TRUST-BUILDERS PROMISE BRIGHT FUTURE

In choosing a theme on which to focus in this address, I have felt it right that much of what I should share with you is an exploration around the theme of trust, as applied to various aspects of national and church life. I consider it to be a potent issue in these challenging days in which we seek to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

TRUST

One of the first lessons we all learn in life - and the learning process begins immediately after birth - is the need to trust another beyond oneself, and the consequences of so doing. It is as an infant learns to trust a caring mother for sustenance and security that a positive bonding takes place which leads to a sense of security, the reassurance of which creates the confidence to trust further. And so begins a willingness to take healthy risks in relating to others as trust is reciprocated and the risks of trusting are rewarded with affirming outcomes.

Trust, which almost always contains an element of risk, is foundational to human growth and development and it is essential to human community. As we grow, it becomes the expectation that we and the people we learn to trust will each respect the obligation that is laid on us to act towards the other reliably, with fairness and integrity. The result of trust that is well placed is progress towards maturity in relationships and a sense of personal and social well being.

Disappointed trust, however, stunts our growth, it arouses fears and can cause us to behave with a cautious and protective insecurity that limits our relationships with others – and can even damage our relationship with God. Trust that is spurned or proves to have been misplaced can cause a suspicion that can become very difficult to heal or reverse, and the resulting breakdown of relationship, as well as being socially damaging, can become spiritually corrosive.

Christians, obviously, are to be known as people of trust. Trust is what we specialise in. Faith in God is trust in God, and trust in God impacts our ability in turn to trust others because God intends that we specialise, too, in forgiveness, love, peace-making and mercy – all of which are trust-related attributes.

As his body, we have given allegiance to Jesus Christ who himself took a trust-risk of enormous proportions in his incarnation, and throughout his earthly ministry repeatedly moved towards suspicious people offering trust, only to be rejected, ridiculed and presumably hurt time after time. His death was at the very least a trust-risk gesture of love towards us his enemies, designed to establish connection between us and God and to deal with the root cause of relationship-breakdown.

A ‘TRUST-DEFICIT’

You do not need a newly arrived bishop to tell you that, sadly, we are part of a society and of a community in which trust is currently in short supply. We share a heritage on this island in which centuries of history can be used by people of both of our main traditions to justify their deep-seated mistrust of the other. We share, too, the propensity to point out the failures in the other which have brought about this unhappy situation and are much better at that than at acknowledging the failures in ourselves which might have given reasonable grounds for anyone to mistrust us. There has been a trust-deficit in this land for a very long time.

The Belfast Agreement, as explained by one of its prime architects, Senator George Mitchell, was, in essence, formulated to take account of the absence of trust in our society and to deal with the serious trust- deficit head-on. Its strategy was to put in place structural and institutional changes that would enable people, groups and communities who had previously found it difficult, if not impossible, to trust and to co-operate satisfactorily with one another, to work together in the expectation that they would, in time, develop trust by having to work together on shared projects.

BUILDING TRUST (Politicians)

In some important respects, levels of trust have increased over the past few years, and the structures which have pushed people to work together have, overall, resulted in some significant improvements in the way people deal with one another. It is a very slow and tedious process, but progress there has been.

Those politicians who have taken a risk in modelling engagement in our devolved government, and have shown courage in attempting trust-building deserve credit for stepping beyond their comfort-zones and giving a lead. Whatever our specific political views, which are not my concern in this address, I believe it is right to encourage our elected political leaders to persevere in trust-building and to pray for them in their difficult and demanding task.

REKINDLING TRUST (Apprentice Boys)

In this very city, I have been struck, too, for example by the attempts made to resolve contentious issues on the part of the leadership of the Apprentice Boys and of the community leaders, both of which groups might have found trust difficult, but were willing to engage with each other and develop some level of understanding. Both sides have taken a courageous risk for the greater good of the city they love and the society in which they wish to play a positive part. Efforts to build trust, sometimes quite costly to those who make them, deserve our acknowledgment and support

POISONING TRUST (Paramilitaries)

The strain of increased mistrust of late has now put in jeopardy the survival of the very institutions that were designed to build trust. The trust-deficit is still heavily in overdraft.

One of features of our society that most undermines trust and, in fact, ferments and perpetuates the deepest of mistrust, is the lingering determination by a small number to pursue the path of paramilitary violence, or even to maintain a link of any kind, be it a blatant or a tenuous connection, with paramilitary influences.

