Introduction:

Dear friends in Christ, we meet in his name, as the pilgrim people of God, to do the work of his Church and I thank you for your attendance at this Diocesan Synod of Cork, Cloyne and Ross – believe it or not, my fourth as your Bishop!

Welcome to new members

Being the start of a new triennium, I welcome especially new members of the Diocesan Synod. There are forty-five new lay members of synod – that’s about 40%. We will be very much the poorer if you do not take part. Please do get involved. Speak. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Equally, I ask long-standing members of the Synod to encourage new members and to help them in their belonging and participation in our forum.

I also welcome particularly my Chancellor, Mr Lyndon MacCann. Not only is he an eminent member of the legal profession, he is also an experienced member of the Church as select vestry member, treasurer, synods person, and member of the Legal Advisory Committee. Most of all he knows the vicissitudes of having served as a Churchwarden, including with me as rector.

Setting the Scene

Last year we met in the seaside town of Kinsale. The year before that we were in the context of the county town of Skibbereen. This year we meet, in contrast, in the anonymity of suburbia – sometimes stereotyped as a wilderness of secularisation. Such a caricature is not, in my view, well-founded. Yes, these parts of Irish society are in the midst of immense social and ideological flux; yes there is secularism; there is ‘pick n’mix’ religious adherence; there is pluralism, but I would also say this, God has not been abandoned, the mystery of life and living has not been rejected, and spirituality of one sort or another abounds. Some of the most profound theological discussions I have had have been in surprising places, such as at the edge of the sports field, at the gym (believe it or not I do go there!), in the waiting lounge at the airport, and at the endless round of civic events I have to go to. People are not against us. On the contrary, in spite of the awful crises of our time in institutional religion, I come across immense goodwill towards Christianity and towards the Church of Ireland too.

September 11th

There again, mention of September 11th almost has a weary note about at it at this juncture. When one is living through something we know is significant, but we can’t quite see it’s full significance. I think there is no doubt that that date will become in our Western mindset another “Titanic moment” - a point in history which was a symbolic pivot when the Western world was jolted on its axis. One had the sense at the time that life would never be quite the same again, and in some respects already, it hasn’t.

Many of us must be painfully aware that among the worrying outcomes have been a resurgence of nationalism in some countries; and a rise in racism and xenophobia. One of the inaccurate perceptions that arose almost worldwide generated a naïve dichotomy between the so-called Moslem world and the so-called non-Moslem world. Such easy, categorisation is dangerous. 

Inter-Faith Dialogue

A by-product locally, has been to generate an interest and concern in the non-Christian faith communities in our own area. Last Saturday at The Palace, we had a first ecumenical and inter-faith forum called First Steps in Inter Faith Dialogue, facilitated by Canon Michael Ipgrave from Leicester who is adviser on Inter-Faith Relations to the Archbishop’s Council in the Church of England. In the years ahead we will have increasing numbers of neighbours who follow other faiths. Already they are greater in number, even in Cork itself, than some Christian denominations. How we relate to them will be a question for us. It is right that some of us should begin to reflect in a prepared way on this now.

Economic Scenario

There can be no doubt that the economic good times before the downturn of last year have paid a dividend in some sectors of our community. We have been hugely grateful for State and Civic generosity to some of our schools, to Saint Luke’s Home, to Kingston College, and in respect of some of our Church buildings.

I am not an economist, but I do know that the volunteers locally who run schools, sporting organisations, charities and many other voluntary groups in society will be hugely worried by the anticipated cutbacks in public spending that we’re being warned about.

The simple reality is that the Government (and in fairness, I think those in authority know this) needs its partnership with voluntary groups – Churches, charities and special interest groups – in order to get some of the core activities of our society carried out. If the work of those voluntary groups is among the first to suffer, it would be hugely disillusioning for the people involved, would undermine their efforts, and be to the detriment of local communities everywhere as increasing numbers of volunteers get “fed up” and ever more difficult to recruit. So I say “Don’t take volunteers or voluntary groups for granted, and don’t push them to the edge of viability by lack of resources.”

