Press Releases05 Dec 22

Bishop Richard Clarke’s address for the installation of Armagh’s new canons

Bishop Richard Clarke, formerly Primate of All Ireland, delivered the following St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, on Sunday 4th December 2022 preaching on John 1. 19–28, for the installation of Dr Kenneth Milne and Revd Dr Heather Morris as canons.

Before turning to those who have just been installed as canons, or indeed to John the Baptist, the main star in today’s lectionary, may I thank the Archbishop and the Dean for their invitation to preach, and may I join with them and all of us in wishing both every happiness and God’s blessing for the new canons?

I suppose I have known Dr Kenneth Milne as a friend for what is almost exactly half a century. Kenneth has been both a friend and, in every sense, a guide. Indeed, at one stage he was one of the supervisors for my doctorate who once noted in a margin to one of my drafts that I was inclined to be a little bit “wordy”. (I have no idea what he could possibly have meant!) But in the broader scheme of things, most of us know that Kenneth has been a distinguished and highly energetic servant of the Church, in the field of teacher training and as an educationalist, as a historian and historiographer of the Church of Ireland, as an enthusiastic ecumenist, and on to the present day in wider communications processes, as Chair of the Church’s Literature Committee. 

I cannot claim to have known Dr Heather Morris for quite that length of time. She and I did indeed attend the same school in Dublin –  Wesley College –  but alas I cannot pretend that we were contemporaries, or even close to it. But she and I have worked well and closely together in different guises over the past years, through work on the Church of Ireland–Irish Methodism Covenant and more recently through the Church Leaders’ Group.

Heather’s unstinting commitment to Irish ecumenism over many years has been truly exemplary. And for those of us who were present at the General Synod in 2014, when the Church of Ireland and Irish Methodist Church finally passed through their legislative processes the full mutual recognition of each other’s ordained ministries – we will certainly recall Heather’s overjoyed and indeed passionate response to this radical breakthrough in Irish ecumenical life.

I hope she will not think it patronising if I say that she somehow manages to be both an incorrigible Methodist and an equally incorrigible ecumenist at one and the same time! In congratulating Armagh’s new canons, we do so in full confidence of everything we know that they will bring to the life of this cathedral.

And then there is John the Baptist, that troublesome, truculent, noisy and argumentative figure, whom we would probably agree would never have made it on to any church committee let alone a cathedral chapter, however much it might have added to the entertainment value of chapter meetings, or not…  But John the Baptist is nevertheless given a starring role in today’s lectionary. What then does he now bring to the table today?

The first thing that leaps out of this evening’s reading from John’s Gospel is that he is insistent on declaring what he is not, as we may indeed be reminded again later in Advent in Orlando Gibbons’ anthem ‘This is the record of John’. In response to questioning, John the Baptist keeps saying “no.”

No, he is not the prophet… no, he is not Messiah… no, he is not Elijah… He realises and proclaims the identities that he knows he cannot and must not claim for himself.

Now most of us build up our self–identity, indeed our self–worth, by being clear as to what we are (or what we think we are), but we are far less interested in what we really are not and cannot be – what we should not pretend to be, even to ourselves. John the Baptist is clear that his identity is not his own proud possession, but his only identity is to point towards Jesus Christ. John the Baptist accepts that he is not an end in himself.

And I suppose we could say the same about a cathedral, any cathedral. Yes, it is to be a place of welcome for those who are searching, a place for those who are looking for safety in whatever form, a place for the outsider as much as the insider. A place of excellence in liturgy and aesthetic taste.

But none of this is the cathedral’s final identity, it is not an end in itself. Like John the Baptist it is always pointing beyond itself, not to its own glory but, in St Paul’s words, pointing towards “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”. True for a cathedral, for any Christian institution, for any individual disciple, it all begins with the vital importance of knowing and accepting first what we are not…

But John the Baptist is also notable for his equally unequivocal determination to call out what we today call “fakery”,wherever he encounters it. Just as Elijah in our reading from the Hebrew scriptures calls out the deception of the prophets of Baal, so John the Baptist calls out religious leaders of his time for their fakery, he later challenges Herod for his dishonesty (and at the cost of his own life), he even enquires carefully to make sure that Jesus is who he says he is. And he would no doubt have called him out too if he had not been satisfied. No middle ground, then, when it comes to truth and authenticity. And we don’t need to be reminded that we are living in a shadowy world where truth and incontrovertible facts seem to be disposable and fluid commodities.

There is word in the Russian language to which I am becoming increasingly attached – a word that does not easily translate into other languages, although the concept is certainly universal. It’s the word vranyo, which means a clear and obvious lie that is told unblushingly, known to be untrue by the person who tells it, but also known known to be sheer nonsense by the person who hears it, but who nevertheless will not challenge it.

Yes, it might be because the hearer is afraid to do challenge the lie, or perhaps because they would think it impolite and unnecessarily confrontational in a social context.  But quite possibly it is because what they heard in that vranyo is something they would rather like to believe and so they choose to half–believe it, even if they know perfectly well –  deep down – that it can’t be true. It is a convenient untruth. We know, do we not, that vranyo is alive and well in most contexts, ranging from weighty public pronouncements to ridiculous social excuses?

A few weeks ago, I heard a remarkable talk by David Puttnam, the producer of such wonderful films as ‘Chariots of Fire’ and ‘The Mission’, He was talking to a group of young people in west Cork. He urged them that above all else they must today be ready to work out in their everyday life what is true and what is untrue, and to take action accordingly.

He told his audience that in Lithuania children from the age of seven are taught in school the techniques for establishing what is fake and what is real in what they are hearing. Surely a useful addition to any school curriculum, and in any place? And very much following in the footsteps of John the Baptist.

So, in the midst of our real celebration as we welcome our two new canons to the life of this cathedral church, the unbending figure of John the Baptist and the reality of Advent must also accompany our worship.

To conclude, therefore, by returning to Russia and paraphrasing briefly that wonderful insight of Dostoevsky – that without truth, both about ourselves, within ourselves and towards others, there can never be any authentic respect for anything or anyone, and yet it is only with respect that there can ever be real self–giving love, that beating heart of the Christian life.

Amen.