I believe that we as a Synod would want paramilitaries on both sides of the divide, Loyalist and Republican, to be reminded of the reality which, I sense, is now dawning on them more and more clearly: that the day of the paramilitary threat, patent or shadowy, which should never have been there in the first place, must be declared by its leadership to be well and truly over. Is it not clear to them that their methods are so destructive and negative that any violent actions they engage in now entirely undermine the very cause they might have been seeking to promote? The days ahead will be in the hands of the trust-builders, not the trust-destroyers, and the very existence of such organisations does nothing but undermine trust and dissipate confidence.

The apology to ‘the loved ones of all innocent victims’ which accompanied the Loyalist ceasefire in 1994, and the more recent apology by the IRA to ‘non-combatant’s families’ are steps in the right direction, but need to be followed up now with unambiguous trust-building evidence of disbandment. Otherwise a poison of mistrust will further permeate a society that is struggling to emerge from dark days of mistrust and violence.

DARING TO TRUST (Cityside)

When trust is in short supply, it often follow that hope, too, is lacking. And the current political situation leaves many, within the Protestant community in particular, lacking in hope and concerned about the future. It was G.K. Chesterton who said, ‘There is one thing that gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.’ He obviously was presupposing that what was around the corner was something positive, something welcome, something good.

Turning to a more specific local issue, right on our doorstep where we are meeting today, since arriving in the diocese in June, I have become acutely aware of the trust-deficit that exists in the minds of many Protestant people in this city who are left wondering what future remains for them on the Cityside, and what future their churches and schools are going to enjoy in the years ahead. There is a need for hope, for reassurance and for trust-building on this key issue, too.

This city has experienced on a more dramatic scale than most other areas, a movement of population that has resulted in feelings of alienation and insecurity on the part of the remaining Protestant community that is quite pronounced. But it is also a more focussed expression of a generally-felt alienation that is now quite widespread in the unionist community at large. Trust, again, needs to be built up.

The polarisations resulting from the movements of population that have taken place in the last few decades in the city are to the detriment of both traditions, and the city itself is certainly impoverished by the trends which I, for one, long to see reversed in the future. In decades past, no doubt, it was an alienated nationalist community who asked themselves a similar question about their future place in the city, so they will understand well the need for unionists to ask it now.

This is a trust issue which can legitimately be highlighted in this Synod setting, and it is an issue with which I intend to engage in the months ahead, and I sense that I will have the understanding, co-operation and goodwill of leaders of church and state and commerce throughout the city in exploring the issues.

Still under the general heading of trust I want to turn my attention now to five issues mostly more specifically diocesan, and several of which will appear in our agenda today.

1. FAITHFUL TRUST (Ordained ministry – retirement and changes)

I want to acknowledge and give thanks to God for those in this diocese whose call to ordination has resulted in a long and fruitful ministry that has exhibited all the marks of a faithful trust.

Primarily in my mind today, and I know in yours also, is the faithful leadership of my predecessor, Bishop James Mehaffey, the trusted Father in God of this united diocese for more that twenty one years. I am frequently reminded by people of how difficult a task it will be for me to fill his shoes (and indeed those of his predecessor, too, Archbishop Eames) and my reply to you as to them is that I am heavily burdened by that awareness and I am only too conscious that I will never be able to fill them as well as they did. It will only be by the grace of God and through the prayers of you his people that I will be able to accomplish anything worthwhile is this leadership role for which I often feel ill-equipped and inadequate. I join with the many, many others in applauding Bishop Mehaffey for his visionary, courageous and trust-building work in this diocese and community, and would want us to send him and Mrs Mehaffey, and Archbishop and Lady Eames our warm greetings and best wishes from the Synod.

2. SAFEGUARDING TRUST (Children)

I referred earlier to the way in which trust is one of the first lessons learned in infancy, and to the contrasting consequences when this trust is met with either a healthy or a harmful response.

The trust of children as they grow and develop is indeed a precious gift and the Church of Ireland has done well to put in place a balanced and carefully devised plan to ensure the protection of children against abuse or harm of any kind in our church’s dealings with them.

I want to commend again to you all the Safeguarding Trust programme, as a reminder that no parish can afford to manage its children’s ministry without strict implementation of its code of conduct. This is not an optional-extra, it is a vitally important part of the way in which things must be done.

Those who serve on Parish Panels and particularly those who have done much of the pioneering implementation work on the Diocesan Panels, namely, Elizabeth Fielding, Pat Gilchrist and Elaine Way in Derry Diocese and Kathleen Barrett, Kathleen Stewart and Violet Thorburn in Raphoe Diocese, deserve our gratitude and support. Let’s do all we can in Safeguarding Trust among our children.

