The Church of Ireland
Diocesan Press Release

Dear friends in Christ, we meet in his name, as the pilgrim people of God, to do the work of his Church and I thank you for your attendance at this Diocesan Synod of Cork, Cloyne and Ross – my third as your Bishop.

Kinsale 400

For our Diocesan Synod this year we come to popular, fashionable and picturesque Kinsale. To us in the Diocese it is an important parish, most of all for the vibrancy of its ministry and witness today, but also for the historic and heritage significance of Saint Multose Church in which we worshipped earlier. At the General Synod one of the visitors from another Church took me aside to say that I should know as Bishop of Cork, about the wonderful welcome he had received not only here in Kinsale during a visit last year, but also in churches throughout the diocese. I was glad to hear this and continue to encourage you all to have a spirit of welcome hospitality to visitors and strangers who come among us.

We also come to Kinsale in this 400th Anniversary year of the longest march in Irish history, (an event to be re-enacted starting on 21st July), and scene of that pivotal battle of 1601, a turning point in Irish history, the outcome of which shaped Ireland for so many years since.

The Battle of Kinsale was more than the clash of two opposing military forces. It was a harrowing meeting of opposing cultures.

A Multi-Cultural/Multi-Ethnic/Multi-Faith Ireland

If Ireland ever was a monochrome clash between two cultures pitted against one another (and that would be a naïve analysis), it most certainly isn’t today. Ours is not a socially, culturally or religiously homogenous society. Rather, we live in an increasingly multi-cultural society, as evidenced by a veritable gamut of sub-cultures, a pluriformity of nationalities, lifestyles and expressions of humanity. This plurality, uneasy as some may feel about it, is asserted in the world of belief and religious profession too.

How do we react to such a context?

In his much-acclaimed book, one that has made an impression on me, The Collage of God, Mark Oakley, former Chaplain to the Bishop of London, says this:

“…I see the need for a renewed spirit of liberality in the Church, a spirit concerned to ensure that the Church keeps a breadth of mind, a general courtesy in its communal life, a desire to defend another’s right of speech and interpretation of shared texts, and maintains a greater concern to check it own prejudices than preserved its so-called ‘purity’. A person only need spend a short time reflecting on how he or she has changed views throughout his or her life so far, and think about how they may change again in the future, to realise that the Church should be able to hold all this within – and much more as well. … Such liberality… will celebrate diversity and be unashamed of a necessary pluriformity regarding differing views on certain controversial topics.” [i]

Year after year we articulate the reality that we are living in the midst of immense change. “This can be very disturbing and can encourage us to be defensive and backward-looking because we are afraid. Or we can recognise that making sense of our life and seeking to humanise the emerging shape of our culture is the risky but essential journey for all who believe and trust in God” [ii]

As Christians we can surely come to understand what it means confidently to have faith living as we do in a pluralist society and also to be inclusive in our belonging and believing.

Disappointment with Recent Church Controversies

It is for this reason, among others, that I feel a measure of despair when I see we Christians in Ireland investing such energy into such things as invitations to State receptions; who is worthy to receive Holy Communion and who isn’t (when few of us actually are!); and the seemingly inexhaustible residual bigotry that plagues us, when in actual fact, that same energy might more usefully be channelled, in the name of Christ, into overcoming our ecclesial divisions, into acts of Christian service and compassionate Christ-like outreach to the so many vulnerable people and those wounded by life in our own pews and in society at large.

In the course of one of those very debates I spoke to a single mother in the hotel where I was staying during General Synod. “Tell them to grow up!” she said. “There are many of us here in this situation. Tell those bishops to stop getting at me and the likes of me. I need their prayers instead.” I felt challenged by and empathised with that.

We have got to learn to face up to and engage maturely with the new Ireland. The call of Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, (although she was referring to political leaders, speaking in Strasbourg), last October, might as easily be directed at us in the churches:

We need to hear our … leaders championing diversity, extolling the virtues of multicultural, multi-ethnic societies, defending the vulnerable."

Referendum Turnout a Scandal

In this society of ours, and indeed in these islands, the past days have been dominated by voting and the previous weeks by referenda here, and elections in Great Britain and the north of Ireland.

