Diocesan News
Donegal Schools Service
The phrase ‘rubbish sermon’ took on a whole new meaning in Ramelton Presbyterian Church on Thursday morning when Archdeacon David Huss emptied a bin full of trash in front of around 500 children and teachers to illustrate his address on the theme of ‘God’s Creation’.
Children from more than 30 schools under Presbyterian or Church of Ireland patronage were bussed in from every part of the county – from Ballyshannon in the south west to the tip of Inishowen – to take part in the Service of worship and praise. The Service was led by the Moderator of the Derry and Donegal Presbytery, the Rev Colin McKibbin, and the Archdeacon of Raphoe gave the address.
For the Rector of Donegal Group of Parishes, it was an opportunity to get creative with ‘creation’. Archdeacon Huss used a large, inflatable globe to illustrate the First Reading, ‘God’s Creation’, from the Book of Genesis. It was an unusual globe, Archdeacon Huss said, because it didn’t show any cloud over Donegal. He told the children that we had an amazing universe, an amazing planet and an amazing world – made by a great God who wanted us to help look after this world. “What a brilliant plan,” the preacher said, “a good world made by a good God and looked after by good people. But is it always like that? Or has something gone wrong?”
After the second reading – ‘The Fall’ from Leviticus, 25: 1–7 – Archdeacon Huss said humans had pushed God to one side and tried to make themselves little rulers of the world, trying to do things their way and not God’s. “And guess what?”, he said, “it doesn’t work.” It messed up all our relationships – with God, with the world, and even with ourselves.
“You see, what we’ve done is taken a brilliant world and made a mess of it: we fill our streets with rubbish, our seas with plastic, our air with fumes and our hearts with bitterness, anger and hatred.”
Archdeacon Huss stunned the congregation by emptying a bin full of rubbish at the front of the church to illustrate his point. “It’s a sad state of affairs,” he said. “Can we clean up the world?” He invited three pupils to join him at the front of church to pick up rubbish and put it back in the bin.
There were some great things we could do, he said, to clean up our part of the world: “Use the car less; pick up rubbish; use less packaging; be happy with an old phone rather than getting a new one; tidying up the seashore; planting trees. Maybe some of you will become scientists who will come up with great ideas to clean the oceans or do better recycling or make greener electricity and so on.”
The third and final reading, ‘New Creation’, came from the Book of Revelation. The Bible had a message of hope, not despair, the preacher said, and human hearts could be fixed. When Jesus rose from the dead, it was the beginning of a whole new chapter for the world.
“So, as I finish, what should we do?” Archdeacon Huss asked. “First, have care. We need to look after this world – it really counts. It’s important, it’s precious, it’s God’s great creation.
“Second, have hope. We don’t despair. We don’t say: ‘It’s all doomed’! Planet Earth is finished. No, there is hope! Have hope, and work on good, sensible ways of doing what God made us to do: care for creation. And all the time, remember that God is in control and he has good plans.
“Thirdly,” Archdeacon Huss said, “have faith. The number one thing is: believe in Jesus. If we want to live the right way in the world, we need to look to the one who made the world and saved the world. He loves us, he cares for us, he died for us. Let’s give our lives to him.”
As children left the church, classes were given their now traditional ‘goody bags’. This year, though, the usual plastic bags were replaced with recyclable bags containing – among other things – packs of daffodil bulbs which pupils were urged to plant to make their schools more beautiful.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Derry & Raphoe
Mr Paul McFadden
028 7126 2440
07525 826290
press@derryandraphoe.org