The Church of Ireland
Diocesan Press Release

Strangely, the Manhattan massacre didn’t need heavy weaponry and tons of semtex. People became pawns of the meticulous and ruthless planners; and planes laden with fuel became massive incendiary bombs. The one new factor was the impact of ‘suicide terrorists’ who, out of hatred, a burning sense of injustice or brainwashing from childhood, were prepared to sacrifice their own lives in their perceived ‘holy war against the oppressors’. They have proved that people prepared for total self-sacrifice can have a huge influence upon others and their relationships around this shrinking world. Jesus died an unjust and tortured death, but he did so because of God’s self-giving love for the world and its inhabitants. He died that others might live, and love and experience an eternal quality of life. Others out of love have followed his example in a death to selfishness, or even facing death itself to save the lives of others.

But terrorism is quite devoid of love. It has no regard for the sanctity of God-given life. Fear is its self-expressed weapon, allied to resultant anger and the thirst for revenge, which serve the terrorists’ purpose in escalating the conflict. The Bible says clearly that vengeance is for God alone and not for us. For those with a Christian conscience, any punishment or retaliation, even by those with the authority or the power to administer it, must be within the context of justice and proven guilt. For example, the spectre of any indiscriminate attack involving the already starving and fleeing population of Afghanistan would be quite horrific. For that matter, the killing of more innocents anywhere would put us on a par with the terrorists and would simply add oxygen to their conflagration. As St John’s first letter puts it "There is no fear in love" and "love drives out fear". When in St Paul’s words we in Ulster have remained "rooted and grounded in love", we have seen the truth and proof of this many times over the last thirty years. A case in point was the funeral in Kilkeel of Ronnie Hill, at which I was asked to speak by his wife Noreen. Her thirteen years of loving care for her husband, in a coma since the Enniskillen bombing, has demonstrated an astonishing lack of bitterness and determined prayer for all concerned in that terrible event.

Again this year there have been times in this province of Ulster when there has been burning, intimidation, vandalism and unwarranted attacks on those serving in the police. It serves no purpose other than to destabilise society. It is vicious, it is sinful, and those who do it, and those who plan or provoke it, will face their day of reckoning and reap their just reward. In our present circumstances of continuing political uncertainty it is still my fervent prayer that, whatever our personal or party political preferences may be, we do not lose the obvious benefits of a locally elected assembly and executive, and an effective police service, both of which will be in a real sense inclusive and directly answerable to the people of Northern Ireland.

We still have a combined governmental and world-wide commitment to support our democratic will for peace. There is still time for all those committed to democracy, justice and peace to see that it happens. This means (1) to honour agreements and pledges; (2) to provide information and take the actions necessary to uncover the arsenals and make murderers amenable to the law: (3) to stand together against terrorism of word or deed from any source; (4) to encourage and confirm all politicians prepared to forge much-needed relationships of trust and co-operation; (5) to take personal steps in allowing God to help us build the new peace-based society for which we long; (6) and to recognise the Biblical truth that if we genuinely seek first the Kingdom of God these things will naturally follow.

I thank God for the resilience and patient leadership that has been shown in our diocesan area throughout the year promoting moderation, good neighbourliness and quietly negotiated agreement. There are real signs of hope, founded upon the trust, the self discipline and the mutual respect that Christian faith and character creates. This sense of self-discipline and care for neighbours has thankfully overflowed in the farming community in coping with the all-pervasive threat of Foot and Mouth disease, since the first outbreak in Ireland in Co Armagh. There has been a considerable determination to "Live and work by the Book"; in other words to heed the Biblical injunctions of loving God and our neighbours as ourselves, and of being genuine stewards of His creation; and of living within the Department of Agriculture books of guidelines laid down by governments north or south of the border. Fortress farming has been tough and lonely, but we trust that the deprivation suffered by all in the farming industry, the tourism industry, and in many other dependent businesses will turn out to have been a price worth paying for the long-term good of all who live in this island.

Now all of this leads me to the word PARTNERSHIP. Life and mission and ministry are all about relationships. Life is not simply about your and my existence, it is about how we relate to God, to each other and to God’s creation. Partnership has been fundamental to my approach to ministry, whether in individual pastoral care, in all the relationships of a parish, and of course in the formation, growth and spiritual maturing of a diocesan family and team in mission and ministry.