Youth clubs, sports clubs, charities, voluntary homes and hospitals, school Boards of Management, are all crucial to the well-being of our society, and by and large they are run by volunteers. That is too easily forgotten sometimes.

Local Finance

The Church in its work is not immune from the economic vacillations of the time. But we cannot allow ourselves to be harnessed helplessly by circumstances around us. As followers of the Christian way, the setting aside of a proportion of our income and using it together to do the work of the Church remains a priority. This together with a realism existing in tension with both vision and stewardship is the only option, unless we are to consign ourselves to a dismal future.

Friends, I believe our future under God will hinge in substantial measure on our ability to channel creatively, as a foremost priority, our resources into ministry: ministry (clerical and lay) - ministry for training and equipping the people of God, ministry for worship, ministry for pastoral care, ministry for outreach and evangelism, and ministry beyond the parochial system.

Christian Stewardship

Hearing this emphasis, many of you will have been surprised to hear of the forthcoming closure, decided upon by the Church’s Christian Stewardship Committee and recommended to both the Standing Committee and Representative Church Body alike, of the Christian Stewardship Office. For those involved, including your representatives from this Diocese, this was a painful decision, most of all in human terms for those employed by the Church in that work. Here in the Diocese we pay tribute to the voluntary work of Mr Bill Perrott who, over the years, has partnered the work of the Christian Stewardship Office as Diocesan Stewardship Adviser, and we thank him.

This does not mean, however, that Christian Stewardship no longer exists. It is founded on biblical principles and realistic good practice. The Truscott Report which was commissioned to examine our Church in this area, and for which extensive soundings were taken throughout the life of the Church, is mostly about re-invigorating this work of Christian Stewardship. Centrally this will be addressed, but as so often happens in the Church, I believe some of the most creative thinking happens locally in the Diocese. To that end, I will be initiating a discussion at our next Diocesan Council on 1st July – so that in the months ahead and with further reflection both at Council and locally we can determine what we need here for ourselves.

Book of Common Prayer, 2004

Very few members of Diocesan Synod could fail to be aware that work has been progressing for many recent years on the production of a new Book of Common Prayer to arrive in our hands and pews in 2004. Now is the time to ensure advance notice is given around the Diocese about this, and I hope you here will play your part in making this widely known.

The new Book of Common Prayer will replace both the Book of Common Prayer as revised in 1926 and the Alternative Prayer Book,1984, bringing together in one volume the best of old and new as determined by the General Synod.

Already this morning you had a taste of one of the new forms of the Eucharist in that book. In the months available to us before the new book arrives I hope that we will have the opportunity to prepare throughout the Diocese, a preparation that will not be so much a mechanistic exercise, but which will be one of spiritual renewal and reflection too. 

As part of that exercise a Lent Course called “I do believe and Take it” written by the Dean of Cork while on his sabbatical last year will also help to channel our thoughts in parishes throughout the diocese towards reflection about the way we worship.

Needless to say, the books will cost money, and Select Vestries would be well-advised to reflect now eighteen months ahead, and to put in place a strategy for their purchase when they arrive.

The Future of the Church

In the not too distant future there will, then, be The Book of Common Prayer 2004, and already we’ve had a new Church Hymnal. Exercises such as these, focussing on our worship, go to the heart of what it means to be the Church. They are important for our future, but they won’t of themselves, secure that future.

Preaching at the General Synod Eucharist recently, and again at the Archdeacon’s Institution at Moviddy last Sunday, I have addressed the matter of the future of the Church, in response to questions I hear people asking about that future.

Being the Church in the Future

The core principles which I believe we need to espouse are:

• continuing to do faithfully the things we are already doing
• a careful and consistent focus on theology – what we believe and how that applies to our situation today
• providing adequate administrative backup and infrastructure so that clergy can fulfil the vocation to which they were actually called
• channelling the preponderance of our resources into ministry, especially new forms of ministry outside the parochial system; and training for those already in ministry
• actually mobilising more and more lay people in ministry
• a shift from our energy and spirit sapping focus on buildings as if they are our core activity, when they are not
• doing more and more of our work ecumenically.

