Diocesan News
Bishop Paul Colton archives 1,000th Sermon Script in Church of Ireland Library
The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, recently lodged his 1,000th sermon script for archiving and safekeeping in the Representative Church Body Library. The Librarian and Archivist, Dr Susan Hood was in Cork to advise the Bishop about the preparation of his archive of nearly 43 years of materials, including almost 27 as a bishop.
Dr Paul Colton handed over his 1000th scripted sermon to Dr Susan Hood during his recent visit to the Bishop’s Palace, Cork.
‘I’ve preached many more than a 1,000 sermons over the years’ said Bishop Colton ‘but these were the fully scripted ones. Obviously there were many others preached which were from notes or ex tempore as well.’
He continued:
My mother, Kay Colton, who herself had been a legal secretary, gave me a light, portable Brother typewriter when I went to Theological College and it served me well until I bought my first Amstrad computer and a printer in 1987. From the very start, beginning when Bishop Sam Poyntz licensed me as a Reader in 1981, I catalogued the sermon scripts; sorting them, as many preachers did then, in brown envelopes with the details recorded on the outside.’
As the sermons piled up at home, bit by bit, they were lodged with the RCB Library in Dublin together with a catalogue. The 1,000th does, however, mark a milestone.
Dr Susan Hood, the Librarian and Archivist said:
It was an honour to visit Bishop Paul in his working study at the Palace recently to get a sense of where many of his ideas and working papers as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross have evolved from. Throughout his ministry he has systematically organised his sermons (together with a digital index) and transferred them periodically to the safe–keeping of the RCB Library, where they have been accessioned as MS 731. It is a significant landmark to receive his 1,000th sermon, as preached at General Synod 2025, which we will be delighted to add to the collection.
Bishop Colton added:
I don’t know whether anyone will ever be bothered to read them but perhaps in years to come they might illustrate something of my own journey of faith, something of the journey that the Church of Ireland has been making over the last 43 years, and also because of the civic and public functions at which I have preached, there may be a little bit of the Church’s engagement with the issues of the time also from the perspective of one bishop.
Note: RCB MS 731: Sermons (1–1,000) of William Paul Colton (1960–). Curate of Lisburn–St Paul (Connor), 1984–87; Rector of Castleknock (Dublin), 1990–99); Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, 1999.
A digital index to the sermons, created by the Rt Revd Dr Paul Colton, is also available in the Library.
Diocesan Media & Information Technology Officer
087 7055 989
Ms Denise Stobart
[email protected]