Diocesan News
Brexit unsettles delegates at border Synod
The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe has urged the parties at Stormont to be heroic and redouble their efforts to get the political institutions up and running again. The Rt Revd Ken Good was delivering his Presidential Address at the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Synod in Donegal.
Delegates met in An Grianán Hotel in Burt, three miles from the border and five months from the UK’s scheduled departure from the EU. The lack of a devolved administration in Northern Ireland would be regrettable in normal circumstances, the Bishop said, but with Brexit looming it had become an embarrassment. And the longer Northern Ireland’s political institutions remained collapsed, the harder he feared it would be to get them up and running again.
“We have the enormous problem of climate change,” Bishop Good said in his Presidential Address, “and the cataclysmic events that accompany it. We have the reality of a changing world order, with all the uncertainty that that brings. We have had radical social change in the Republic, perhaps symbolized by the outcome of the abortion referendum. And then there’s Brexit, the lack of clarity around which is an on–going source of uncertainty on both sides of the border in this diocese.”
The one area where, at first glance, the Bishop said, there seemed to have been little change was in Northern Ireland, where the promise of recent years had dissipated and we were experiencing what he called “the political equivalent of locked–in syndrome”. Bishop Good sought inspiration from a conflict elsewhere in the world to encourage local politicians.
“The late Nelson Mandela said, ‘It is so easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build.’ I urge the parties at Stormont to be heroic, to redouble their efforts to have the political institutions restored, and to behave in a manner which restores our faith in the body politic.”
With the UK scheduled to leave the European Union in just over 150 days’ time, it was far from clear what would happen afterwards, the Bishop said. “We don’t know if it will be a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, perhaps, even, a blind Brexit? Will there be a hard border just three miles up the road or will it be a soft border? Will Brexit deliver the kind of prosperity its advocates promised or will it prove to be the economic catastrophe its opponents predicted? Five months to go, and nobody really knows. It would appear we aren’t the only people in the ‘faith’ business.”
I urge the parties at Stormont to be heroic, to redouble their efforts to have the political institutions restored, and to behave in a manner which restores our faith in the body politic.
The Bishop commended the Irish government for its stewardship of the Irish economy and for achieving results that he said were the envy of the rest of Europe. But, he said, a civilised society was judged by the way it treated its most vulnerable – the young, the sick, the elderly, the poor and the homeless. He urged the government not to forget the least fortunate in our society and specifically – where homelessness was concerned – to meaningfully address the provision of affordable social housing and ensure that there was adequate emergency accommodation available.
Bishop Good highlighted one other issue about which he said Church members could make a real and significant difference – loneliness. “I don’t want to trivialise the issue,” he said, “or underestimate its crushing impact, but we can all help address the problem – right away – by making contact with a neighbour; by speaking to someone who lives on their own; by calling someone on the telephone or having a cup of tea with them; by being more thoughtful. Small gestures like these can make a huge difference to people’s lives, giving comfort, encouragement and reassurance to those who need it.”
In other Synod business, the Rector of St Augustine’s, the Rev Canon Malcolm Ferry, talked about a “state of crisis” in Northern Ireland’s schools which, he said, were the poor relative when spending was compared with that in the rest of the UK.”
The next generation was also on the mind of the new chair of Derry and Raphoe Youth (DRY), the Rev Peter Ferguson, who said it was time to seek renewal, to look up and believe. “In our society, with the breakdown in community and between the generations, the church family as the whole people of God has a counter cultural voice and role to play. In DRY and in our diocese we want to be a catalyst in this approach – a cross–generational approach – where every member of our Diocese has a role to play.”
The concept of ‘church family’ has taken on an even broader definition for more than a dozen parishes which have opted to forge ‘living links’ with parishes in the Kenyan Diocese of Butere. Raphoe is among the parishes which will be involved but in the meantime it will be launching an ambitious campaign to renovate the Cathedral Church of St Eunan in Raphoe. The Dean, the Very Revd Arthur Barrett, and the Select Vestry estimate they’ll need €650,000 to complete their ‘Renovation Project 2020’, most of which they hope to raise through a fund–raising campaign.
Finally, the Dioceses of Derry and Raphoe have agreed to hold a ‘Hospice Sunday’ in the next couple of months when collections will be taken up in all churches to support the work of the Foyle Hospice in Londonderry and Donegal Hospice in Letterkenny.
The full text of the Bishop’s Presidential Address is available here.
More photos are available on the Derry and Raphoe Flickr website.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Derry & Raphoe
Mr Paul McFadden
028 7126 2440
07525 826290
press@derryandraphoe.org