One of the scandals – whatever excuses we put on it such as lack of motivation, disinterest, unattractiveness or irrelevance of the proposition, or the sense of its making no difference – is the poor level of turnout for referenda and elections - with the exception of Northern Ireland. Here it appears to have been about 35% - the second lowest referendum turnout in the State’s history.

We should never forget that voting is a civic duty and a Christian responsibility. Democrats should always be exercised by the question of turnout. I look at my parents who would never think of not voting, and at my own father in law, who after months in hospital this winter at the age of 86 hauled himself out on crutches to the polling station yesterday to vote assisted by my seven year old son. I worry that what we don’t use we lose: not juridically perhaps, but certainly morally, and in terms of our involvement and influence.

The Nice Treaty Vote – An Act of Profound Selfishness

I personally greet the news of the rejection of the Nice Treaty with utter dismay: not for political reasons, but from the perspective of Christian justice and ecumenism. I have no doubt that our political neighbours and ecumenical partners in Europe will interpret it as an act of profound selfishness on our part. For many years the churches in Europe – our ecumenical co-workers – have sought the justice of an enlarged European household.

I remember that some years ago when I myself was a member of the Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches a Romanian Bishop – Bishop Teofan – said to me that we in Western Europe had replaced the “Iron Curtain” with a “silver curtain” – a barrier of money, and economic privilege around a fortress Europe of a few countries. “Our countries used to prevent us from travelling, now we cannot because of you.”

Yes, of course, the enlargement of the European Union will have its price, but I personally cannot accept the naïve view that now we have milked Europe of all we can, we want selfishly to guard what we have garnered at the cost of excluding others in the same boat in which we once found ourselves. And we surely weren’t so shameful as only to be pro-European as long as the money was coming in?

As I said in the Diocesan Magazine this month I can’t help but feeling that many have of us has come to think of the European movement towards integration and co-operation solely in economic terms. Economic gain and advantage is an undeniably powerful motivation. It is understandable that from time to time our Euro-community life can cause us to narrow our focus on particular issues which are having far-reaching and disturbing consequences in human and national terms. Our awareness of and practical preparation for the advent of the Euro compounds this.

I wonder are we in danger of losing sight of the fact that the European ideal, although it was outwardly economic at first, was and is, in essence, a peace movement - a movement to reconcile, to create friendship, to engender goodwill, to break down barriers of culture, language and detrimental self-interest and to build a peace - a peace that would last. There can be no doubt that this was what, in the main, energised and inspired the parents of the European Movement - Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schumann, and others (some of them at least driven by their Christian faith).

Call to Revisit the aftermath of the McKenna Judgment

Could it not be that the low referendum turnout here was as a result of pure confusion? and far from providing an equilibrium in the flow of arguments, the present approach to a referendum here arising from the McKenna judgment is not the fairness that was clamoured for, but rather the confusion of information, some of it contrived for the sake of political rectitude.

The root of the word “lead” comes from the concept of path, road track or the course of a ship at sea. If we agree that a leader’s role is to in front of people and thereby show them the way forward and to take people with them, then whatever side we have taken in these recent debates, it seems to me that the hands of the people we have democratically chose to lead us are unduly tied by the McKenna judgment of 1995.

I worry that in the pursuit of the appearance of the required balance in the debate, arguments may have been contrived in order to squeeze the pre-referendum process into rigorous adherence to the overly restrictive approach arising from that McKenna judgment.

40th Anniversary of the Building of the Berlin Wall:

In this 40th anniversary year of the (13th August) of the building, in 1961, of the Berlin Wall the enlargement of the European Union would have been a wonderful symbol of the on-doing of that evil of division. Perhaps no structure in modern times has been more symbolic of the pain of institutionalised human division.

Our vocation, in the name of the God who “…has given to us the ministry of reconciliation…” (2 Corinthians 5.18), while reaching out to the mystery of truth, is to become a people who destroy walls and barriers: those put up in peoples’ minds and hearts to shut out others who look different, those with different abilities and perceptions, ways of believing, encountering life and expressing their humanity.

Refugees and Asylum Seekers

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Many will have seen the topical television advertisement identifying as former refugees some of the world’s best-known people in many areas. Jesus Christ himself and his family were refugees. By last year it was reckoned that there are 22.3 million refugees in the world – that is 1 out of every 269 people on earth: clearly a dilemma for humanity of enormous proportions.

