"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:" - Ecclesiastes 3.1

Each time I see on my television screen the pictures of the return to earth, after a mission, of the Space Shuttle, I get a lump in my throat. For me, the pictures on Christmas Eve of astronauts fitting the Hubble space telescope with gyroscopes, batteries and a new computer were, in the closing days of the second millennium, an icon of our times. That I was able to follow their progress and get detailed information direct from NASA itself form the World Wide Web on a monitor in my study and even send the crew a message electronically is surely also a symbol of our times.

Set against the backdrop of the vastness of space, we saw, at one and the same time, the accomplishment and achievement of humanity, and also in that great mysterious void of the as yet unexplored, the puniness and insignificance of our being.

It’s the same sort of knocking down to size and putting into perspective, in the passing of time, that caused the psalmist to cry out:

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night..." Psalm 90

The days fly past. Another New Year – a very significant one - is here. My son asks me how many numbers there are, and I myself cannot comprehend yet alone explain. Our minds cannot grapple with ideas like infinity and eternity. We cope better with that which is around us in our own realm of activity. We can handle that.

And so The Preacher in our first reading today, in his own melancholy way, roots the passing of time, in a way we can grasp, in the mundane human experience of our own every day.

"For everything there is a season," he says "and a time for every matter under heaven:" - Ecclesiastes 3.1

The years may grind past us mechanically but our time is caught up with every human activity: birth, death, embrace, crying and laughing, mourning and partying, work of all kinds, silence and speech, war and peace. The God of Christmas – the God who became a human being – by his Spirit, journeys with us and stands alongside us in the unfolding of our times.

Popular wisdom, whether some like it or not, has made this the year of millennium celebration. Here in the diocese we embrace both perspectives by allowing our celebrations and programme, which began already in 1999 to encompass both 2000 and 2001.

But the ordinary demands of our everyday humanity make this today little different from our yesterday. The so-called "millennium moment" is, in reality, notional and artificial. New Year’s day, like the day before of the last light of the old era was also a day for getting up to have breakfast, to brush our teeth and to feed the cat.

Marking time in this calendar and anniversary way is most of all about counting the present, not predicting the future. But it is, nonetheless, undeniable that so significant is this moment, we take the opportunity, not to predict the future, but to anticipate it and to prepare for it. It has been called an opportunity for fundamental questions. And I for one, have said in my millennium message that I hope this is all more than a transient excuse for a party, and that our millennium plans and projects will make a qualitative difference into the future for ordinary people in every day situations. Now is the time to do it:

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

Christians place their hope and faith in that future in the Lord of all time, Jesus Christ, who we are told "…is the same yesterday, today and forever…". He is the same. But the world is not the same. And paradoxically, he, who remains the same, gives us who are his disciples in the 21st Century, little option but to deal with change and to change ourselves. In A Time to Build: Essays for Tomorrow’s Church published by the Church of Ireland to coincide with the millennium, the writers challenge us in this Church to look at ourselves, at our way of being the Church, and in one of the articles ask will we be Dodos or Dinosaurs.

Dodos "….so incapable of response to unfamiliar conditions, that they suffered extinction, slaughtered by unfamiliar species., and the saddest thing is that it took over a hundred years before anyone noticed they were gone. Dinosaurs though, they adapted to environmental change. They were transformed. Dinosaurs became birds. {And the sober challenge to us in the Church of Ireland!}… Right now it could go either way." [Maureen Ryan]

Now is the time to think about it and prepare for it:

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

There is little doubt that we are entering the century in which we will be led by the Generation of leaders known as Generation Y. 72 million of them world-wide will reach adulthood in 2000 – this year. Gone are the eras of the baby boomers and Generation X. The new young leaders of Generation Y are hallmarked by flexibility, adaptability, diversity, and openness, and comfortable with the technologies of our time. Such is their flexibility that when invited "Tell us about yourself!" the answer is "That depends!".

For the churches this will be a time of vulnerability – a wilderness of change and risks – not a terrifying wilderness because God is in the wilderness, not in the safety and nostalgia of a non-existent golden age in the past. It will be a time when churches will have to let go of many of their sacred cows and treasured memories, and will even see more of them slipping quietly away. Now is the time to have the courage to begin our journey into that wilderness:

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

Hard as it may be for majority churches in Ireland or England or any country for that matter to see this yet, the Christian churches surely face what is unthinkable to those whose understanding of the ecclesiastical institution is static and uncreative. Many of the signs are that all churches, even big ones with the apparent security of a strong demography, will face the actuality of being a collective minority together. Changes in society and the mindset of people assure that this will be so. When this happens it will be a humbling but creative, challenging but opportune time for the work of the Churches and the authentic proclamation of the Gospel: we will be unavoidably thrown into co-operation and a common existence with one another. Institutionalised division should no longer hamper our witness.

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

Already we see the pointers indicating the immanence of this way forward. Circumstances prevail in all our churches today that must make us ask, "What is God saying to us?" and "What does he want us now to become?" Some examples of these:

• Already we are aware that in our society many of the old yardsticks and stabilities are being abandoned in favour of new explorations and uncertainties
• This is the age of globalisation and universality that rejects a narrow spirit of divisive narrow-mindedness in favour of openness, inclusiveness and tolerance.
• A recent very extensive world-wide survey which has shown a strong sense of formal belonging to religious denominations, indicates, however, that the state of institutional religious observance in Europe is very low.
• All churches are now experiencing difficulties in the deployment of clergy. Parishes tend to be without a priest for longer, and in some dioceses large numbers of parishes are vacant at any one time.
• The expectations of clergy and laity alike are changing. People have higher expectations of one another and of the system.
• For generations the churches have been able to get by and fulfil their agendas in an ad hoc way, some might even say "on the cheap". Now with high standards in society in general, the constraints of modern legislation, the jostling in the market place by so many to capture the imaginations and energies of people, the churches find themselves in a new competitive and costly context where much that previously was free and easy-going now has to be paid for. The financial implications for church members and communities are clear. Resources will have to be pooled and rationalised.
• And very important is the make up of today’s common mind that prizes diversity and pluralism above all else, but expects to see that diversity functioning in a reconciled way for the common good.