Ministry

As you will see, then, much of the way forward will be determined by our approach to ministry. The forthcoming Summit on Ministry in September for representatives from the whole Church of Ireland is timely and relevant.

Lay Presidency: debate a “divisive distraction”

However, I hope the summit won’t go off on a tangent for which the Church is, I believe, not ready. At some General Synods in recent years, and again this year, there has been reference to Lay Presidency at the Eucharist. There may well be some interest and support for this idea, but persistent raising of it, with increasing regularity, will, I believe, do little to enable it to gain widespread credence.

At this stage, any signal I send is an entirely personal one and reflects my current state of thinking. For my part, I have to say, that while pushing for more and more lay people to be involved in ministry, lay presidency at the Eucharist would represent a fundamental break with Anglican tradition and practice. Tradition – by that I mean the biblical witness as seen and faithfully interpreted through the eyes of the Church, the community of faith, over the ages – is well founded and should not be set aside or dabbled with lightly.

This debate may indeed come, and we will all listen carefully to one another, but I don’t believe now is the time for it. A debate about Lay Presidency at this time, would, I believe, be a divisive distraction. 

Our Church is one with limited resources – people, time and money – and as things stand we already have too many issues on our agenda which have not yet been resolved. We can’t keep adding things to that overloaded agenda – we’ll end up creating an institutional maelstrom of activity where nothing gets done in the whirl!

Let me put it this way, we’ve already licked and tasted enough chocolates from the top layer of the box for now. Let’s get our teeth stuck into some of those before throwing the top layer out to get at what we think is tastier on the bottom layer. From time to time also, (notably with the Commission on Episcopal Needs) we’ve got fed up with one chocolate box and ditched it in favour of another.

Ministry

Ministry has indeed been the theme - and rightly so - that has taken much time and deliberation in the Diocese since we last met – for me as Bishop, at Diocesan Council, in the Parish Organisation Working Group, and at parochial level.

It’s important that we remember that we work together as a Diocesan team. None of us is ordained or chosen to do a solo run. The Ordinal embodies this again and again. Bishops are “…called to lead…” and to work with the “…people of God…in the oversight of the Church.” Likewise, priests are not supposed to work in splendid congregational isolation. The Ordinal again: “Priests are called by God to work with the bishop and with their fellow-priests,…” “Deacons are called to serve the Church of God, and to work with its members…”

In the Church of Ireland this has been worked out until now, almost exclusively in a parochial context. The parish is still important, but there are parts of the Diocese and Church, where the geographical, territorial, building centred model is no longer tenable. Something more is needed. Here, in the last year we have devised some approaches – not entirely new to us, but re-workings of other strategies. Let me give some examples.

Dual Role Ministry Moviddy 

Responding to the needs of Moviddy Union, to the need for a greater concentration of clergy in the vicinity of the Cork urban area, and in response to opportunities in ministry to the city hospitals we have formalised a dual ministry arrangement, taken on by the Archdeacon, whereby he will spend half his time as rector of Moviddy and the other half as Chaplain to a number of the Cork City Hospitals.

Hospitals

Last year I entered into consultation with the Southern Health Board and the Boards of the various voluntary hospitals. As a result we secured significant increases - almost €40,000 (more than a full clergy stipend with expenses) – in the donations and payments being made in respect of our chaplaincy ministry to hospitals.

Kilmocomogue Union

Following the retirement of Ms Maud Levis, to which I referred last year, and the resolution of Diocesan Synod, Kilmocomogue Union opened its arms to draw in the Beara peninsula. Splendid work on the rectory in Castletownbere has created a base for visiting ministers, which will facilitate ministry there over extended periods of the year under the local oversight of the rector. The arson attack this week was a discouraging shock and set back, and we extend our sympathy and solidarity to the parishioners there and the rector, Canon Paul Willoughby. Most of all, we thank the local community and the local clergy of other denominations for their tremendous support; the fire brigade and the Gardaí, and most especially the authorities at Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Castletownbere, who are making available the Chapel in the hospital for our use while our own Church is out of action.