I’ve been fortunate enough for that sense of family to have been instilled in my life at a very early age. Our home had an open door to anyone of any Christian denomination, of any faith, of any political bent, or indeed of none. They were all treated as family if they came to stay; and as a child no matter what their class, colour or creed, I automatically call them auntie or uncle. You met them with an open eye, an open heart, and shared with them the love that Jesus had shown to you. Simple, and the most effective introduction to evangelism. As used to be said, "Christianity is caught rather than taught".

I owe the Church of Ireland, and indeed the wider Christian flock, a huge debt of gratitude for the opportunities given to me. To be sent as a church representative to the World Council of Churches 1983 Vancouver Assembly, after a European preparatory conference in Vienna, was a revelation. The conference language in Vienna was English, but only two of us spoke and wrote it as our mother tongue. I met 60 delegates ranging from the Orthodox Churches from Russia to Greece, and every other Protestant church from Eastern as well as Western Europe, most for the first time. The Vancouver Assembly simply magnified the experience to a thousand delegates with a six language translation system and a huge administrative, communications and press corps. We had three weeks to worship, to listen, to speak, to draft our thinking and to report back. The challenge and pressure of such partnership was immense.

As I was elected from that assembly to serve on the WCC Central Committee, and did so for ten years including the Canberra Assembly in 1991, this provided endless opportunities to help develop understanding among the Christian churches, and to be part of inter-church delegations to places where history was being made either in conflict or in revolution. It took me into Berlin two years before the Wall was torn down. It took me in a fleet of fifteen buses filled with members of Christian churches into the Kremlin in Moscow, when Gorbachev was at his height, glasnost and perestroika (opening heart and mind; restructuring life and society) were the new philosophies, and the churches and seminaries were reopening their doors. It even took me to Buenos Aires some months after the Falklands war, trying to help establish new lines of communication between the countries at war, sharing the experiences of ‘mothers of the disappeared’, and speaking and preaching to Anglican and German Lutheran congregations further afield.

This kind of experience became invaluable as I became more and more involved on home ground with the Irish Council of Churches and the Irish Inter-Church Meeting (commonly known as Ballymascanlon), and the latter gathering is made up of representatives of all the Irish Churches. Not surprisingly, this made it both natural and easy to pick up the relationship that my predecessor in Clogher, Bishop Gordon McMullan, had formed with Bishop Joseph Duffy. That has become a friendship that I value deeply. The annual Christmas Message, which we have sent to the diocese each year throughout my time, was quite hard work at first. But as our friendship grew, and mutual trust was established, we began to realise that what we thought we were saying was not always what the other was hearing. This is how you learn what the real differences are, and indeed what the areas of agreement are, between Christians of different denominations. Being someone’s enemy simply hardens people’s hearts, being friends who trust each other can open hearts to a deeper and a shared understanding of the love of Christ. In that relationship of partnership Christ has a chance to change us both.

This idea of partnership was also important in developing the work of the Western Education and Library Board, of which I was a member for ten years. In the mid-eighties the political temperature was still high, but there were some rays of hope. When the current four year cycle ended I was asked if I was prepared to enter an agreement to alternate the Chair and Vice Chair positions with someone from ‘the other side of the house’. I think I was seen as non-political with experience of the whole area, having served for twenty-one years in Derry Diocese before coming to Enniskillen. After some discussion I said yes, and chaired the first two years of each of the following two four-year boards. What interested me most was that after the first board experiment, it was decided by the membership next time round that the same system should be used throughout the WELB committees, and that preparation should where possible be shared by the Chair and Vice-Chair. Since the church representatives (both Transferors and Trustees) often found they had common cause in debates, that really strengthened the sense of partnership for the good of the community at large.

We of course within our own Church setting have found that partnership is the answer in virtually every sphere. In 1987 we began to raise our sights above the horizon of Clogher Diocese or of Ireland to other parts of the world. It was Bishop Misaeri Kauma and his wife Geraldine who came from Uganda and kindled the fire of Christian partnership, and it was young people from this diocese who began to break the mould. Five went out to Kiwoko Hospital and other projects that year, and we have never looked back. Around a hundred people have come or gone as mission partners since then, with the three-phase Karimoja millennium project just completed this year. We’ve been breaking down barriers between countries and cultures, between ordained and lay partners, between men and women, between young and not so young! It’s been an endless adventure, and this year four members of rectory households have been away from home. Rebecca Heyhoe has spent a year out with the Church Army in England. Her younger sister Sarah has been with a SAMS group in Paraguay this summer. And Canon John Hay and son Jonathan spent five weeks in India and Nepal exploring possible areas of mission partnership there. This is particularly interesting when our present Mission Resource Person in Ireland is the Rev Charles Irwin from India, who will be sharing plans and possibilities with out Board of Mission next month, and would love to spend a diocesan evening with many of all ages soon.

