I. Intro / Thanks

I would begin by thanking many people who ensure that our diocese functions well and whom I can truthfully say make this a very pleasant place of which to be Bishop.

First, of course, the clergy. We are all very well served the clergy of Meath and Kildare. In thanking the clergy for all they do, it is a great pleasure to be able to report that within the last week, we have two new appointments in the dioceses – Revd Graham Doyle, at present Rector of Killeshandra in Kilmore Diocese who is moving to Athlone Union of Parishes in mid-November, and Revd Eric Russell at present in Solihull in Birmingham Diocese who will be instituted as Rector of Kells Union early in the new year. In the situation in which the Church of Ireland is at present with regard to vacant parishes, we are indeed very thankful. Our prayers continue that we will find a pastor to lead the people of Dunboyne and Rathmolyon. Please appreciate your clergy; please pray for them, please work with them. They deserve nothing less. I express my gratitude and admiration, as always, for our auxiliary clergy all of whom give immense service in many diverse ways to the dioceses. We note the ordination of Jean Wynne to priesthood since the synod last met. Our lay readers also give us sacrificial service and ensure that worship can be maintained throughout a far-flung diocese, and one which has been carrying a number of vacancies over the past year. We welcome Trevor Holmes and James Reid who were commissioned as Diocesan Readers earlier this year. Finally we are, I know, very appreciative of all that the retired clergy continue to do to help with the work of ministry. A number of the clergy value not only their public ministry but (and I include myself in this) at times, their quiet encouragement and advice.

But there are many others to thank – all those who are involved in the smooth running of the dioceses.

As always, I am grateful for the hard work, advice and constant support of Archdeacon Patrick Lawrence.

I have welcomed the Chancellor, Mr William Prentice, but I do want to be able to pay a warm tribute to the immense amount of time, advice and expertise he gives us here, and always calmly, patiently and unfussily. He has been our Chancellor for a little over 18 months. It must at times seem to him to be more like 18 years! We are very much in his debt and we thank him very sincerely.

Again, I am not sure where we would be without Karen Seaman. She also manages to keep calm and composed in every situation. For her hard work, professionalism and commitment we all are in her debt.

The Diocesan Council is given the responsibility for the ordering of the diocese. I want to thank all the members for their work. I think we would all agree that we are fortunate to have two honorary secretaries, Revd Glenn Milne and Mr Ronnie Colton, who work so well in tandem and who make life not only easier but more pleasant for those around them. And it is a pleasure to welcome Mr Raymond Potterton has taken over the reins as chair of the Finance and Glebes Committee. It is a demanding and complex task and he is doing it on our behalf with great drive and dedication.

In the field of education, I would like to thank the members of the Board of Education and our secretary, Mrs Margaret Dunne who, by preparing all the business agenda so effectively, actually gives us freedom to consider other issues in relation to schools and education. In the diocesan projects in adult education, we are fortunate to have the constant hard work and enthusiasm of Revd Olive Donohoe, who gives so much of her time and energy to enthusing others to learn more of the faith.

But there are many other tasks, perhaps less visible but no less essential. The work of the Priorities Fund and the immense work given to this by Mrs Joan Bruton. The editor and members of the Magazine Committee who continue to give us a magazine of high quality, month by month. Our Press Officer, Revd Gregg Ryan, who is ready to be contacted, it seems, day or night, on board trains or sitting in meetings, at home or abroad. And I want to thank also Mr David Seaman who as Diocesan Communications Officer, has put a great deal of hard work into many projects, including recently some very tiring work on correlating results from our Ministry Matters survey. He has also been responsible for arranging for a total refurbishment of our website, the fruits of which you can see from today. Our thanks to them all.

There are of course many others who work with young people in organisations, in the administration of parishes, leading worship through music, the managing of our schools. To all, your work is appreciated and necessary and, above all, it is work, not only for the local Church but also for God’s Kingdom on earth.

II. Main Address

There are a number of matters stirring at present which will affect the life of the diocese for years to come, and much of what I want to say concerns these.

