Press Releases01 Jul 07

Installation of the Revd Canon Kenneth Newell as Ecumenical Canon of St Patrick's Cathedral Dublin

Sermon preached by the Archbishop of Armagh at the Installation of the Reverend Canon Kenneth Newell as Ecumenical Canon of St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin
On Sunday, 1 July 2007 at 11.15 a.m.

Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us…[Eph 2.13,14]

Division among the people of God is as old, indeed older, than the incarnation. The division between Christians and Jews yet remains even though the writer to the Ephesians, Paul, if it was Paul, considered that the wall dividing Jew and Gentile lay in ruins. Division among Christians took very little time to emerge in the early Church even though difference was not allowed to dissolve into disunity, even over the issue of circumcision. However, with a dedication characteristic of the arrogant human spirit, as century succeeded century, quarrelling Christians swiftly learned the dark arts of disunity and employed them with skill and ingenuity.

Let this, therefore, now be said: division among the people of God is a horrid thing, a scandalous thing. Before any think seriously about declaring the impossibility of maintaining bonds of cohesion, of affection, of respect and of tolerance, he or she should consider how long lasting and impacted may become the incompatibility, and how complex and demanding it may be to effect reconciliation. Such things in the life of the church are reckoned in centuries not decades. They remain a permanent scar upon the body that is Christ’s.

My brother in Christ, indeed for 16 years my near neighbour in Belfast, the Revd Dr Ken Newell has honoured the Church of Ireland by accepting appointment as the first Ecumenical Canon of our Church. He was elected because of his immense stature as a prophet of reconciliation in the midst of the maelstrom that was that most recent paroxysm of violence and division we euphemistically call the troubles. His own church, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland elected him Moderator a few years ago and from the outset, by his invitation to Archbishop Sean Brady to attend his Inauguration on the first night of the meeting of the General Assembly in Church House, Fisherwick Place in Belfast, Ken Newell signalled that he was carrying into his role as Moderator an engagement with other churches on this island that is compounded of respect, generosity of spirit, evangelical principle and generous love.

In a few days time there will be installed the second Ecumenical Canon of this cathedral, Professor Enda McDonagh, an utterly different but equally distinguished representative of another church, the Roman Catholic Church: a theologian of international stature and one generous in his engagement in and commitment to dialogue with Christians of other traditions. He, in his turn, honours this cathedral and the Church of Ireland by consenting to accept election to this newly instituted canonry

I should like to think, however, that the Church of Ireland, in consenting to the establishment of these two canonries in our National Cathedral, is doing more than recognising the contributions of two outstanding churchmen of other denominations. In their persons they represent more than themselves, they represent the church members and the traditions from which they come.

We, in turn, recognise that, in placing them here as part of the capitular body of the National Cathedral, as a church we are incomplete without them. Bringing a former Presbyterian Moderator and a distinguished Roman Catholic theologian and teacher into the midst of the life of the Church of Ireland at the level of the national Cathedral is a declaration by us of our own incompleteness and the scandalous brokenness of the Body of Christ. We hold up to ourselves a mirror wherein is reflected the wounds inflicted by generations of self proclaimed Christian people on the Body of Christ.

This event also reminds us that the journey towards reconciliation and wholeness is far from complete. Diversity is of the very nature of the Body of Christ – many limbs and organs, differing but complementary functions. Division is not of the Bodies nature.

It is not the case, therefore, that we are better off without one another when we differ in profound or significant ways. Rather, we are incomplete without one another, we have engaged in a disordered exercise in self harm when we sever limb from limb. The presence of Ken Newell and Enda McDonagh in our midst brings a measure of healing and renewal within that part of the body which is the Church of Ireland.

I notice, and indeed bear witness, that without resolving all the differences of doctrine and church order that divide our churches - issues about the real presence, predestination, the status of Mary, episcopal, priestly and diaconal ministry, for example: without being close to fully resolving those arcane theological and doctrinal disagreements, the Church of Ireland General Synod voted unanimously to create these ecumenical canonries – no dissent! The synod also (and maybe even more surprisingly) left it to the Dean and Chapter to determine who should be elected. In other words there was total consent and total trust displayed by the General Synod that this action represents the mind and will of the Church of Ireland. We hereby nail our colours to the mast of generous ecumenical engagement and the quest for unity within the Body of Christ.

Yet here I am brought to a shuddering halt, for here, in this island that has seen the perpetuation of 16th and 17th century religious wars into the 20th century (although, please God, not the 21st,) here we find ourselves part of a worldwide communion rushing enthusiastically and headlong into a new and exciting division. Each protagonist claims a monopoly on righteousness, the scriptures are quarried, interpreted and re-interpreted mercilessly to justify a cherished orthodoxy, and the body of Christ is lacerated afresh. And yet, the Christian experience and our local experience indicate that the lacerations, disfigurements and amputations will last long after the causes of conflict have ceased to occupy those positions of pivotal importance that they once seemed to hold.

Archbishop Njongokulu Ndungane of Capetown, preaching recently in Westminster Abbey said some things with which I find myself in profound agreement:
There are areas of life where we have made great changes – not to scripture itself, but to how we understand it. For example, it is entirely clear that slavery is accepted within the pages of the Bible. Even St Paul says, “Let each of you remain in the condition to which you were called. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t be concerned about it. (1 Cor 7.20,21)

It is wonderful that this year you have celebrated two centuries since the abolition of slavery…

We have changed our position on lending money at interest – though I must say that I am often rather less than convinced that we were right!

We have changed our position on contraception. And we have changed our position on the role of women in the Church. Even where we disagree on this we find ways to agree to disagree.

But we have NOT changed our position on Jesus, and I do not see that we could and still call ourselves Christians.

If anyone wants to pick a fight with me about my faith, let it be on the grounds of my relationship with Jesus, and my belief in who he is: the belief to which scripture attests and the creeds affirm.

Something which Archbishop Njongo does not say in his sermon is this: he knows personally and at first hand the price of division and the cost of reconciliation. Archbishop Njongo was imprisoned, as was Nelson Mandela, during the Apartheid years. His province knows, as he knows in his own person, the price of division and the immense cost of healing and recovery.

Is that not something we, on this island and in the churches of this island, also know and understand? We know not only the pain of division but also the deprivation of division, the impoverishment of our church life and the impediment to the mission of the Church of God that division and disunity provides.

Christ was in the business of breaking down walls of division, he abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity – one humanity! - in place of the two, thus creating peace.

Here we are, in this cathedral today, after 400years of division and disunity, taking one miniscule step to try to undo what men insisted in all good conscience they must do all those centuries ago and still our zeal for separation flourishes. Sometimes we seem to rejoice in our brokenness and reinvent commandments and ordinances so that we may refine those differences that define our disunity.

And Christ is crucified afresh. And the hammer driving in the nails is in our hand!

Can we not resolve, no matter how sharp our spats and how profound our disagreements, that when we differ – as we shall, many times - we covenant with one another not to break with one another to the extent of division, except on the single issue of our relationship with and belief in Jesus Christ?

Our celebration today, joyful and important as it is, nevertheless demonstrates with graphic simplicity the consequences of self harm within the Body of Christ.

May God have mercy upon us and forgive us, and give us grace never to repeat the travesties of the past.

May He also grant us to rejoice in the reality of each other’s relationship and belief in Christ Jesus and to judge one another by no other measure.

To Christ Jesus be ascribed majesty, might, power and dominion, world without end. Amen