Diocesan News
Bishop of Clogher speaks of importance of connections
The Bishop of Clogher, the Right Revd Dr Ian Ellis, has spoken of the importance of staying connected with each as society moves forward during the easing of lockdowns from the Covid–19 pandemic.
Bishop Ellis, giving his first address at a Service of Holy Communion in St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, on Sunday, 2nd May, said if they are to have a healthy church, then the members should relate to one another.
Recalling how people had used the internet to keep connected during the lockdowns of the past year, Bishop Ellis wondered if people were really having proper connected lives.
“Might we be able to be better connected?” he asked, “and are people talking to their neighbours?”
He felt the lockdowns had caused people to become more atomised and fragmented.
Bishop Ellis said fewer social contacts had led to increased isolation and loneliness for some, yet at the same time the pandemic had brought out some good things in human nature such as more volunteering for foodbanks.
He said that in rural areas such as Clogher Diocese, they were quite well–connected and they had neighbourliness values but they must still continue their duty to their neighbours and learn again to invest more time in those who are near them.
“Spending time with people as we open out of lockdown will be so important. As those restrictions ease, as people of faith, we should resolve to do better to develop sustained caring relationships and to find new ways of connecting with communities in authentic and relevant ways. It is about being connected to Christ and about being connected to others,” said Bishop Ellis.
He continued: “Sometimes we have to discipline ourselves to produce growth in our faith and that will mean perhaps more time in Bible study, in prayer, in a creative use of silence and how we reflect upon our lives. These things we can do to cultivate our closeness and our abiding in Jesus Christ.”
He said God did not create people to live isolated and individual lives. They were the branches of a vine and not individual shoots or stems and needed to be connected together. They needed the strengths of one another, to be part of the universal church and connected to those who are equally connected to Christ.
Bishop Ellis continued: “As churches begin to rebuild, rebuilding our connection with one another is going to be so important and we must put a high priority on getting our people to come back to corporate worship again when they are ready to do that.
“We should be encountering Christ in every experience we meet, seeing him in the needy, the poor and bearing witness with him in every context by our words, actions and attitudes.”
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Clogher
07708 869823
Mr Brian Donaldson
clogherdco@btinternet.com