Press Releases01 Dec 09

Readers' Ministry Centenary Service in St Patrick's Cathedral

L-R: George Leckey, +Armagh, +Kilmore, Canon Robert Neill (Central co-ordinator of Readers)

The preacher at the service was the Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, the Right Revd Ken Clarke, who thanked Readers, Diocesan and Parish, for their faithfulness and dedication.

The full text of Bishop Ken Clarke's Sermon follows.

Text of Bishop Ken Clarke's Sermon

I wonder if you have ever written to a newspaper. Some time ago an elderly man, in a parish where I served, gave me a cutting from The Times correspondence page. The letter read as follows...”Yesterday morning our Vicar said to the children at our parish church. “If I could give you anything in the world you wanted, what would you say?” The members of the congregation expected to hear answers such as a trip to Disneyworld, all the money in the world, meeting a famous person, but the first little boy who was asked gave an answer which surprised the whole congregation. He replied, “I would say thank you!”

Today is about saying thank you...thank you to God, and thank you to you, our Readers in the Church of Ireland. 100 years ago on the first day of the General Synod, Tuesday 20th April 1909, the House of Bishops presented a Report which stated that the Bishops were prepared to recognize the office of “Lay Reader” in the Church of Ireland; and to licence men thereto. Thus began, on this island, the ministry we celebrate today. From those seeds sown 100 years ago, 1000’s of people have served our God, with faithfulness and dedication, as Readers in the Church of Ireland.  Today, around 300 Diocesan Readers and many more as Parish Readers, serve, as requested and authorized by their Bishop and Diocese. To all our Readers throughout our Church we say, and please hear this, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tina Baxter, the Principal of St. John’s Nottingham (and a Reader) has written in the book Bridging The Gap: Reader Ministry Today,

“Readers have been part of God’s good gift to the church, in order that his people may worship, learn, receive pastoral ministry, obey God and continue in His mission. Readers are not an essential part of God’s ministerial provision; other times and places may not have Readers, but they have been one of the lay ministries which God has used to grow His church in this part of the world in modern times.”

Similar comments could be made about Readers and their ministry in the Church of Ireland. Readers have played an important role in the worship and witness of many parishes. They have served. They have supported. They have helped. They have taught. They have cared. They have been a blessing right across our church. Often they have worked out their calling with humility and effectiveness. It is right that we celebrate and give thanks.

In this sermon I make a Call to the Church and a 3-fold call to Readers. Firstly...

A Call to The Church

After the centenary we celebrate today it is wise to take stock and consider the nature of God’s call to His people, the needs of the Church today and the changing patterns of relationships and values in 21st century Ireland. We live in a very different world to that of 1909. Just think...it was before the World Wars of the 20th Century, it was before the invention of Sat Navs, computers, TV and Facebook.

In a book written about Home Life in Ireland on Achill Island in 1909 we read...   "... Here amid the gloom and the dark wind, rises a land populous in parts with cottages as a city with human beings. It is a place of tiny dwellings and tiny farms. Out in the fields you see the women labouring and bringing wonder into the rocky darkness of the island with their heavy petticoats of red and blue that you will not surpass for colour in a Titian. The men dig the earth into strange shapes - furrows and ridges that you would conceive might be dug blindly by night. The social spirit is here, however, making continual war on the hungry bareness of things. The people delight in dancing and song and old men scrape a living from twittering fiddles on the earthen cottage floors in the evenings."
(from 'Home Life in Ireland', quoted in Mary Cosgove, 'Paul Henry and Achill Island', in Ullrich Kockel (Ed), 'Landscape, Heritage and Identity', pub. Liverpool University Press, 1995

Now we have twittering of a different kind. On the Stephen Nolan Show twittering has been described as the “ego belching of the terminally insecure!” In 2009 we spend hours on the Blog and only a few are in the bog turning furrows and ridges. We are in a different world. Reader ministry began in our church at a time of familiar and relatively fixed social patterns and attitudes. Methods of communication were quite different to those today. We are now in a totally contrasting society and a new Ireland both North and South.

Samuel Escobar the famous missiologist has written,

“Before searching for methods and tools for communication of a verbal message we must search for a new style of missionary presence relevant to this moment of human history.”

Is it now the time to revisit what it means to be a missionary presence in 21st century Ireland? Is it time to reconsider models of ministry both lay and ordained? Is it time to engage in a major exploration of expressions of lay ministry, including Reader ministry, which are needed and relevant in our generation? Do we need to look again at the ministries of evangelist, permanent Deacon, prophet, teacher and pastor? The Church of Ireland is already engaging in serious thinking about ministry through our Commission on Ministry, our new Theological Institute, and in various Dioceses. The Diocese we worship in today is exploring and developing new expressions of lay ministry which are creative and pioneering. Have we sometimes in our parishes misunderstood and diminished ministry including the ministry of Reader?

Readers are not stand- ins nor stop gaps but important members of a ministry team.