It is one of the features of modern Europe too that we still witness scenes of displacement and enforced mobility of people. The cross-fertilisation of cultures and races is more to the fore than ever. In 2000 just fewer than 400,000 asylum seekers lodged applications in 15 European Union states.

We are concerned too and it is our responsibility to find ways to help. In 1992 Ireland only had 39 applications from asylum seekers. By 1998 this had risen to 4630. By the end of 2000 the refugee and asylum seeker population in Ireland had more than doubled to 10,938.

NASC – Irish Immigrant Support Centre

I know that many in the diocese, led by clergy in the parishes, have been reaching out the hand of welcome to newcomers to our island home – to refugees and asylum seekers. For example, 18 months ago I asked the Dean of Cork and Mrs Marie Norton to represent me at a meeting near the Cathedral to set up an Immigrant Support Group. Last Monday night, a sign of practical outreach and Christian responsibility, the Cathedral parish hosted the first birthday of NASC – the Irish Immigrant Support Centre. Taking its name from NASC, the Irish word for “link”, the Centre represents a link between Cork’s immigrant community and Cork’s voluntary and statutory services and aims to work in a developmental way alongside, rather than for immigrants.

As a guest, I met many fascinating people - from Nigeria, Ukraine, the Congo, Belarus, Moscow, Estonia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Uganda (and these were only some of those I met). Present too with many Cathedral parishioners were some of seventy volunteers who voluntarily assist with the integration of newcomers into Irish society, whether by language courses, legal advice and so on.

“I’m going crazy with the idleness” one young man said to me. This was a sentiment echoed by nearly all the others. One wonders why this still has to be so? The challenging question on a Refugee Council website is “Who in the world would you turn to?” I hope that many who have come to our shores will feel able to turn to us in our local situations.

In this visit, as in all my public engagements, I gained valuable insights. I learnt, for example, that the Church is at its most potent locally; that our partnership with other agencies and with voluntary groups in society is immensely prized and respected and that Christians who work out their believing in Christ like service can and do make a difference to the totality of good at work in our community.

Our Responsibility to Do More to Share the European Dilemma of Asylum Seekers

Indeed, the question has, I believe, to be put to us in Ireland as to whether we have as yet begun to do our bit to share adequately in this European wide concern. In this past week we have heard complaints from one town in Ireland that it is being asked to do more than its share. Whether that is so or not I don’t know! But the reality is that together in Ireland, collectively we must pull together to do our share of hospitality – commensurate with our resources and our place within the European household. And that means actively doing more than we have been doing up until now.

To many this is not a welcome or comfortable viewpoint, but I do believe it profoundly. It is not simply a political or social standpoint: it is a Gospel imperative. The Gospel has everything to do with the struggle for a more human and more stable world.

Racism

A corollary of this development in the life of Ireland has to be a consequential battle against racism and xenophobia. Through the media and local knowledge, we have been made fully aware of the dramatic increase in the number of racist incidents here in Ireland. A recent survey carried out by the African Refugee Network in Dublin found that a third of refugees had experienced verbal or physical abuse. As Christians we not only condemn these unreservedly, but we share enormously, the responsibility in working for racial justice.

Uncomfortable as it may make us, we have got to realise that the refugees and asylum seekers who come to our country do not bring racism with them. It is latent in many of us here. Unless we as Christians speak out against racial intolerance we will share in the responsibility

It is not enough to be against racism, we have got to do something about it. For our part, the Diocesan Social Services Committee has been preparing an awareness leaflet for distribution throughout the Diocese. I’m aware too that a partnership of Cork-based statutory, voluntary, community, academic, trade union and business groups have developed a proposal for a City-wide anti-racism initiative with the theme Cork – One City, Many Communities.

In a speech in February 2001, Overseas Development and Human Rights Minister, Liz O'Donnell, T. D., urged young people in Ireland to: "deploy their vigour and idealism to counter racism and intolerance, and become, in effect, human rights defenders here in Ireland". However, this must not be a crusade of the young alone. It’s a cause all need to espouse.

Death Penalty and the International Criminal Court

While the Death Penalty was abolished in Ireland in 1990 the residual possibility of its restitution remained. On Thursday, we voted for the removal from the Constitution of references to the death penalty and the introduction of a Constitutional ban against the death penalty. This is a further significant move, but again I was astonished by the percentage of “no” votes on this matter.

