Welcome to this meeting of the Diocesan Synod, and may I thank you all for coming to this venue for the day.

By the time he died in 1227, the great Mongol warrior and ruler Genghis Khan controlled vast areas of the world, from the Persian Gulf up to Southern Russia in the west, right across Asia and most of China to the Pacific Coast in the east. There was a plan to extend further east, across the sea to the so-called land where the sun comes from. A huge fleet of ships set sail from what is now the Korean peninsula and headed for Japan. It wasn’t far – about the same distance as the Cork/Swansea crossing. The Japanese knew they were coming, but could do little about it.

Half way across, the invasion fleet was hit by a monstrous typhoon, the fleet was destroyed and Japan escaped. Genghis Khan’s hordes never came back. The Japanese regarded that typhoon as a sign of divine intervention, so they called it “the Divine Wind”. The Japanese word is “kamikaze”. We’ve heard that word before. The Divine Wind pilots of the Second Word War, in a last-minute suicidal attempt to ward off another invasion, flew their loaded aircraft onto the decks of American battleships and aircraft carriers. Some of them survived the war because it ended before it was their turn to go. One of them eventually became a bishop in our church in Japan. He succeeded the last American bishop of Okinawa in 1970. Life takes the most astonishing twists and turns for some people.

I couldn’t help thinking of them in the light of the dramatic increase in suicide bombings in recent weeks. The suicide bombers are the successors of the kamikaze pilots, and are causing havoc. The mightiest military machine in human history can do very little about it. They live in the shadows, they know no national boundaries, and they can appear almost at will, where and when they choose. In the so-called war on terror, Afghanistan has been bombed back into the Stone Age, the Butcher of Baghdad has been overthrown, and yet these people are still there.

There are all sorts of implications for the future ordering of world affairs. Because very small groups of determined people have easy access to instruments of enormous destructive power, democracies can no longer function by the simple and rather blunt method of “majority rule”. There was a time when the will of the majority held sway, and minorities could be safely ignored because it was easy to keep them in their place. That no longer applies, because even very small minorities have the means to make their voices heard and their presence felt.

But there is more to it than the simple re-distribution of power. The worldwide public reaction to the Gulf War Part II shows that people are more and more insistent that the use of power must be subject to the moral requirements of justice rather than political or economic interests. The argument that Saddam Hussein was a wicked man who had to be got rid of rings very hollow. He was never anything else, yet for years the very powers that overthrew him had supported, armed and funded his wickedness because it was in their interests to do so. It may be difficult to prove, but the impersonal and ruthless pursuit of political and economic interests, and the incomprehensible desperation of the suicide bomber are connected.

There is a much greater awareness of the inter-relatedness of the whole human family, and where even a small part of it suffers injustice and oppression, all of us are diminished. The public reaction to the defeat of Saddam Hussein is significantly muted. Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops were slaughtered in Part I of the Gulf war. The details that came to light in subsequent years are horrendous. Large numbers of civilians, women and children, perished as well. It was done at the expense of a couple of hundred coalition lives (and most of them were caused by friendly fire). This was followed by twelve years of punitive sanctions that caused the deaths of many thousands of civilians, and damaged everybody except the guilty. As a result, not many people want to dance in the streets throwing their hats in the air. Far from wanting to shout “thank God, we’ve won”, the mood is more sombre, and so it should be. It’s as if people are saying to themselves, “What have we done?”. The Archbishop of Canterbury was quite right when he said that he did not want to take part in any victory celebrations. He wants it to be marked by a memorial service.

There was widespread unease in this country at the government’s seemingly uncritical willingness to let Shannon Airport be used by the United States in pursuit of its military objectives in Iraq. I have no idea how many dollars changed hands in that transaction, but I would be very surprised if the Irish exchequer was one cent out of pocket. There is little to be gained by raking over the past, but something might be retrieved if every penny of profit were devoted to the reconstruction of Iraq. We are all interconnected.

It’s not just Iraq that poses a moral challenge. Over thirty years ago the United Nations set a Development Assistance target of 0.7% of GNP for member countries. Ireland, like most member countries, has yet to come anywhere near that goal. In September 2000, the Irish Government set 2007 as the deadline by which that target would be reached. That noble intention lasted for less than two years. In mid-2002, the Minister of Finance announced that Euro 46 million was to be cut from the overseas development aid budget. We are not the only ones to cut back on our pledges. Numerous world summits, notably the so-called G8 summits, during the 1990s set the symbolic year 2000 as the date by which world poverty and debt would be, if not completely eradicated, then certainly significantly changed for the better. The goal has now been adjusted to 2015. In the meantime, 1.2 billion people have to make do with less than Euro 1 per day. To add insult to injury, it is from the countries where most of these people die that we, mostly through the agency of the World Bank and the IMF, are making very handsome profits on interest repayments on loans. Ah yes, is the reply, but that’s not our fault. It’s their corrupt governments who are lining their pockets with these loans. That’s a very convenient conscience-saver. Yes there are corrupt regimes, and you don’t have to go all the way to Timbuktu to find them. But they are by no means all corrupt, but they are all desperately struggling.

What is even more crippling than debt is the huge trade imbalance between the developed and the developing world. For every dollar given in development aid, seven dollars are given in agricultural and other subsidies within our own club to keep our prices right. According to Christian Aid, the figures stand at $50 billion in aid, and $350 billion in subsidising ourselves. Those on the outside simply cannot break into markets as heavily protected as that.