MINISTRY MATTERS

The first is the project we have taken on over the past year, Ministry Matters. This is, I hope, an honest, open, realistic look at what ministry means for us now, and what it is to be, in God’s grace, in the future. The world has changed, almost unbelievably changed, over the past single generation. It will continue to change, probably at even more bewildering speed. If, in the environment in which it is set, the Church is not prepared faithfully to go forwards, it will go under. One of things of which we can be certain is that change for the Church is not a gimmick or a stunt, it is a necessity.

However, our motive for change is vitally important. If we are to change only for survival, we are doomed to extinction. “Club C of I” is tottering and is about to die. If however, we truly wish to change, so that we may be better equipped to further God’s Kingdom and to respond to the challenges of a new Ireland where many neither know nor care about the gospel and where many are antagonistic to what they see as a hostile, corrupt and irrelevant Church, then we are on the right path. an exciting road in the company of Jesus Christ.

The first step in any realistic approach to change is to try to see where we actually are, rather than where we might wish to think we are. The survey on ministry that was sent out to all the people of the diocese - young and old - we could contact, was the first initial toe in the water in this regard. And it has been hugely successful. We were told in advance that a fifteen percent return would be very good. We have reached nearly three times that figure. What is more - although people were given an opportunity to express their views, quite anonymously and untraceably - the response was positive. There was very little negativity, despite the opportunities to “have a go”, incognito. This is truly encouraging for our future.

There are, as you know to be a series of road shows throughout the dioceses in October when some of the findings from the survey can be discussed and shared, and when those who have been given the responsibility of leading the Ministry Matters group can listen and learn. We see this approach as being a regular feature of diocesan life as we try to plot a path forwards in how we “do ministry”. So often, people feel that they have no voice, no say, and no input, in what happens organisationally within the Church. We want to move beyond this. There are interesting things to be learnt and communicated from what we have found through this large-scale survey.

We know from recent census figures that the population for the part of Ireland covered by these dioceses is growing very quickly. Many people got very excited at news of an increase in the Church of Ireland population in the state as a whole. I think that some of this excitement was a little misplaced but, regardless of that, we cannot deny that God is giving us fresh opportunities for a renewed ministry that involves all the people of God. Ministry is not just something that the clergy do for you. It is a shared, collaborative, inclusive enterprise for all Christian people. These road shows are a new departure, not only for the diocese but also perhaps for the Church of Ireland at large. Let us, in every sense, make them work.

A NEW BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

Next year will see the introduction of a new Book of Common Prayer, the Book of Common Prayer 2004, as it will be known. The last full revision of the Book of Common Prayer was in 1926, the one before that in 1878, and so this is a real adventure for the Church of Ireland. There is no point in commending the Book of Common Prayer to you, because from 2005 it will be the only authorised Prayer Book for the Church of Ireland.

One of the great features of the new Prayer Book is that it will be the first Irish Book of Common Prayer to incorporate both contemporary language services and traditional language services within the same covers. Both are given equal place and equal standing. And, before you ask, the new Book of Common Prayer is not as large or as heavy as the new Hymnal! But my profound hope is that the new Prayer Book may be not only the book for worship on Sundays, but also something that the old Prayer Book traditionally was, a devotional book for the mid-week prayers and meditation of committed disciples.

The clergy, at our clerical conference earlier this year, spent a couple of days thinking through the implications of the new Prayer Book. I think we are all agreed that today, more than ever before, worship must be done well, done creatively, and be instantly “accessible” not only for “the regulars” but also for those who are not regular attenders at a particular church or, indeed, at any church at all. The experience of parishes throughout Ireland is that people do often walk into a church, “off the street” with no background in that parish or perhaps in that Christian tradition or any Christian tradition. It may be that, young or old, they had all but given up on discipleship and are giving it one last chance. What they encounter in that church may begin or re-ignite a life of Christian discipleship. Or it may finish it once and for all. That is the responsibility and the challenge given to us today. The welcome that is in every church, and the quality and immediacy of the worship is a responsibility not merely for the clergy, the organist, and those leading worship, but for every person in that church.

Worship is not our possession, even less it is a favour we’re doing to God, even less again is it a way of showing those around that the Church of Ireland still exists.

It is something we approach with real humility, commitment and preparation. If it is truly worship, making God of most worth, then it is clearly blasphemous to do it below the very highest standard we could possibly achieve. It may mean sacrifices for many; it will mean that parishes must work out how worship, even with small congregations, can be dynamic, attractive, and a real connection to the God of all love and all creation.