As a student, and ever since, I have been passionate in my belief that the death penalty is always wrong. That this is now to be enshrined in our approach to justice is hugely welcome. Naïve as it may seem, I have always been persuaded by the simple logic of the argument which suggests that “Killing someone in order to show killing is wrong” is perverse. Without trivialising in any way the horror and inhuman consequences of some peoples’ crimes, and the on-going plight of so many victims, I personally deplore the continued use, in some countries of the death penalty. The answer to inhumanity must never be inhumanity nor to repay a low perception of the value on human life with like. As I detest the crimes so too I detest the mechanism of execution such as that vaunted on our television newscasts this very weekend.

In terms of searching for new ways of dealing with horrific crimes, a major development is the International Criminal Court, for which we also voted. In International Law and the protection of human rights it will provide a mechanism to try, in certain defined circumstances, persons charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression worldwide.

The Peace Process in Ireland

Living as closely together as these two islands – Great Britain and Ireland – we cannot but glance sideways at elections there. Of immense import to us, even living at the other end of the island, as we do, is the outcome of the elections in the North of Ireland. We deplore the heinous juxtaposition of the terrorist past of northern Ireland with its peaceful future as manifested in the dastardly shootings at Draperstown.

As we look on we have been alerted to see this, not only as a battle between and within nationalism and unionism, but also as a pronouncement on the Belfast Agreement. Hasty comment would serve no one well. However, indications are that there has been a clear gravitational move in voting to two extremes of the political spectrum. The apparent substantial shift of support from the courageous pro-agreement middle ground as represented by David Trimble who has taken such political risks, is worrying, to say the least.

What the implications are now for the Good Friday Agreement we can only wait to see. Early expert assessment that the Agreement is “under fierce renewed pressure” is very troubling indeed, as the agreement represents the only viable and meaningful way forward for political progress on our island. While determined work is still required on the seemingly intractable aspects of the situation– demilitarisation, decommissioning and policing - walking away from the Agreement cannot be a tolerable option. What is needed now will surely be a determined fight for the Agreement itself.

Euro

As we look forward to the arrival of Euro cash in our wallets, purses and pockets in 2002 I again underline the concern being expressed by many charities and voluntary groups. We do need the message to be carried far and wide in the parishes that a simple pound for euro equivalence in giving will greatly undermine our work and budget. I hope that people, having had so much forewarning of this change, will be able to reflect practically on their giving and to ensure that the Church’s work is not adversely affected. What we need is a process of reflection akin to a diocesan wide stewardship programme in order to prepare for the Euro.

Foot and Mouth Crisis

A matter of days after our annual Clergy Conference on the topic of Being Church in a Rural Diocese these islands and others in Europe were plunged into the stark menace of the present Foot and Mouth Crisis. There was an apt but perverse coincidence in the juxtaposition of the conference theme and the onset of this further threat to the rural context and agricultural framework of much of our economy.

I think the farming community and its dependent hinterland realise that they have had our unqualified solidarity. It has been more than a collective or selfish sense of economic and social vulnerability. There has been, I believe, throughout this crisis, a genuine embrace of urban and rural and a renewed symbiotic sense of interdependence: for that we should be grateful.

Looking Back

Last year we had a special and invigorating programme to mark the Year celebrated universally as the start of a new Millennium. Since the last Diocesan Synod highlights included a Presidential visit to Saint Luke’s Home, the inauguration of the Bishop’s Course in Theology, and our Parish Days in November

Church Matters in the Diocese

Having begun each of my Diocesan Synod addressed so far by looking at issues of wider concern in 1999, my first year, I went on to reflect on the nature of the Church and to signal the sort of Church I should like us to become. Last year, coinciding with our visit to West Cork, I focussed on our character as predominantly a rural Church. This year I wish to look more introspectively at some specific aspects of our being a Diocese.

Episcopal Visitation 2001

The Episcopal Visitation I undertook earlier this year prompts me to this, in part. Following on the review last year by Rural Deans and their advisers of the format of Rural Deans’ Annual Inspections, I decided to initiate a five year process of formal Visitation or survey of the Diocese. This was prepared in December and completed by incumbents and Priests in Charge in the third week of January last.