University College Cork

The additional funding from the healthcare sector, together with the altered arrangements in Kilmocomogue Union, liberated additional funds to allow for a creative look at our ministry within the ecumenical chaplaincy at University College Cork. The University, for its part, will partner the Diocese by paying half the cost of the salary for a fulltime Chaplain at UCC from next autumn. I take this opportunity to thank the University for this commitment, which is, I believe, an expression of the sort of partnership with other agencies in society, from which we can receive mutual benefit. Just to tease you, all I can say at this juncture, is that following consultation with the University I hope that an appointment will be announced in the near future.

Church Army

This Diocese has had a marvellous relationship over the years with Church Army. We have benefited greatly from the ministry of various evangelists who have each brought their own distinctive gifts and insights to bear on their work among us. The current phase of that relationship will come to an end early next year with the departure from Cork, on completion of his term here, of Captain Keith Dyde. We offer our heartfelt thanks to Keith for all his work among us. You and Pauline will leave with our affection and gratitude and in the knowledge that we are the better for having had you among us.

The Parochial Organisation Working Group has devised a submission to Church Army charting a suggested path for the future of our relationship with Church Army, and it is hoped to submit this to Diocesan Council for its approval in the near future.

Saint Luke’s Union, Cork

Much less easy, and hugely more emotional in terms of ministry and Church life is the matter of the closure of a Church. I as Bishop, and I’m sure we all, share in the pain of the people of Saint Luke’s Union, and of the Saint Luke’s diaspora, at the planned closure of Saint Luke’s Church, Cork. This local initiative of the Select Vestry, with the planned move in due course to ministry centred on St Anne’s, Shandon, makes it incumbent on us all to support and encourage our friends in that parish, and to show our practical solidarity with them as they plan and make this journey as a risk of faith under God.

This difficult dilemma illustrates well the changes that our community has undergone since many of our churches were built. At the time Saint Luke’s was built and constituted as a separate parish there were 2000 parishioners there and an additional 560 in St Anne’s Shandon. Today between the two there are less than 150. We all wish it were otherwise, but it is not. In addition, our church buildings are very powerful symbols of presence, of religious moments and significant life-events, as well as paradoxically, of our Christian pilgrimage. 

I have no doubt that more and more local communities – you on your Select Vestries – will face difficult decisions as we face the ever increasing demands arising from buildings, not least from insurance costs and heritage requirements.

Again, I say, that we have got to remember that property management, while we cannot walk away from our responsibilities, must not supplant our core activity of worship, pastoral care, and preaching the good news: ministry.

Youghal Union

As well as our visit to meet the Select Vestry of Saint Luke’s Union following their decision, the Archdeacon and I visited that of Youghal Union at their request. Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal, a national monument, having already had much costly work done to it over the years requires work to be done on it in the coming years amounting to about €6 million Euro. Management of heritage property to the detriment of building the Kingdom cannot become the responsibility of clergy such as the Reverend Sue Watterson. Equally, the Select Vestry of this small parish cannot be expected to find such a sum of money. They have postponed any decision about their future until they have investigated other options of ownership of and continued use of the building. We do not operate a congregational model of being the Church. We work together as a Diocese, so again we assure the people of Youghal Union of our support.

Incidentally, by the time of General Synod this year I consulted the clergy and calculated that we are faced at this time with having to raise an astonishing €11.1 million in respect of anticipated essential works on heritage buildings alone.

Youth Work

Equally challenging, in an altogether different way, is the arena of youth work in the Diocese. The Youth Work Review Group presented its report to me during the year, on foot of which a suggested Constitution for carrying forward Youth Work in the diocese will be presented as a resolution later today.

Youth work is one of the most difficult areas of ministry for the Church, particularly because our expectations as adults are altogether different from those of the young people themselves. We should not lose sight either of all the excellent youth work – broadly defined – that is being done in our schools, youth organisations, confirmation classes, Sunday schools, and summer camps. 

