement which had, since the foundation of the State, enabled Protestant
people in the Republic of Ireland to provide and to experience education
in accordance with the Protestant ethos. One fell administrative swoop has
cut at the root of this and the devastation of its impact raises serious
and on-going questions about respect for Protestant identity as an interwoven
component in national identity. Over the past thirty years, almost everything
has become a commodity – something you can sell and buy; something
the worth of which you assess according to the cash-in value which it will
have either immediately or in the longer term. If education was once dismissed
as a nursery for indoctrination, it is now being trumpeted as the place where
market forces must rule and regulate. This is a particularly attractive argument
from privatization in a world of crumbled public finances and at the heart
of a philosophy which seeks to tax our way out of recession. My own specific
concern and deep affection are for Monaghan Collegiate School, our oldest
secondary education foundation dating back to 1570 and George iii as The
Clogher Diocesan School. In no sense do I celebrate the life of MCS in a
spirit of rank sectarianism or Protestant triumphalism – but I do celebrate
it. In no sense do I seek special status for a peculiar corner of Irish society
tragically misunderstood as religion itself becomes increasingly devoid of
meaning and its intentions for good repeatedly rubbished – but I do
seek understanding and respect. Throughout my time in this diocese I have
developed a tremendous respect for MCS and have grown to understand more
fully what is meant by a Protestant ethos lived by young people in their
formative years in secondary school. I have great admiration for the ways
in which together all staff and pupils co-operate in a way which is respectful
of heritage and principles, faithful to God and neighbour, eager to play
its part today and ready for tomorrow. These seem to me to be components
essential to understanding ethos. MCS has consistently used the SEC grant
to survive – fact. The continuing threat to, and atrophying of, a school
such as MCS which has consistently used the SEC grant to provide a broad-ranging
education, delivered without any prior application of academic selection
criteria, is a matter of utmost seriousness. My appeal to Minister Batt O’Keeffe
TD is that there be a recognition that Protestant Secondary Schools such
as MCS are not the fat cats of the system; that the provision of denominational
education carefully planned and honourably delivered is neither sectarian
nor politically incorrect; that the preparation for a life of active and
responsible citizenship which is offered in schools such as MCS can and does
proudly stand side by side with any other school in the secondary sector
in today’s Ireland. It is not our wish either to prop up the past or
to live in the past. It is our concern, in fulfilling educational aspirations
for the children and young people in our care, to make through them an open-ended
contribution to public life and active citizenship. Our capacity to do so
has been seriously endangered and needs to be safeguarded.
Once again, secondary education in Northern Ireland has received a number
of frustrating setbacks over the year past. Historically, secondary education
in County Fermanagh in the Protestant sector has shown an incapacity to agree
with itself and this has been far from helpful to our cause. At the same
time, in County Fermanagh alone, Lisnaskea High School, celebrating with
great joy in this year its fiftieth anniversary, still faces tremendous uncertainty
about its future; Devenish College is promised a new build on what remains
a green field site; Enniskillen Collegiate has long been promised a new Science
Block at least; Portora has also been promised a new build. In terms both
of estate and morale, this makes for a very reduced educational experience
for all pupils and teachers. Meanwhile, it also seems that the Department
of Education and the secondary schools are moving in opposite directions.
The danger inherent in this is not simply anxiety and confusion for primary
school parents and pupils contemplating the future in their own schools and
the future in secondary education for such children, but the wider and deeper
anxiety is that once schools start going it alone and once the Department
of Education ceases to hear their voices - even if it has quite different
ideas – it is all the more problematic for the twain ever again to
meet. Already we face on January 1st 2010 – but of course Northern
Ireland being Northern Ireland we expect a stay of execution – a new
Education and Skills Authority which will sweep to one side the Area Boards
which have for many decades sought to maintain with integrity the complex
educational system of Northern Ireland. In paying tribute to them and in
highlighting the contribution of all who from our own diocese have served
on WELB, I must on your behalf convey thanks to those who in Shakespeare’s
phrases have ‘done the state some service’ in voluntary capacities
throughout that period. But I have a wider caution which I should like to
voice: we must be careful, whatever our strength of feeling, to keep open
both width of opportunity and expectation of excellence. Let me for a moment,
ladies and gentlemen members of Synod, speak from an entirely personal standpoint.