I am most adamant that this is not simply an exercise in numbers, evaluation, invigilation or supervision. It is about people, ministry and faithfulness to the Gospel in our time. It is part of a process of on-going discernment, introspection and reflection so that we may, with the help of God the Holy Spirit, respond more faithfully to the calling to be disciples of Christ today. To that end, in my oversight as your Bishop, I need, from time to time, to be given an overview. This is a small part of that snapshot.

A have drawn up what is only a numerical summary of the results of that survey. As I covenanted at the time no place or person is identifiable and any comment I make is general in character.

The visitation does challenge and encourage us.

I am encouraged, for example, by the amount of contact we have, even if only occasionally with so many people – such as 6642 adults at Christmas last year. This is something to be grateful for and to build on.

I am challenged by the total number of individuals cited in the returns as 7669. This is over 2000 people less than cited themselves as Church of Ireland at the last census in the State. I wonder why this is so. Have we lost contact with those people? Or is that our system of assessment in the Diocese, whereby a levy is placed on total non-church going population, mitigates against inclusiveness and outreach? Have we become exclusive (and I hope not) in who we exclude from membership? Do we not need to allow people the integrity of their own self-definition and include them on that basis alone?

POWG

The outcome of this Visitation will give us all some very basic information about ourselves as we seek a strategic way forward in our common calling to be faithful in this place to God’s will. The Parish Organisation Working Group, established last year as an advisory group to me as Bishop to look at strategic questions and to envision ways forward, will find the insights helpful too.

For example, looking at the number of people in the Diocese - 7669 – 25% of whom are under 18 years of age – one has to ask questions such as: For how long can we sustain our present pattern of ministry, the current number of Church services and maintain the existing infrastructure? More important, how do we shape and adapt our existing scheme to minister to other people, specifically those who do not belong? What alterations in our form of ministry do we need to make to channel resources into ministry and social concern in other sectors? Then too there is our responsibility to institutions such as our schools, third level colleges, commercial life, voluntary groups and chaplaincies.

It is clear to me that some adaptation in deployment will be needed, and even from a small diocese such as ours, we will have to discover ways of implementing patterns of ministry which go beyond the traditional one of parish priest in local parish.

Reluctant as some may be, we all know that more change is inevitable. Society is changing. In spite of the good times there is a limited pool of money for maintenance of buildings and meeting increasing assessments. There is the on-going strategy of improving the remuneration and conditions for clergy. There are fewer clergy and more multi-parish benefices. More change is inevitable and we will need to be open, flexible and adaptable.

Youth Work Review

Looking at the Visitation we see that nearly 37% of our Diocesan Population is under 30 years of age and 25% under 18. This begs the question about our approach to and investment of time and resources in this sector.

In the past year our Youth Work Review Group has made encouraging progress in its review and work, most notably with the Y Bother event in Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in February. Later this year they will come to us as a Diocese with an analysis, to suggest a way forward and to ask us, how serious we are about engaging in youth ministry in this way.

Survey shows disappointment at Ecumenical Commitment

Even though the ecumenical scenario has vastly changed in Ireland in recent times, it was disappointing to read in my Episcopal Visitation survey of 2001 that there is a sense of despondency among about half the clergy and parishes in the diocese about the progress in and quality of fundamental ecumenical relationships. 46.4%, or almost half, of parishes indicated that such contacts were only average or even bad.

This gives me a sense of priority to renew our energy in this area of our vocation. Our pursuit towards discovering and making manifest that unity which is already Christ’s gift to the Church is not an optional extra, but it is inescapably intrinsic to the Gospel we profess. I, personally, should like to see an increase in bilateral contacts, a long the lines, for example, albeit only in some parts of the Diocese, of groups which met to discuss with local Methodists, the proposed draft covenant between our two churches.

Equipping the Laity

The launch of the Bishop’s Course in Theology was a beginning and a powerful symbol of intent that we should once again put theology within the grasp of lay people. In many ways it is a rescue of theology from the academy and putting it back where it belongs – in the Christian community.

One of the questions in the Episcopal Visitation related to the Ministry of the Laity. Ministry is not the prerogative of Bishops, Priests and Deacons: all the baptised are called to ministry.

In spite of its being said again and again, we clearly have not yet mobilised the potential and creativity of lay people in our Church. Looking at the Episcopal Visitation I was concerned and how little training is available to lay people who are asked to fulfil a variety of ministries.