Turning to domestic matters, two important items are on our agenda not just today, but over the coming year and beyond. The General Synod has asked each Diocesan Synod to consider the Sectarianism Report that was presented to it last month. There is a tendency to think that sectarianism is confined to Northern Ireland. However, the Protestant/Catholic friction that troubles Northern Ireland is but one manifestation of a widespread social illness that shows itself in a variety of ways, and we have it here too. The Report has been produced for every Diocesan Synod member, and we are asked to return our findings and reflections to Dublin by the end of January next. The Director of Communications, Ms Janet Maxwell, has come post haste from Dublin this morning with copies for each member of Synod. May I on your behalf bid her a very warm welcome. I am delighted to see that she is accompanied by the Church of Ireland Press Officer, Mr Brian Parker. I don’t know what their schedule is, but with the Synod’s permission I would like Ms Maxwell to say a few words about the Sectarianism report before they have to depart.

The subject is too vast to tack on to a day’s agenda for a routine Synod meeting, and so I propose to summon a special Diocesan Synod in November this year to look at it in depth. I believe the Church of Ireland is the only Church in Ireland that has so far made such a study at national level. It is a very detailed document, and looks at sectarianism under the headings of Church of Ireland Identity, how the Church of Ireland governs itself, the General Synod, North-South differences, Ethnic differences and Asylum Seekers, Political and Theological Differences, Relationships with Other Churches, Gender Differences and Sexuality, Young People, Older People and so on.

In other words, the problem of sectarianism is basically to do with how we as individuals and as an organisation deal with difference. All these differences show us that there are many divisions within and between the Churches, divisions between “us” and “them”, those who are “in” and “out”. The Report doesn’t make comfortable reading.

There will be a second item on the agenda for that day as well. We had our national Ministry Summit meeting last September, with a follow-up meeting earlier this year. There was a degree of disillusionment after the first meeting, which many people felt was another typical Church of Ireland exercise in negatively analytical navel-gazing. You know, the long list of all the difficulties we face, that are rehearsed every time two or three are gathered together. The follow-up meeting was much more positive, and it was actually a tonic to learn from all over the Church of Ireland and outside it the remarkable variety of ways in which ministry is actually being exercised in both urban and rural settings. A number of presentations made people sit up and think, and recognise that things are actually happening that are worth doing. I don’t want to embarrass him, or be seen to be blowing our own diocesan trumpet, but one presentation that had a very uplifting effect came from the Rector of Cloughjordan, and it has been the subject of much comment and reflection at subsequent meetings of the Commission on Ministry. There’s little point in keeping all of this to those who were there, and so that will be the second agenda item for the special Synod in November. I think one overall impression I have gained from the exercise is that despite all our groaning and complaining, there is a great deal of confidence within the Church of Ireland. It is not nearly so much on the defensive as it was only a generation ago. And I think this will ultimately have a bearing on the problem of sectarianism, because an organisation that is permanently on the defensive will tend to be exclusive, doing its best to preserve its own identity by keeping ideas and people who are different well out of the way.

During the past year we have restructured the way youth ministry is exercised in the diocese. Instead of one full-time youth adviser, we have three, or hope soon to have three. At present we have the Revd Lesley Robinson at the Killaloe end, and Miss Heather Groves at the Ardfert and Aghadoe end. We are still looking for one for the Limerick area. Unfortunately Mr Edward Buckingham, who had hoped to take it on, found that his other duties and commitments made it impossible for him to do justice to it. In this connection, and indeed in connection with youth work in the diocese as a whole, I want to pay special tribute to Edward Hardy, the chairman of the Diocesan Youth Council. His energy and enthusiasm know no bounds, and one wonders when he actually goes to bed, if ever. Before he does anything at all, he has to drive from his place of work in Dublin. We are greatly indebted to Edward for his enormous input.

We warmly welcome the Revd Bill Romer and his wife Molly to Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of parishes. They come to us from our Companion Diocese of New Hampshire, and we are delighted to have them with us. It is one thing to enjoy our companionship by visiting each other from time to time. It is another thing to come and live in companionship for a prolonged spell, and that is what Bill and Molly have done. That can only serve to strengthen and deepen our links in a way that would not otherwise be possible. It so happens that today is a significant one in the Diocese of New Hampshire. When we are on our way home from this Synod, they will be assembling to elect a new Bishop, who will succeed Douglas Theuner when he retires next year. I have sent Bishop Theuner a message to assure him and his Diocese of our prayers today.

Stan Evans was ordained deacon on the 31st May in Limerick Cathedral. On the 22nd June, Lesley Robinson will be ordained priest in Banagher, and Mairt Hanley will be ordained deacon in Tralee on the 29th of June to serve in the Auxiliary Ministry in that part of the Diocese.. We wish all three God’s continued blessing in the exercise of their ministry among us.

We will be saying farewell to Alan Matchett, the curate of Limerick City Parish, at the end of July, and wish him well as he moves to a second curacy in Stillorgan. We look forward to having the Revd Jane Galbraith, a native of the diocese of Meath, to come as curate-assistant of Limerick City Parish in early August. Jane has already served eight years in the auxiliary ministry, and this will be her first posting in the stipendiary ministry.

I am very grateful to Canon Warren for his expertise and help with all the Diocesan administration, and to Mrs Lorna Gleasure, who has, in a very short space of time, mastered the details of all the Diocesan finances and has steered the Finance Committee and the Diocesan Council through them all during the past year.