BISHOPS’ PASTORAL LETTER

Within the past few weeks, the bishops of the Church of Ireland have issued a pastoral letter, dealing primarily with the Church’s attitude to sexuality, and homosexuality in particular. What is called for is an open, reverent, respectful dialogue within the Church. Openness, reverence and respect have not been noticeable in recent discussions in the wider Anglican Communion on this issue.

I am summoning a special diocesan synod on the evening of Monday 24 November in the Cathedral Hall in Trim. This will be to examine and discuss the recent study from the Church of Ireland’s sectarianism committee, “The Hard Gospel”, which was brought to the General synod earlier this year and which is recommended for study throughout the dioceses of the Church of Ireland. This study deals with various issues of exclusion, including not only sectarianism (as we traditionally understand it) but also racism and homosexuality. I ask you to make an effort to come to that special synod which will be a time, not for resolutions and motions, but for reflection and honest interchange of ideas. I hope that from there the issues we raise (and perhaps in particular that of homosexuality, which is the theme of the bishops’ letter) will be taken into more local contexts for biblical reflection, prayer and discussion. We may then as a diocese meet again to think through the issues in mature and reverent conversation. Copies of the bishops’ letter are available here for those who have not already seen it.

Part of the task of Christian leadership, particularly in a tradition like the Church of Ireland, is to listen intently. I want to do that over the next few months. It would however be cowardly of me not to give some indication as to where my own mind is on the matter at present. Those of you who were at the diocesan synod of 1998, which took place immediately after the Lambeth Conference, may recall that I explained there my reasons for voting against a resolution of the Lambeth Conference, resolution 1.10, which seemed to me to close down the discussion on homosexuality rather than to open it. I have never regretted doing so, although sadly, that resolution is now being regarded by some almost as a touchstone for Christian faithfulness.

I find that my reading of the scriptures in their totality, and in particular my reading of the teaching of Our Lord (which must be the basis for all Christian conversation), means that whereas I can see no reasonable parallel or equivalence between the union of man and woman in marriage, with the union of two people of the same gender, nor can I dismiss as intrinsically disordered a faithful relationship between two people of the same gender, (however that relationship may be expressed), which brings generosity and goodness and kindness into the lives of those around. You deserve my honesty on this. You have it. But this is the beginning of a conversation between Christian people, not the end of a monologue.

THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE

What I have had to say this year has, albeit for what I hope are good reason, been more “internal” to the Church of Ireland and to this diocese than I would have wished. However, let me conclude by saying that everything we are as a Church and everything we do must be done in an awareness of a world that has gone brutally mad in its exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the rich, and “the rich of the world” includes us. And we cannot pretend it is not our business.

Today, in Britain and Ireland we expect to pay as little as possible for our food. And we have been very successful in this; the proportion of the family budget spent on food for the home in Britain is little more than a third of that spent 50 years ago. It is little different here. But this comes at a cost to others. Because goods, including food, can be moved around the globe quickly and cheaply, our relatively cheap food is brought to us through the work of those in other countries who are being paid little more than slave wages, and whose land is being destroyed. Without contracts of employment they will have no means of supporting themselves or their families when their land, being savagely overworked, can no longer produce food.

At the same time, a recent national farm survey in Ireland has established that the average family farm income here (excluding off-farm income) is less than €16,000 per annum. Three-quarters of farmers have a farming income of less than €20,000. Less than half of the farmers in the country can rely on farming alone to survive. So, both here and abroad, people are losing. The Church, if it is to be faithful to the Christ who came and lived and worked among us, cannot live in a comfortable ghetto, ignoring reality around it.

The Lambeth Conference which produced resolution 1.10 also produced resolutions on international debt, displaced persons, justice for the dispossessed, and a resolution which I am proud we have in this diocese taken to heart, the giving of .7% of annual diocesan income to development programmes. Please continue with your financial support for Bishops’ Appeal. But please also remember that all I have said about renewing our vision of ministry, improving the quality of our worship, and entering into truly Christian dialogue on issues of sexuality, must be done in the context of a world which God loves, but a world which has turned its back on his vision of love and mutual responsibility. It is a world for which we cannot evade responsibility.

May God continue to bless us, as we seek to serve him.