Press Releases20 May 04

Diocese of Clogher launches BCP 2004

THE DIOCESE OF CLOGHER LAUNCHES BCP 2004

Clogher Cathedral
Ascension Day, 20th May 2004

INTRODUCTION TO ORDER OF SERVICE

The Church of Ireland has eagerly awaited the arrival of the Book of Common Prayer in 2004. Parishes and individuals have greatly appreciated the ways in which the Church of Ireland has revisited its liturgical heritage while retaining its liturgical tradition. This has resulted in a Book of Common Prayer where the traditional is expressed in forms of worship which are both old and new alongside one another.

Ascension Day has been chosen throughout the Church of Ireland as the day on which the Book of Common Prayer 2004 is to be launched. As of Trinity Sunday, June 6th, it is the definitive Prayer Book of the Church of Ireland, superseding its predecessor of 1926.

You who are in St Macartan?s Cathedral tonight are by your presence launching the Prayer Book in our diocese. There has been a long-standing tradition in Clogher of confirmation on Ascension Day. There is good reason to continue this tradition tonight and to use the Service of Confirmation, with which members of most parishes are already familiar, from the Prayer Book. It gives all of us the opportunity to use this service of introduction of the Prayer Book to refresh our own commitment to God. We will participate with the candidates for confirmation in the renewal of the vows of our baptism, in professing the creed, in being commissioned in the vocation of our baptism and in receiving Holy Communion. All of this ties us closely to the confirmation by God of those who tonight will be confirmed and in a special way.

We welcome the Reverend Eric Duncan, Enniskillen District Superintendent of the Methodist Church with whom we will develop further tonight the bonds of friendship enshrined in The Methodist-Church of Ireland Covenant.

As you prepare for tonight?s act of worship I ask you to give thanks to God for the opportunity to be here, to commend to the guidance of Almighty God the introduction of the Prayer Book throughout our diocese and in the Church of Ireland at large and to pray that its words will give expression to our need of God in times of sorrow and of joy. I ask you also to pray that it will give voice personally and publicly to the devotion to God of the people of the diocese.

Sermon preached by the Right Revd Michael Jackson, Bishop of Clogher
At a service to Launch the Book of Common Prayer 2004 and Confirmation
in St Macartan?s Cathedral, Clogher
Ascension Day - 20th May 2004

Luke 24.53 And the disciples returned to Jerusalem full of joy, and spent all their time in the temple praising God.

With these words of delight in the present and confidence in the future the Gospel of Luke concludes or should I say the story of the church begins. St Luke alone gives us together, side by side in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles two parts essential to our grasping the Christian story, Jesus Christ in human history and the early developments of the Christian Church also in human history. We need only turn to Acts chapter 11 verse 26 for the following information essential to our calling: It was in Antioch that the disciples first got the name of Christians.

St Luke?s writings are an excellent place to start on such a night as this for many reasons. Sensitivity to the human nature deep within the story of God combines with a recognition of the central place of the outcast, the poor and the needy within the love of God. And this too must remain central to our discipleship and our outreach. For all of us are called in Confirmation and Holy Communion tonight to be true to the church by being Christ-like inside and outside the church. And our worship, now enshrined in The Prayer Book 2004, is part of the contemporary work of the Church of Ireland encircling, encouraging and expressing the call to expectation. This little season does not stand still. At Ascension we are called forward to Pentecost, to maturity of commitment and of action. It is St Luke who holds together for us the time of Christ Jesus and the time of the Spirit of God. It is St Luke who encourages us to seek and to find fresh revelation.

We need only to turn to the Canticles, the songs of praise, in The Prayer Book which we launch tonight to see that no less than three of the Canticles come directly from Luke?s Gospel. The Song of Zechariah, commonly known as Benedictus, draws together the best of Israel?s prophecy in such a way as to formulate and express for a new generation and a new world the agenda of God. This is to come in the ministry of Zechariah?s son, John the Baptizer, who preaches repentance and forgiveness as the forerunner of salvation and who in his heart of hearts knows that he must decrease for the Christ to increase. Zechariah?s is a service of preparation.