To this end, I wish to signal my intent to examine, with you, the possibility of inaugurating a course parallel to the Bishop’s Course in Theology, which would equip lay people locally for pastoral ministry. Other similar course already exist in the Church of Ireland, and I have reason to believe that funding would be attainable.

Your Faithfulness

Highlighting the importance of lay ministry, gives me the opportunity once again to underscore the fact that ministry would be impossible without the partnership of all of you, and volunteers like you, in the parishes: on Select Vestries, in Sunday Clubs, music ministry, school Boards, fund-raising, visiting, maintenance, ………the list is endless. And this is the way it should be, for in our baptism we are all recruited as ministers of God.

Saint Luke’s Home, Lapp’s Court, Kingston College

There are many expressions of such ministry in our diocese. Saint Luke’s Home, Lapp’s Court and Kingston College are three facets of our work in this area which give tangible expression to the social outreach and ministry of the Church which can truly be described as diakonia. Indeed in some of our fellow Lutheran churches they would formally be part of the diaconal ministerial departments of the Church. Kingston College is witnessing a major restoration programme at this very time. We are excited too at the prospect of our partnership with the Southern Health Board which will enable a fourth unit of an additional thirty beds at Saint Luke’s Home within the next few years. All of this, and other work like it throughout the diocese, is an expression of our Gospel commitment in action.

Primary School RE

Late last month infant teachers in our primary schools attended a training seminar for the new Primary School Religious Education Curriculum – Here we Go! and On our Way! I welcome the progressive publication of this curriculum; the ecumenical partnership it represents and I congratulate those who have worked on it.

At long last schools are beginning to have available to them the RE curriculum for which they have been crying out with the resources they have specifically asked for. It is magnificently produced with a text book and workbook for each child and a handbook for teachers. In this way RE will also, like other subjects, be carried back and forward from schools to homes in school bags.

As Patron of 18 schools, and in accordance with the expectation of the national primary school curriculum, I wish to underline that this curriculum, as it comes on stream for each age group, should be implemented in all our schools as the mainstay of our Religious Education programme, that Boards of Management should make the necessary resources available and wherever possible parishes, through Select Vestries should partner this implementation.

General Synod 2001

Returning to reflection on General Synod 2001 for a moment as Chairman of the Synodical Structures Working Group, disappointed but not surprised by the Synod’s rejection of our proposals. I believe that although ours was a radical proposal it was even-handed and proportionate in its dealing with each Diocese in the Church of Ireland. I am concerned, therefore, that in the wake of our failure, there should not be some ill-conceived unjust scheme whereby the balance of representation would simply shift to reflect numerical strength in the bigger dioceses. Likewise, I was concerned that the General Synod failed to recognise the need identified by the Bishops, to regulate the existing chaotic situation in relation to Holy Communion for the baptised but unconfirmed. Synod was not, in my view, primarily being asked to legislate for a complete abandonment of current practice, but rather to regulate the present diversity which arises in the normal course of things. As a result it may well be that bishops locally will have to provide their own pastoral guidelines for such situations.

Communication

This year we added a new member to our Diocesan Team. Sybil Fuller was appointed part-time Diocesan Communications’ Officer last August and since then has had a remarkable effect on our work in this area. With her now characteristic turn of phrase and fresh eye on so many things, we come across her work in many publications and media. Sybil we are so glad to have you on board. Thank you for all you do and we hope that you enjoy this new exploration too.

Chancellors

Last Easter Judge J Gerard Buchanan, coincidentally a parishioner of my former parish of Castleknock, who had been Chancellor of the Diocese appointed by Bishop Gordon Perdue decided to retire. In his place I have appointed Mr Lyndon MacCann BL (coincidentally a former parishioner of Castleknock – continuing the tradition!) as Chancellor. In both these people, the former and the new, we have been fortunate to have people for whom I also have the highest regard. In them we have trusted friends, people whose professional expertise we can rely on and who are understanding fellow-pilgrims in the faith. I thank them, Judge Buchanan for all he has done and been, and Lyndon MacCann for accepting this appointment.

