They say that a week is a long time in politics, but it is equally true in the life of the church and indeed the community in the Diocese of Down and Dromore. The past week or so has seen major events take place, and it is those events which I want to address as we begin our Diocesan Synod today.

East Belfast

Over the past days, we have experienced the particular trauma which people have had to suffer on the Albertbridge Road, the Newtownards Road and in Short Strand. We have been used to scenes of devastation and sectarian strife at Drumcree and in North Belfast, but it is many years since there were the kind of scenes which we have witnessed recently in our own diocese. I have spent a good deal of time recently in and around that part of East Belfast, and would wish to make the following observations:

1. The great tragedy of Belfast, and especially inner-city Belfast is the way in which it has become territorially divided in a more absolute way than ever. This division has increased (rather than decreased) since the signing of the Belfast Agreement. It has many devastating effects. One of these (as reported in last week’s ‘Sunday Times’ from a recent survey) is that, in areas such as Short Strand and the ‘Lower’ Newtownards Road, 68% of 18-25 year-olds have never had a ‘meaningful conversation’ with anyone from the other community. This is a devastating situation. and means that the world-view of young adults in areas like inner-city East Belfast is being formed without any serious engagement with members of the ‘other’ community and their viewpoint. It also means (and I have noted this on several occasions with regard to the necessary evil of peace walls) that those on one side of a peace wall can come to see the person on the other side as a faceless and sometimes, dehumanized enemy.
   
   The issue of territory lies close to the heart of the fears in East Belfast. On the one side, loyalists and unionists are convinced that the republican and nationalist community have an agenda to take over places like Madrid Street and Cluan Place and even eventually the lower part of the Newtownards Road. They believe that there is a cleverly organised campaign to drive protestants out of adjoining streets so that ‘Nationalist’ territory can be extended and new areas created which are inhospitable to protestants and ‘no go’ areas for Orange marches, thus closing off further routes in to the city centre. These are strong perceptions in the ‘protestant’ side and perceptions are inclined to become reality. On the other side, the residents of Short Strand feel closed in, unable to walk on the roads around them and unable to house a burgeoning Catholic community. Territory, as John B. Keane’s novel ‘The Field’ powerfully reminded us, has always been at the heart of the Irish problem, and remains so today.
   
   
2. There is evidence that the recent situation was co-ordinated, perpetuated and accelerated by paramilitary groups. When I have visited the interface over the last days, I have had a deep sense that the ordinary residents (many of whom had houses which were ‘little palaces’ and who had sunk a great deal of money into buying their houses and making them homes) were being used as pawns in a paramilitary game. They were victims of something much bigger than themselves - the fearsome, dark underworld of paramilitarism which appears as strong as ever. The sad twist is that ordinary people on either side of the fence sometimes see paramilitary groups as their defence against the perceived enemy. Many of us were encouraged by the decision of the Loyalist Command not to put up new paramilitary flags this summer, but the time has come for all paramilitary groups to throw in their lot with the peace process and lay down their arms for ever!
   
   
3. Nothing is more sacred than a person’s home - not even a church. I was speaking to Earl Storey at 7.30 a.m. this morning following the overnight attack on his home. The reason for this was that he had written a book on the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order, and some had not agreed with it. However, Earl told me that some of the first on the scene to help him, were Orangemen from the parish who were equally devastated. Another despicable ‘turns‘ over the past few days has been the use of church property for committing acts of violence, and the attacks which have been made on places of worship. The grounds of St Patrick’s Church, Ballymacarrett have been used in this way. Many churches, particularly Roman Catholic Churches, have been targets for paint bombs, petrol bombs, and stoning. It is not acceptable to any civilized person to see a church targeted while a funeral is taking place in it. You and I have rejoiced over the years to see clergy and others stand by their counterparts on the other side of the divide after such attacks. Equally, if not even more so, there has been a focus on attacking public servants in the police, the fire brigade, the ambulance authority, and the drivers of buses and trains. The very people who serve the whole community without distinction. With regard to the police, some fear that it is in the interest of Sinn Fein to undermine the authority and acceptability of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. We must be thoroughly grateful today for all who serve us in these services, and give them every support and encouragement in their vital work. It is vital that the new Police Service is supported by all political groups.
   
   
4. I was deeply humbled to visit members of the local Church of Ireland parishes in this area last week, and to discover a deep spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation in those people. So often the Church is perceived as part of the problem in Northern Ireland, and I would not deny that that is the case. But it is also the case that many Christian people living at such interface areas continue to work humbly and quietly for peace at great cost to themselves. Yesterday morning the lectionary reading was one which I had never noticed before. I want to read it, because the writer of Ecclesiastes could be writing about parts of Belfast:
   

There was a little city
with few people in it.
A great king came against it and besieged it,
building great siege walls against it.