Readers are not clergy, nor should they try to be clergy, nor should they be perceived as   clergy. They have a valid ministry which stands on its own.

Readers are not self-appointed but called by God and recognized by the Church. 

Reader ministry, like all ministries, is a response to God’s call.

The Church is called to serve the purposes of God in each generation in ministries which are life changing and life giving. Expressions and patterns of ministry will change and develop.

A culture obsessed with celebrity whether it is in a jungle, a Big Brother house or a Late Late Show, needs to remember that God is more interested in character than celebrity. He is more concerned about the kind of people we are. The kind of people we are when no-one is watching. He is the God of the heart, the inner life, not the PR image. Have we not prayed for years, “Let your ministers be clothed in righteousness” and O God, make clean our hearts within us?” It is not wearing clerical robes which ultimately will matter. It is wearing robes of righteousness which ultimately will really matter...and they are a gift from Christ the Righteous One. It is not position but selfless Christ like service which is the ministry Jesus modelled and endorsed.  The vision of Christ is a mobilized army of Kingdom people, not a clericalized caste. He sends us out into the world as His agents of love and His ambassadors of Good News.

If any country in the world knows the vital importance of integrity of character and purity of living it is Ireland. Only this week we have been reminded again of the catastrophic personal pain and deep aching wounds caused by those serving in the Name of Christ but who have known nothing of the real Christ, the Friend of children.  By their actions, lives have been destroyed and dreams have become nightmares. In the Church in Ireland today we are called to wash Christ’s face. We have dirtied and distorted His face through priestly lust, sectarian hate, selfish pursuits, loveless relationships, inconsistent living, divided churches, and rebellious resistance to fresh winds of the Spirit. We wash Christ’s face when we heed what Paul is saying and watch our lives!   If the life of the messenger is not a living out of the message, then we dirty Christ’s face, we cause Christ to weep and we deny the Gospel. How different when someone interviewed about his call to ordination reveals how his journey began, “I first saw Christ in my minister!” Many have seen Christ in the lives of Readers and more will, if we watch our lives and are repentant, real and righteous.

Watch your doctrine!
“Watch your life and doctrine closely.”       1 Timothy 4:16

Paul says to Timothy “Watch your life and doctrine closely.” In contrast to Parish Readers, Diocesan Readers are authorized to preach. It is a great privilege to preach and teach. However the Apostle Paul encourages us to watch our teaching closely. False teaching is not our call. Faithfulness to the Gospel is our call. We are to teach the Word of God, not the opinions of people. We are to pass on what has been passed on to us from the Apostles. We are to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom, the faith once delivered to the saints. We are to preach Christ, Christ crucified, not ourselves.

On the Pectoral Cross I was given when I became a Bishop I have the reference, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Paul says to the Corinthians “I came among you with much fear and trembling” Do we ever feel like that on a Sunday morning as we enter the church to serve as a Reader? Paul goes on, “But I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”  We preach Christ! We teach the Scriptures for as our Epistle reminds us, the Scriptures are God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. What a person believes determines how he behaves. It is a priority to watch our doctrine, our teaching, our beliefs.

Do your best! 

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”    2 Timothy 2:15

Paul urges Timothy to do his best...no shame and no regrets.  He is to correctly handle the word of truth. He is to set others an example in faith, in love, in speech and in purity. He is to pursue righteousness. He is to practice what he preaches. His behaviour in marriage and family life should be in line with his teaching. He is to give and to do his best. This is also our calling.

For many years Admiral Hyman Rickover was the head of the U.S. Nuclear Navy. His admirers and his critics held strongly opposing views about the stern and demanding admiral. For many years every officer aboard a nuclear submarine was personally interviewed and approved by Admiral Rickover. Those who went through those interviews usually came out shaking in fear, anger, or total intimidation. Among them was ex-President Jimmy Carter who, years ago, applied for service under Rickover. In his book “Why Not the Best?” Jimmy Carter writes...

“Finally he asked a question and I thought I could redeem myself. He said, "How did you stand in your class at the Naval Academy?" I had done very well and I swelled my chest with pride and answered, "Sir, I stood fifty-ninth in a class of 820!" I sat back to wait for the congratulations--which never came. Instead, the question: "Did you do your best?" I started to say, "Yes, sir," but I remembered who this was and recalled several of the many times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies, our enemies, weapons, strategy, and so forth. I was just human. I finally gulped and said, "No, sir, I didn't always do my best." He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget--or to answer. He said, "Why not?" I sat there for a while, shaken, and then slowly left the room.” 

The title of Jimmy Carter’s book came from that question Why Not the best?

It’s a good question. Let us rephrase it, Why not the best for our God? Whether we are Bishops or bakers, priests or pilots, deacons or drivers, Readers or receptionists we are called to do our best and give our best to God.

Thank you to all who have given their best in Reader ministry in the Church of Ireland in the past 100 years. May we continue to pursue excellence and give our best to the wonderful God who has given His very best in Christ. Surely only the best is worthy of our God!

Bishop Ken Clarke