The 21st Century will call the Church’s bluff on many things we have mostly talked about up to this. For example, much as it has been talked about and vaunted in this century, lay ministry will, after all the guff about it, have to become the norm in most local Christian communities. In this time, lay people, as much as clerical professionals, will be the trustees and stewards of the work of theology and the practical consequences of it. The too there will be the challenge of social outreach, ministry to those on the edge, compassion for the stranger, favouritism for minorities, the on-going quest for relevance, and all of this while holding true to our essential Christian calling to worship God and to announce Good News.

Most of all the 21st century church will operate in a post-denominational context. Already our young people transcend not only the old vocabulary of denominationalism and Christian segregation, but also are expanding their minds ideologically and culturally beyond Christianity itself. We, in the churches, have, at the very least, to face up to the inevitability of a post-denominational ecclesiastical culture.

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

The present, rather too public way of conducting ecumenical dialogue, between the Dean of Saint Patrick’s and Archbishop Desmond Connell, will, in such a post-denominational era, appear quaint and remote. For his part, the Archbishop, is simply adhering to a well-established maxim of ecumenical etiquette that "It would be wrong to accept an invitation to do something in a church of another Christian tradition, that in good conscience, you cannot reciprocate in your own."

However, more important is the fact that Dean MacCarthy is articulating prophetically what is the inevitable way forward for the churches: the way of shared buildings and resources, interchangeable ministries, mutual respect and enrichment, and reconciled diversity.

In many ways what is being proposed is "old hat." Elsewhere in the Christian world and indeed in some facets of Church work in Ireland, the suggested hospitality of buildings, a more creative ecumenical practice and sharing of resources is already commonplace.

The time is surely right in Ireland for the churches to break down old patterns of division, to build up and to embrace one another:

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

Paradoxically, we already see traces of this post-denominationalism in the very diverse religious and cultural enrolment in many of our primary schools. One of the consequences in a post-denominational Christian culture will be that any pattern of educating children in a narrow denominational way will, I’m sure, appear increasingly anachronistic.

It seems to me essential that our children who already play together in their neighbourhoods, who study together in colleges and universities, who make up sporting teams alongside one another, who will work together, lead our country and solve the dilemmas of the future ought to be given more opportunities to be educated together, and exposed to one another’s communities at a much earlier stage.

We rightly place great value on the strengths of our schools and the partners in education who shape them. But the spirit of partnership which is so much a watchword of current policy will surely have to go one further logical step and channel the churches into even greater partnership in education together than present. Without such a partnership the system may continue to perpetuate misunderstanding, communal myths and suspicions.

If our children are not given the opportunity to learn together, they will not know and understand one another. Strictly segregated models of education will be increasingly meaningless in a Christian culture that is post-denominational. This is an area that I believe the churches need to work together on, and then to use the recent political analogy, to have the courage to jump together.

I know this language will be uncomfortable for some, but I believe it is right to anticipate and shape the inevitable. And to be absolutely clear, what I am advocating is not an abandonment of all that is good and has been achieved by the present set up, nor am I suggesting a religious or communal nothingness in the arena of education. Rather, I suggest an educational process that both embraces and transcends the present denominational culture, shared by the churches, allowing young people to know and understand one another, to ask one another questions, to learn religion together, to discover one another’s communities and to provide a more inclusive base for our pluralistic context in society and Church.

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"

The Christian way is only 2000 years old. In terms of the vastness of God’s timeframe that is nothing. A lot has happened in the name of Christ – much of it positive, some of it negative and damaging. Our naïve and infant Christianity now has to flourish into something mature:

• a maturity that allows us, who are set in such a cosmic vastness, to own up to being much less certain about much in the past that we have peddled as absolute truth;
• a maturity that breaks down the walls of absolutist and fundamentalist fortresses, so that the searching way of doubt and dynamic encounter with the mystery of God is embraced;
• a maturity that recovers the naiveté of the heart of Christ’s teaching: love for God and love for neighbour;
• a maturity that embraces the stranger. This is more important, for in the Hebrew scriptures the indictment to love our neighbour is mentioned only once, but love for stranger is enjoined on us thirty-seven times;
• a maturity that includes minorities and more than that, favours them;
• a maturity that launches out and takes risks;
• a maturity that recognises the necessity to journey in the wilderness rather than to go no further than the comforts of our own oasis;
• a maturity that catalyses us to allow the Gospel we treasure and proclaim to dialogue with the rapidly changing world around us;
• a maturity on the part of the Church as institution to admit again that the core of Jesus teaching was the kingdom of God, not even himself, and certainly not the church.

We rejoice that God journeys with us his pilgrim people in these times. In the words of our Diocesan Prayer of the Millennium:

"…[Y]ou guided the people whom you had chosen through the wilderness to the land of promise. Travel with us in your Spirit as we follow the way of your Son into a new time of opportunity and service…"

"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:"