Now there was found in it a poor wise man,
and he by his wisdom delivered the city.
Yet no-one remembered that poor man.
So I said ‘wisdom is better than might’.

It is ordinary, unknown people of wisdom, love and forgiveness who will save our city too, and places like East Belfast would be lost without them.

Methodist/Church of Ireland Covenant:

So much for the political situation of the past week. In contradistinction, I spent last weekend at the Methodist Conference in Enniskillen representing the Church of Ireland. It was a wonderful conference, where Methodism was seen at its very best - in wholehearted singing, in warm relationships, and in a strong and earthed social conscience. During the conference, on Saturday 8 June, the Methodist Church in Ireland decided, in a spirit of great joy, to enter into a Covenant with the Church of Ireland. The Covenant was ratified at this year’s General Synod as well. I do not think we can overestimate the important of this latest ecumenical move. It is a sign of the spirit of unity in both our churches and of a mutual love and affection between us. It is a reminder of our common roots in history, and of the wealth of experience which we have to share with one another in this generation. It is also a real commitment to mission which drives us forward together in the spirit of Jesus’ prayer ‘that we may be one, so that the world may believe’.

One of the things we need to recognise as members of the Church of Ireland is that, for some Methodists, there has been the fear that the Covenant might mean that they, as a smaller church than the Church of Ireland, might somehow be subsumed. But this Covenant is not about one church taking another over - it is about us working together in a committed way, in every possible area of our lives. 

I would encourage every person in this Diocesan Synod to look out for ways of getting to know your local Methodist Church better. I would encourage you to take some risks in doing things together. I think, for example, of a wonderful mission last year in this church, which deepened relationships and was a witness to the whole community because everyone was focussed on evangelism. I encourage you to start thinking ‘mission’ rather than ‘maintenance’, kingdom values, rather than keeping things going : serving the community rather than preserving our buildings. I encourage you to worship together as much as is possible, to pray together, to engage in projects together, to reach out together. In short, to make the rubber hit the road, in this area of joint witness. I believe this Covenant is the most important step forward towards Christian unity in this island for many years, and am glad to say that we have done it ahead of the Church of England and the British Methodist Church, where an equivalent Covenant is at the first stages of discussion.

We will also be inviting Methodists to be much more involved at every level in the running of our church, and we hope and trust that God in his mercy will continue to draw us closer into the unity found at the cross of Jesus Christ.

During this Synod, we will celebrate the Covenant in three ways. Firstly, all our hymns at the opening Eucharist were by Charles Wesley - and we even included the one the Methodist didn’t know till the Church of Ireland found it. Secondly, later this morning, I will be inviting Jim and Elizabeth Harron (our symbolic Methodist/Church of Ireland Covenant personified) to plant two beech trees which we hope will grow together into one, like the Wesley Tree in Lambeg, planted by John Wesley himself, with the prayer and intention that the Methodists and Anglicans would always stay together. Then, this afternoon, we will be learning from the Methodist tradition and setting aside time for a ‘Conversation on the Work of God’ - an opportunity to do what we often say we miss in Synod, and to share, with the encouraging Spirit of St Barnabas, something of what we have experienced of the work of God and his Holy Spirit in our own lives and churches. A Covenant is not just an agreement. That was recognised and noted at the Methodist Conference. It is a solemn, binding thing - an ‘engagement’, a promise which we hope never to go back on. It is, I deeply believe, something which rejoices the heart of God. 

At the Methodist Conference, it was noted that John Wesley felt passionately the importance of experiencing the kind of worship and fellowship where we discover a ‘warmed heart’ and Jesus as Saviour and Friend. But he also insisted that his followers experienced the beauty and order of Anglican liturgy and that sense of the God beyond us in reverence and awe. Both traditions need both, and hopefully we have a great deal to learn from and offer to one another, to our mutual up-building. I do not need to tell you that this Covenant is something to which I am deeply and personally committed, having grown up somewhere between these two traditions. I will do all in my power to encourage it, but need all of us to give the covenant (as did the General Synod) our unanimous and wholehearted support.

A new bishop and a new archdeacon

The third set of ‘events’ over the past week has been the Consecration of Ken Good, former Archdeacon of Dromore, as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, and our welcoming of David Chillingworth, former Dean of Dromore, as the new archdeacon. The Consecration Service on Tuesday was a wonderful occasion, and we who, in this diocese, have particularly valued Ken’s skills, gifts and personal humility, know that he will be greatly used by God in his new sphere of ministry. Bishop Dan Herzog, from our link diocese of Albany, came over from the States with his wife Carol specially for the consecration, and that has meant that he has been able to participate in our Diocesan Synod today and will also be present at the Ordination of 7 priests in Down Cathedral on Sunday. The preacher at Ken’s Consecration was Bishop Derek Eaton, Bishop of Nelson in New Zealand, who unfortunately was not able to stay. Bishop Derek has proven beyond doubt that God can actually make a ‘Western World’ diocese grow, if it has clear direction, clear strategy, visionary leadership, and a Gospel to proclaim with clarity and vigour.