It is interesting to see so many walls breaking down within our churches. Do you remember Paul’s words to Galatians, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Although having different functions there is now a much closer partnership between ordained and lay members. There is a shared sense of ministry. This is emphasised by the responsibility now in the hands of Church Army Officers, of our invaluable diocesan lay readers, and our growing number of parish readers (a venture that was only launched here on St Patrick’s Day five years ago). In the Church of Ireland men and women are both now welcome at all levels of ministry. When I accompanied Mrs Hannon to the GFS World Council in South Africa in 1999, we shared Holy Communion with 3000 GFS members in Umtata Diocese; we also heard Dr Nelson Mandela say to their leaders and to Mothers’ Union members - ‘The churches provided education for black Africans, so that all could work for the creation of the new South Africa. Now we need a crusade in which you, members of the women’s organisations must join, a crusade for the equality of women and men in African society. You women form a majority in our congregations, but you go to your general vestries and you vote for men to make the decisions. Go to your vestries and vote in able women too!’ I’m thankful that even in our conservative society equality is just beginning to peep over the horizon.

On my episcopal successor’s desk in the new See House in Fivemiletown will be a fascinating document headed "Summit on Ministry, September 2002". Every diocese in the Church of Ireland will be represented at the Conference and its headings are:

The reality of ministry now.

The international and ecumenical context for ministry in the Church of Ireland.

What a challenge, and what an opportunity! After my theme this morning it is interesting to note the final sentence - The five representatives from your diocese should represent an age and gender balance and include two lay members of Diocesan Council or Synod. So you could be there!

I must end with a warm word of thanks to you all for your prayers, your support, your hard work, and your friendship. I think of all our parishes and those caring for them; the Select Vestries, Churchwardens, Glebewardens, Select Vestries, Secretaries, Treasurers and members; the vergers, sextons and caretakers; the organists, choirs and all musicians; and of course you the clergy, the readers at all levels, the Church Army officers; the Rural Deans with their varied responsibilities and opportunities; The Dean, Precentor and chapter of our cathedrals; there are too those who serve on School Management Committees, or as governors or trustees; all the Diocesan Council and Committee members, each with their chairperson and secretary; there are the General Synod representatives and your our Diocesan Synod members; diocesan and parochial nominators; and our Registrar, and of course I’d better not forget the Representatives on the Episcopal Electoral College, who have waited sixteen years to get their opportunity to act.

My final thanks are to that core staff group without whom the diocese simply would not function; our Diocesan Secretary; our Diocesan Accountant and our Archdeacon. When I came to the diocese the then Archdeacon Leonard Skuce had a firm hand on the affairs of the diocese, which included being both Diocesan Secretary and Diocesan Treasurer. At Diocesan Synod in 1982 he was clearly very ill, and not many weeks later he died. We felt deeply for his wife and family, but also for Bishop Gordon McMullan and the diocese. He needed three officers to fill positions that were clearly too much for one person. He nominated Canon Victor Forster as his Archdeacon, the Rev Thomas Moore as Diocesan Secretary and the Rev Victor McKeon as Diocesan Treasurer. Archdeacon Forster served admirably until his retirement in 1989, when I asked Canon Cecil Pringle to take on that responsibility. My own conclusion is that two bishops chose remarkably well. Two of these men have served the diocese in their present posts for 19 years and one for 12 years. None of these responsibilities is easy and none are designed to make you popular, but their duties have been carried out meticulously, conscientiously and effectively. The secretariat is as good as it could be, in so far as we make our returns when requested. Our diocesan finances are as strong as any diocese in the Church of Ireland, and Mr Ivan Beacom is being trained into the job. And the Archdeacon, well on top of many pressures, he even took on a Rural Deanery that had to be reorganised with Diocesan Review decisions coming on stream over the last year. This threesome have been totally dependable, trustworthy and true; and I don’t know what I and we would have done without them. Let’s along with thanks to all of you, let’s thank them now for jobs faithfully and well done!

I started and, my friends at last I’ve finished.