In my work from day to day, the perspective from which I see the young people
of County Fermanagh is primarily that of confirmation. In those acts of worship,
sometimes three on the same Sunday, I see people for whom equality of opportunity
is essential, as is the availability of a readily accessible curriculum which
embraces the widest range of vocational and academic disciplines excellently
in an integrated and fluid educational experience.
One of the interesting developments in the year past has been the number
of people who have wanted, as members of the diocese, to go to the Holy Land
as pilgrims. This initiative was indeed well under way before Bishop Suheil
came to spend Whitsunday 2008 with us but is greatly enhanced by our knowing
him and his knowing us. In this regard, I should like to thank the Reverend
Glenn West, the Reverend David Skuce and the Reverend Mark Watson and the
staff of the Diocesan Office for their helpfulness. Not only did those who
went on pilgrimage find it a transformative experience personally, but a
number of other things have flowed from this in the best evangelical tradition.
Theology and geography were brought together in the person of Jesus. A number
of really practical mission initiatives have come out of this. When confronted
by the unspeakable human tragedy in Gaza, which occurred between the two
pilgrimages, we were able to mobilize practical support from the diocese
and get it immediately through our contact with Bishop Suheil directly to
those in pain and need. Further, by initiatives in parishes, particularly
Trory and Killadeas and through Portora Royal School and Mr Brendan Bannon
in the Buttermarket in Enniskillen, we have been able to offer support to
a wider educational need in the Holy Land in the form of support for a Diocesan
School in Jordan. Our biggest initiative now is that of providing significant
support for St Luke’s Hospital, Nablus through the Holy Land Medical
Relief Fund. Many of you are beginning to hear more of the initiatives which
will be rolled out between now and Christmas in this cause – and I
know you will support them well. A tiny band of people has driven and sustained
these initiatives and I am really proud of the fact that they have sought
no recognition nor have they, nor any of the contributors, been daunted in
generosity at a time of recession. Charity begins at home but there is no
predicting how far it will travel under God. Also I should like to thank
the Reverend Noel Regan and the Jacaranda Farm Committee for their work.
Not only has Clogher Diocese contributed in Northern Nigeria to agriculture,
irrigation and a building programme, but Bishop Josiah and his wife, Comfort,
shared with those of us who met them on a visit to Clogher in June 2009 the
deep recognition that he and his people have of friends within the Anglican
Communion and of their generosity at a time when the Communion is characterized
as staggering on in unrest and alienation.
SOME PERSONALITIES
I should like first to express the thanks of the whole Diocese to Mr Harold
Stewart who for more than thirty years has represented the laity of Clogher
as a Member of Standing Committee. He has done this with great regularity
and faithfulness and, throughout that time, has been a thoroughly reliable
presence in Church House, Dublin. Mr Walter Pringle and Mr Glenn Moore are
now our lay members of Standing Committee. The Reverend Bryan Kerr continues
in membership and Canon Stewart replaces Canon Courtney who has retired.
As I say, Canon Courtney has retired as incumbent of Enniskillen and precentor
of Clogher. Throughout his time in Enniskillen, he has served on many Committees
and combined his work in Enniskillen Parish with the Church of Ireland chaplaincy
of the Erne Hospital. We wish him and Valerie well in retirement in Carrickfergus.
Dean Thompson has retired as incumbent of the Clogher Group of Parishes and
dean of Clogher. He also combined his work in that Group with service on
many Committees in the diocese. We wish him well in his retirement in Irvinestown.
The Reverend Alan Capper was instituted early in 2009 in Lisnaskea Parish,
moving from Lack (Colaghty). Miss Naomi Quinn, Diocesan Reader, who served
in the Ematris Group of Parishes under the supervision of the Reverend Robert
Kingston, has entered residential training for the ordained ministry as has
also Mrs Stephanie Woods. Mrs Lorraine Capper continues in training in the
Theological Institute, embarking now on her third year. The Reverend Charles
Eames was ordained priest in June and continues to work in Magheracross Parish.
Mr Simon Genoe, one of our ordinands, was ordained deacon in the Diocese
of Connor likewise in June and serves in Lisburn Cathedral. The Revered Helene
Steed combines work in the Clones Group of Parishes with being the Rural
Dean of Clones. The Reverend Canon William Johnston succeeds Canon Courtney
as Precentor of Clogher.