Bishop’s Course in Theology

Tomorrow at Evensong at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, followed by a reception at The Palace, we will mark the completion of the first cycle of the Bishop’s Course in Theology. Thirty-five lay people have taken part and have been enthusiastic about it. Enrolments are already taking place for the second cycle. I am grateful to the former Dean of Cork, now Bishop of Clogher, and to the Reverend Robert Kingston, together with all the coordinators and lecturers who have worked so hard to make this vision a success and worthwhile project. I am glad too that the new Dean of Cork has agreed to take this on as part of his portfolio of work in the days ahead.

I hope that this whetting of the appetite will spur some of the participants to consider paths to increased involvement in ministry, perhaps even some as Diocesan Readers or in the ordained ministry. I am still interested in setting up a parallel course equipping people for pastoral ministry, and have made some preliminary enquiries to that end.

Ministry of Healing

In each of my years as Bishop I have been consulting with the various committees of this Synod and the Diocese about their future work, and where relevant, providing a framework for that future. I’ve already referred to the Diocesan Youth Council which comes before you this year; in the previous two years we looked at the Social Services Committee and the Council for Mission.

Since we last met, and in consultation with the chairperson of the Diocesan Healing Committee, it was agreed that it would be desirable to give new impetus, in a new structure, more closely aligned to the work of the diocese and sponsored by it, to a new Healing Committee. Instead of existing apart from this Synod and communicating to it; it is envisaged that it will be appointed by it and report to it. 

There is much that needs to be done in this area, not only in furthering the work of the Church’s Ministry of Healing in the parishes, but also in dovetailing this with the pastoral and healing ministries of the Church, in both parishes and hospital chaplaincies alike. I am pleased, therefore, that the Reverend Sue Watterson has agreed to undertake this work with a view to making recommendations at synod next year.

I also take this opportunity to express thanks to the Victoria Trust which this year (and hopefully in future years) has granted nearly €6500 to facilitate training of chaplains – clerical and lay – for pastoral ministry to people who are sick.

The Changing Face of Diocesan Structures

There are far too many ways in which our inherited structures, useful as they have been until now, are unable to help us to keep pace with the demands of our time. This Synod is one of them. Having had three experiences as President of a Diocesan Synod, and having heard speeches made by some of you last year, I have concluded that we need to find ways, within the Constitution of the Church of Ireland, to make this a more potent body and to make the experience of being here more fulfilling. This again is something I will be exploring with Diocesan Council between now and the next Synod in 2003.

Racism

For a number of years the Diocesan Social Services Committee has been addressing the matter of Racism – showing foresight of what has become an all too real issue in our country. I was pleased recently to accept the invitation of the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, to chair the first Cork Civic Forum on Racism. One of the things that gave me courage in doing so was based on the knowledge that in our own diocese many have been involved in working for asylum seekers and refugees in the parishes, in the city through NASC, and also, through the Social Services Committee’s preparation of the racism awareness leaflet being launched today and distributed throughout the diocese Challenging Racism. Again we all need to work together to combat this increasingly manifest evil in our society. I congratulate the Social Services Committee and its chairperson the Very Reverend Chris Peters.

Covenant with the Methodist Church

Returning to the wider scenario those of us who were at General Synod were inspired by the presence and speech of the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland. The subsequent debate led to the passing of the Covenant drawing us into closer commitment with our brothers and sisters in the Methodist Church. Subsequently a similar resolution was passed by the Methodist Conference.

The Reverend Ken Todd

We are all mindful that the time will soon be here when the Reverend Ken Todd, Methodist minister in Cork, will move to ministry in new surroundings. We thank him for his fellowship and partnership in the gospel, and wish him every blessing for the future.