The Song of the Virgin Mary, commonly known as Magnificat, draws out for us the agenda of God in this new generation. In herself God has honoured, uplifted and upheld the lowliness of his handmaiden. Like Miriam and the women at the Red Sea, Mary turns to themes dear to the heart of God?s people everywhere and of Anglicans in particular: God?s mercy to those who fear him, God?s justice to the humble and meek, God?s generosity to the hungry whose need is of the most basic. This is the justice which is righteousness. This is the righteousness which rises off the pages of Holy Scripture to be the work of God as the work of God?s people everywhere in every age. Here we have the engagement of those who know God in the things of the world. Here we find an involvement confident and assured in itself, an association which has no fear of the secular and which rightly seeks and finds in the things of this world the breaking in of the kingdom of heaven. Mary?s is a service of action.

The Song of Simeon, commonly known as Nunc Dimittis, is quiet in tone, reflective in mood, patient in speech. It records things of which we delight to hear: appreciation, gratefulness, openness, fulfilment as a definition of salvation. It offers something ancient and modern to a generation worn down by meeting targets, monitoring performance, obsessed with over-achievement in the way of Lisa the classic over-achiever in The Simpsons. Phrases such as: let your servant go in peace ? and my own eyes have seen the salvation give a sense of perspective and acknowledgement of the hand of God in good things which are in the moment of the present. In the same way as we must not shackle the future to the past, we must not diminish today by hankering after tomorrow. Life is more complex and more precious for us to wish it away or while it away. And let us thank God for it. Simeon?s is a service of reconciliation.

These three pictures of service from St Luke, Patron Saint of Writers and Painters alike, give us lots of food for thought on Ascension Day. Today is special in drawing together into a triumphant climax the Season of Easter. It is special in launching the Book of Common Prayer 2004 across the Church of Ireland. It is special in confirming the baptismal faith of those to be confirmed in the spirit of preparation, action and reconciliation in the mother church of the diocese. It is special in the lives of all of us in re-dedicating our selves in the service of the Risen Christ and the Descending Spirit.

I want those of you being confirmed to remember those three words: preparation, action and reconciliation. Preparation is important because to do something well you need to do the work in advance, you need to be in a good and creative frame of mind. Action is important because after all the preparation you have done it would be a terrible frustration to you and to those who have helped with the preparation were nothing to come out of it. Reconciliation is important because it is essential to be at peace with yourself, with your neighbour and with God. Our society still cries out for reconciliation. We must heed that cry. Too much energy is dissipated in preparation which knows no action, in action which knows no reconciliation. We need this in ourselves and we need this in our society. I encourage those who are part of confirmation tonight to embrace all of this.

But these three words: preparation,action and reconciliation also have an importance for our use of the Prayer Book launched tonight. To some of us it is strange, to others already familiar. Preparation will be necessary for us to get used to it, to give it a chance and to make the contribution to worship which it demands of us. It simply would not be right to coast along when using this book. It will not make sense. Action will be necessary as we explore both the old and the new in it. Clergy will have to show courage, lay people will have to show commitment. Too easily do we treat change as an irritant, as an inconvenience. In fact change is essential to life, growth, joy and happiness. Please look forward with this Book. Please do not look back to other Books. Reconciliation ? remember the way in which the patient, expectant Simeon drew together in a few short sentences the best of the past, the moment of the present and the hope of the future. My prayer would be that as this Book makes its way into every parish church in the diocese it will also make its way to every bedside and into every kitchen in the diocese. My prayer would be that each and every one of us would use its Form of Daily Prayer daily to enable you to know God at home and in church, as an individual and as a member of the community.

There is much to explore in the Prayer Book. There is a great deal which is already familiar. There is something, I imagine, which is new to each of you. Be excited! Be hopeful! Be forward-looking! Be willing to prepare, to act and to reconcile yourself with God and your neighbour and in this way serve the Ascended Lord in liturgy as in life, in worship as in work, on weekdays as on Sunday. Above all: Please use this Book!