We continue to appreciate the work of retired clergy and Readers who make
it possible for us all to be members of a Diocese which runs with efficiency
and where worship continues in a regular cycle, availing of the talents of
those who generously work Sunday by Sunday. We are also very appreciative
of the work of Diocesan Pastoral Assistants – a form of ministry unique
to the Diocese of Clogher in the Church of Ireland - who, as lay people,
bring a richness of human experience to pastoral ministry in parishes across
the diocese. To all of you: Thank you.
To our Synod today we have pleasure in welcoming The Reverend David Cupples
of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland from Enniskillen; Monsignor Joseph
McGuinness of the Roman Catholic Church from Enniskillen and representatives
of the Methodist Church as Official Guests. I trust that Members of Synod
will join me in welcoming you all. We look forward to the time which we will
have together this evening and the things which you wish to say to us.
DIOCESAN OFFICE
Throughout this year, as last, we have been blessed by a very effective
Diocesan Office, a very pleasant group of people in Glenn Moore, Ruth McKane
and Leslie Stevenson. All three of them have been consistently helpful to
all of us and deserve our thanks for everything they have given, often beyond
the call of duty. I am sad to have to inform Synod that Leslie has found
it necessary to step down from the position of Diocesan Accountant in July
of this year. I should like our thanks to go from this Synod to him for work
which he did in that role and to wish him all that is best for the future.
I wish also to thank Glenn and Ruth for the tremendous work which they have
done over summer months in relation to our diocesan finances and in conjunction
with Hassard McClements, our Accountants.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
I began by saying how pleased we are to gather in Drumkeeran for our Diocesan
Synod 2009. Most of my time is spent with people and those people want to
see and to be part of a future which provides opportunities for others as
well as themselves. So often things are happening and we who spend too much
time associated with the inner workings of the church are quite unaware of
them. There is a generation of young people who have priorities different
from ours. They are impatient with the ways in which they perceive us to
be living in the past. They are impatient for an open agenda where their
freedom to contribute to a different Ireland today is not hedged about by
an anxiety about ‘the other side’ having the same opportunities.
They are impatient with what they still see as our preoccupations with minutiae,
as many of them do not really want to know about the small print of denomination.
And many of them, given half a chance, will leave and not return. They will,
of course, take with them so much of value which they have received here
but many of them will not be here to make a direct contribution and we will,
therefore, not experience it either.
As The Peace in Northern Ireland gives us all an opportunity to rethink
our own priorities in a climate freed from much of the fear of the past,
we need to go back, among other things, to expressions of hope and nuggets
of possibility as contained in, for example, 1 John 3.2: Dear friends, we
are now God’s children; what we shall be has not yet been disclosed,
but we know that when Christ appears we shall be like him, because we shall
see him as he is. But the other side of this is that he will see us as we
are! And the challenge in this for us is that by our conformation to Christ
we are transformed into our best selves in Christ and in community. The Kingdom
of God – like a little child, like a mustard seed, like so much else
that could be disregarded and unknown in everyday life then as now – breaks
in on our world and gives us a foretaste of being as we will become. Identity
is wound into belonging and belonging makes community. The call to make community
begins in baptism and continues in communion and mission. We are called as
Christian adults to rejoice and to delight in who we are and to yearn for
the time when Christ’s seeing us will blend with our seeing him. In
the meantime, we are called by the same Christ Jesus to put at the service
of God’s creation the precious gift which is ours through God’s
grace, that of being a child of God.
The spirit of Clogher is well summed up in the little Collect for St Macartan’s
Day to which I personally return regularly for sustenance: building and strengthening
of the church, Gospel proclamation and leadership, reconciliation and peace
in society in our time. These three are at the core of our identity and form
the heartbeat of our community. Of us God asks only that we go and do it.
I ask you to pause in silence, seated as you are, as I say and pray with
you the Collect of St Macartan:
Heavenly Father, we thank you for Macartan, faithful companion of St Patrick,
and builder of your church in Clogher: Build up your church through those
whom you call to leadership in this generation and strengthen your church
to proclaim the gospel of reconciliation and peace; through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
+Michael Clogher: 24.ix.2009
Date: 24th September 09