The Reverend Canon Gordon Watts

The death took place on 8th July, 2001 of Canon Gordon Watts.. Not only was he a personal friend to me and to many others in the ordained ministry, he was a faithful pastor and priest in the Diocese serving at various times in Coolkelure, Drimoleague, Dunmanway and Douglas. In addition he was Honorary Secretary of the Diocesan Synod and Council, member of the Diocesan Board of Education, Chairman of the Magazine Committee, served on many diocesan sub-committees, and was a member of the General Synod Council for Mission. We remember him and his ministry among us with gratitude and affection.

Mr Joe Matthews

Mr. Joe Matthews, who died recently, was a member of the Diocesan Synod and Council and sub-committees. He also served as Diocesan Trustee, on St. Stephen's Protestant Orphan Society, the City of Cork Church School Board and, many have reason to be thankful for his immense commitment to the Boys’ Brigade. He was commissioned as a lay reader in 1963 and assisted in so many ways in the Diocese in that capacity.

Mr George Stoney

Elections are happening this year, including to Diocesan Council, and I know one long-serving member who is not standing for re-election. In thanking everyone who has served over the past three years, I should like, also, to make mention of Mr George Stoney who has served tirelessly for over 50 years on Diocesan Council. We thank him warmly for all his work on our behalf.

Lay Readers

Also, in each previous year I have singled out one group for special mention - last year it was the retired clergy. This year I wish to underline our gratitude to and dependence on the Diocesan Readers. Thank you for all your faithful ministry and indispensable involvement in the work of ministry.

Deployments

Since last Diocesan Synod we welcomed the Reverend Eileen Cremin as assistant priest in Douglas Union with Frankfield; the Reverend Daniel Nuzum was instituted to the incumbency of Templebreedy Group, the Archdeacon was instituted to the incumbency of Moviddy Union and also was appointed to half time Hospital Chaplaincy. The Reverend Avril Kingston has retired from active involvement in the Non-Stipendiary Ministry and we thank her sincerely for all her immense faithfulness and commitment during her years of active work as an auxiliary priest. The Reverend Richard Dadswell, the Rev. Olive Henderson and the Reverend Stuart Burns left the Diocese to serve in Achonry, Glendalough and Salisbury, respectively. The Diocese was again honoured and proud of the election of the former Dean of Cork, Michael Jackson, as Bishop of Clogher. With equal delight we heard the news of the election and consecration this week of a former priest, born and bred in this Diocese, Ken Good, as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. More recently and bringing joy was the preferment of Michael Burrows to the Deanery of Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, and we look forward to the Dean of Cork’s institution as Incumbent on 28th June. We can look forward to the ordination to the diaconate some days before on 23rd June of Stella Mikhail and Joy Ferguson. It’s been a busy year of changes and Boards of Nomination have been active, so I take this opportunity to thank all parochial and diocesan members of the Committee of Patronage.

Thank you

As always I could not approach the end of my address without highlighting my immense gratitude to so many people who serve the diocese in so many ways: to the Archdeacon who is quite simple indefatigable; our Diocesan Communications Officer who has done so much networking and infiltrating on our behalf in the world of media and communications; our Diocesan Webmaster Brendan Kearns; our Diocesan Architect, Bill Brady; our Diocesan Registrar, John Jermyn and his secretary Jean Wade; and my own secretary, Ruth Wolfe; to Ruby Veitch, assistant secretary at the Diocesan Office and to our Diocesan Secretary, Wilfred Baker, whose portfolio is immense on our behalf. Thank you to each and everyone of you for all that you do.

Conclusion - Episcopal Visitation 2001

Last year I referred to the results of the Episcopal Visitation – the survey of 2001. In the past year, following questions I devised various parish groups have been studying the report and reflecting on the future. The responses submitted to me show two things: immense faithfulness, commitment and lively activity in the diocese on the one hand; and awareness of enormous challenges on the other.

I am hugely grateful therefore, that ours is a diocese in which Christian people are faithfully and energetically doing their best for the sake of the Gospel; in support of one another; as part of the worldwide Church of Christ. It is to this pilgrimage and calling we commit ourselves every day and in this Diocesan Synod as we begin our work today.

May God who calls us together, bless us all as we seek to be faithful to that calling.