3. LEARNING TRUST (Education)

The Church of Ireland’s historical interest in education is well known to us all, and is manifested formally in our Boards of Education, one of which will be reporting to us today.

Major changes are ahead in Northern Ireland in the move away from selection at 11, and I must say, on a very personal level, that having had our children educated in the Dickson Plan area in Craigavon, I am a strong advocate of a process which does away with the 11 plus and which allows children a longer and less traumatic period to have clarified the most appropriate path and content of education to prepare them for the future.

Children overall will benefit considerably from the changes that are anticipated, but the implementation of the transition is a matter of concern to all of us, that we maintain the trust of these young lives, and that they are not let down by a system that is rushed, ill-prepared, or acting out of political expediency.

4. COLLABORATIVE TRUST (among clergy and laity)

This business of being a bishop is all new to me, and every day is a learning experience. An aspect of the work that I particularly enjoy is working closely with the diocesan clergy.

I had what I regard as a very useful morning with them a few weeks ago when I listened to their expectations, hopes and concerns about their ministry and about how a new bishop might play a useful role in all of that.

As I said to them then, I say to you now, that I am essentially a team player, whose instinct and preference is to work with people, preferably teams of people, and to see everyone’s gifts used collaboratively for the greater good.

This is a process that requires trust, and I intend to do all I can to see that trust built upon. I want to work with the clergy to shape and refine our vision for the future, which will take a little more time to clarify and which is why I have focussed in this address more on wider issues than on a specifically diocesan strategy. That will come in time, I assure you.

I strongly believe that every Christian, lay and ordained, has been given at least one and probably several gifts by God for use in his Kingdom, and the trust must be developed between clergy and lay people to see the gifts of both discovered, trained, blended together and used collaboratively. This will be a recurrent theme about which you will hear me say much more in the days ahead. In our agenda today, the theme of Ministry will receive specific focus very shortly.

5. CO-OPERATIVE TRUST (with Methodists)

The signing of a Covenant between the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church in Ireland in 2002 will, I believe, prove in years to come to have been a highly significant event in the development of inter-church relationships.

Again, this venture has much to do with trust. It is an adventure between two parties among whom previously there has been separation, difference and on occasion even, (dare we say it?) feelings of superiority on both sides on occasion. Through structured discussions in recent years, trust has been developed to the point where sufficient understanding and agreement has now been reached to provide further covenantal arrangements by which it is hoped that co-operation can lead to even stronger trust and a shared sense of mission.

On your behalf I warmly welcome to our Synod Rev Fred Munce, District Superintendent of Londonderry City Mission, General Secretary of the Council on Social Responsibility and a member of the European Methodist Commission. Later in our proceedings, when the Board of Unity Report is under consideration, I will be asking for your agreement to suspend Standing Orders so that Fred can bring us greetings.

We need to work out in this diocese what the implications and possibilities of this covenant now can be, and I will be looking to the Board to do some of the creative thinking on this.

IN GOD WE TRUST - Faith building

As bishop of this diocese, whatever the political backdrop with all of its turbulence and uncertainty, whatever the challenges of a society which appears to have a diminishing interest in traditional expressions of faith and church-life, I refuse to be pessimistic, defeatist or lacking in hope. The God in whom we trust is always the God of the future as much as he is the God of the past or present.

As a diocese that works happily in two political jurisdictions, that deals with two legal and judicial systems, that manages its finances in two currencies, we have learned as well as anyone in the Church of Ireland that seeking first the Kingdom of God, rather than fixing our focus too closely on any particular earthly kingdom, is where the church’s priority really lies.

My eyes are wide open to the many big challenges that all the churches face in these days of change and I look forward to tackling them with you in God’s strength.

I long that as a Synod, a Diocese and as a people, we continue to be known as people whose trust in God is sufficiently deep as to make us a people who have the confidence to reach out in trust to others; a people who have a capacity to forgive and ask forgiveness, to take risks for peace, to live as adventurously as did Jesus of Nazareth whom we serve.

I give thanks to God for the trust that he and the bishops placed in me in calling me to this diocese at this particular time. I acknowledge before him and before you my desire and longing to prove faithful to that trust, and to serve him and you with vision, with hope, with fairness and with integrity.

Remember what Chesterton said: ‘There is one thing that gives radiance to everything. It is the idea of something around the corner.’ Let us dare to believe and to trust that what is ‘around the corner’ in the Kingdom of God is good, is worth giving ourselves wholeheartedly for, is worth taking risks for and giving our all for. I for one believe it is, and I sense you do too.