We are also greatly blessed in having a new archdeacon with the capability of David Chillingworth. David kindly agreed to move from being Dean of Dromore to being Archdeacon of Dromore on St Barnabas’ Day. He has given himself unstintingly over the years to the work of the Diocese, and has had a particularly important role in the initial setting up and further development of the ‘Think Again’ project, to which he is fully committed. David has very recently taken a team of people over to the Diocese of Albany, and to Ground Zero in New York City. He is an excellent administrator, and has a wide view of the diocese. I look forward (as I am sure we all do) to working with him in this particular role.

May I also take this opportunity to say that our prayers and love are with Bishop Alan Harper, the new Bishop of Connor, as he settles in to our adjoining diocese.

Seven days is a long time.

A week of mission: Hearts on Fire

But seven days is also a long time in mission. For the last major section of my Presidential Address, I invite us to look forward to another week in which I hope and trust a great deal will happen. The week is the first week in October this year. The focus is the ‘Hearts on Fire’ Diocesan Mission in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast. This is a mission to ourselves, the ordinary person in the ordinary pew in the ordinary parish in Down and Dromore. We all know that ‘Think Again’ is focussed on the R-O-Y Priorities (Reconciliation, Outreach and Young People. But the bit we sometimes forget is ‘Undergirded by Spiritual Renewal’. We all need to be fired up and energized by the Holy Spirit to do God’s will and work. That is the focus of this week. It is only the renewing power of the Holy Spirit which makes these things possible. We all need to be refreshed and deepened in our faith. We all need to be encouraged and given new hope. We all need to be brought back to a point where we clearly re-affirm that Jesus Christ is the No. 1 priority in our lives. 

• only that will make the risks of reconciliation worth taking. 
• only that will spur us to serve others in outreach. 
• only that will give us the integrity to pass on faith to a new generation.

I cannot say how important this week is at the mid-point in these first five years of the new millennium, and how much I am committed to it personally. So much so, that I will be visiting every parish in the diocese in the first half of September to invite everyone personally to join me for this week. It is a real opportunity, following on from our other memorable Diocesan events, for us together to meet God in a fresh way. There will be special diocesan choirs, faith stories, drama, a few TV personalities, and I will have the privilege of speaking each night. My prayer is that God will so touch each of our lives and each of our churches, that our hearts will be set on fire to love and serve Jesus Christ with renewed vision and vigour.

As leaders in the Diocese I would ask every person in the Diocesan Synod to make this an absolute priority - block 1-4 October out of the diary and encourage others to be there in a week which I hope will be a new and key stage in the life of the Diocese of Down and Dromore.

“Thank you”

During my sabbatical last summer, I read several books on the subject of ‘leadership’ (whether they did me any good, you will have to judge!). One of them suggested that one of the key roles of leaders was to say ‘Thank you’. I totally agree. A Diocese is always a team, and the better the team works, the less attention it draws to itself. So, before I finish this address, I want to say ‘Thank you’ to the following groups of people:

• To the clergy of the Diocese of Down and Dromore. We are, I believe a happy team, and I look forward to spending a few days in Donegal in September on a Clergy Conference with all the serving clergy and, if it is as good as the last time, it will be a real blessing. 
• To the staff of the Diocesan Office, especially Neill Wilson (our Diocesan Secretary) and David Cromie (our Diocesan Accountant) who serve the administration of this Diocese with real professionalism and helpfulness. And especially I say ‘Thank you’ for all the work for today’s Diocesan Synod.
• To my own secretary, Betty McLaughlin, who completed 25 years as secretary to the Bishop of Down and Dromore - having served under 4 bishops. I do not need to say how much Betty is valued and how greatly her work is appreciated.
• To the Rector and Select Vestry, the Methodist Leaders Board of this Joint Church of Movilla Abbey, for allowing us to conduct our Synod in this beautiful new church, and to the people who are serving us and caring for us today.
• And to all of you - especially those who serve this diocese on General Synod, on Diocesan Council, on the Committees of the Diocese and Central Committees and in any other way.

But above all we give grateful thanks to Almighty God for allowing us to be involved in the work of his kingdom and to serve the church at such a time of both need and opportunity. To him be glory for ever. Amen.