Diocesan Registrar

As I reflect on the legal side of our Diocesan family, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to our former Diocesan Registrar – John Bennett Jermyn, who died on 22nd February. He succeeded his father John Jermyn who had been Diocesan Registrar since 1914 on 23rd October 1947 and served ably and faithfully until November 1980 when he was succeeded by his son, our Diocesan Registrar today Mr John Jermyn. In offering our sincere sympathy to John Jermyn and his family, we record our thanks and indebtedness for all the assistance and backup so readily given by our Diocesan Registrar, especially to me as Bishop.

The Very Reverend Maurice Carey

The death took place on 20th April last of the Very Reverend Maurice Carey, who was Dean of Cork from 1971 until 1993. For my part I knew him from my days as a member of the choir, as an encourager to me in ministry, as a colleague on the Liturgical Advisory Committee and more recently as my partner in Broadcasting Training Seminars for those about to do Sunday Services on RTE radio. We remember him with affection today and give thanks to God for his faithful ministry not only in this Diocese but throughout the Church.

Deployments

Since last Diocesan Synod the Reverend David Armstrong was instituted to the incumbency of Carrigaline Union, and the Reverend Eithne Lynch to Kilmoe Union. Canon Hilary Wakeman retired from the fulltime stipendiary ministry and the Reverend Lionel Mackey resigned from the Incumbency of Templebreedy Group. During the year Richard Dring, Walter Hill, David Syms, John Tanner and Pamela Wood were licensed as Diocesan Readers.

The new scheme for Sabbatical leave for clergy has now been tried and tested - appropriately in the first instance by the Archdeacon. I take this opportunity to thank him for his indefatigable energy, faithfulness and willingness as Archdeacon – a most demanding and responsible role in any diocese. We are truly blessed with our Archdeacon! Canon Michael Burrows, rector of Bandon Union is the next candidate for Sabbatical leave and we wish him a fruitful and recreating time this year. [We will miss your three months’ notes in the Diocesan Magazine!] At this point too we have three ordinands in training for ordained ministry at the Church of Ireland Theological College.

In-Service training

I am grateful to parishes who have supported so generously the Bishop’s Ministry Fund. Through your assistance I am beginning to be able to create a fund which has a meaningful potential for in-service training of clergy in particular. As I meet friends in other walks of life I detect the seriousness of the approach in other sectors to the on-going training of workers and employees.

We have not yet, I fear, (and we need urgently to do so) created a model of practice in the Church which provides adequately for the on-going training and retraining of our clergy and Church workers. Ministry has such a multi-faceted scope that no one person can adequately embrace, yet alone keep up to date, with all the skills and insights necessary to fulfil the work in hand.

Ms Maud Levis

At the end of September Maud Levis will retire from her position of responsibility in Beara Union which she has fulfilled so conscientiously and faithfully. This is Maud’s last Diocesan Synod in this position. I know of the admiration we all hold for her as someone who embarked on such an innovative approach in that area of the diocese. And I know too that on all your behalf, I extend to her our love, sincerest thanks and warmest good wishes for her retirement.

Retired Clergy

This year I want to make a special tribute to a group of people on whom we rely so utterly week by week. I feel guilty that this is so. Without them, as things stand, we would not be able to keep the show on the road. I speak of the retired clergy….

Diocesan Office

I reserve my last word of thanks and the prime position of resounding punctuation on this address for our wonderful friends in the Diocesan Office. To Wilfred Baker as Diocesan Secretary, and to Ruby Veitch as assistant I say “I don’t know where we would be without you!” We are thankful that Ruby has once again recovered from a bout in hospital. Wilfred is juggles a huge portfolio of roles on our behalf and he does so with immense conscientious, effectiveness and thoroughness. How fortunate indeed we are! Thank you for all you are and do.

Conclusion

Friends in Christ, we share a vocation together as disciples of Jesus Christ in the 21st Century.

The great composer Rachmaninov once said:

I am myself only in music.
Music is enough for a whole lifetime –
But a lifetime is not enough for music.

In that sense of calling, privilege and dedication we can see our own role and raison d’être as Christians today.

We are in this Diocesan Synod today in faithfulness to that irrepressible allegiance and we entrust our proceedings to the mystery, leadership and guidance of God the Holy Trinity.

[i] Oakley, Mark The Collage of God DLT London 2001
[ii] Gladwin, John Love and Liberty DLT London 1998