Diocesan News
Bishops address reconciliation event in Omagh
Two North West bishops were praised at a reconciliation event in Omagh on Monday evening for the inspiration they were providing to the community in their own dioceses and beyond.
Bishop Ken Good and Bishop Donal McKeown were the main guests at ‘Stepping Out in Faith: two bishops in conversation about their shared work and witness in the North West.’
Around fifty people from various faith backgrounds attended the discussion, in the Tara Centre. It was organised by Omagh Churches’ Forum in partnership with Fermanagh and Omagh District Council’s Good Relations Department.
During the evening, the two main guests talked in detail about the close friendship that had evolved between them during their time as neighbouring bishops, and their conscious commitment to work together publicly as often as possible.
Last year the pair walked from St Columba’s birthplace in Gartan to Derry, and went on pilgrimage together to the saint’s resting place in Iona. They also undertook joint walks from Claudy to Strabane and from Limavady to Glenullin.
Bishop Good spoke to the audience on Monday evening about his concerns for legacy. He said this week, Christians would be celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple to Simeon and Anna. Simeon had left a ‘Kingdom legacy’ in the words he had spoken: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation,” [Luke 2:29–30].
“My concern,” Bishop Good said, “is the Kingdom legacy of faith, the legacy of inspiration, the legacy of encouragement, the legacy of example. What will people say about you in years and generations to come, after you’re no longer here and I’m no longer here?”
Bishop Good said he had been wondering about the legacy he and Bishop Donal – as church leaders – would leave. “Leaders are called to have an influence and make an impact in ways that make a difference. Our lives shouldn’t be preoccupied by, ‘Oh, what will people think of me?’ The issue is: ‘Am I making an impact for Christ in these days that I am alive and living and able to do these things; is Christ being honoured by what I’m doing; is his Kingdom being advanced through what I am saying; and will people be drawn towards him or pushed away from him because of the way I live?”
Both bishops acknowledged the work and inspiration of two of their predecessors – Bishop Edward Daly and Bishop James Mehaffey – who had been jointly–awarded the Freedom of Derry for their joint witness.
Am I making an impact for Christ …; is Christ being honoured by what I’m doing; is his Kingdom being advanced through what I am saying; and will people be drawn towards him or pushed away from him because of the way I live?
Bishop McKeown recounted some of the things he and Bishop Good had done together “in order to give encouragement to civic society”. He said they would come to anything they had done together from their shared conviction in the importance of the Gospel but also because they were standing on the shoulders of those who had gone before them.
The two bishops were conscious of being in Omagh almost 20 years after the bomb which claimed the lives of 29 people there, and both of them spoke of the importance of forgiveness. “Everyone is blessed by forgiveness,” Bishop McKeown said, “and sometimes the challenge is for people to forgive themselves.”
Bishop Good said during a visit to an area in Africa where hundreds and maybe even thousands of people had been massacred, he had been struck by the apparent ability of Christian families and communities to forgive the horrendous things that had been perpetrated. “They were taught it was part of their duty – their Christian responsibility – to forgive,” Bishop Good said, “and I do think, maybe – this is an uncomfortable thing to say – in this part of the world, we can sometimes justify ‘unforgiveness’ and excuse it, ‘Ah, well, it doesn’t really apply in this situation’, but it does.”
Bishop McKeown spoke about the obligation on Christians to forgive others. “Archbishop Desmond Tutu has a book on the Peace and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa in which he made a point. He said, in the West we tend to work on the basis of the philosophy of Descartes: ‘I think, therefore I am’. He says there is a phrase in African culture called ‘Ubuntu’, that says ‘I belong, therefore I am’. And therefore, the rebuilding of relationships is about knitting up the wounds in our society and you are obliged to do that. The emphasis is on community, and your duty to community, to heal the wounds.’
The bishops told the Omagh Churches’ Forum that if there was anything they could do together – such as another joint Walk of Witness – to help heal the wounds in the town after the 1998 bombing, they would be honoured to help.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Derry & Raphoe
Mr Paul McFadden
028 7126 2440
07525 826290
press@derryandraphoe.org