Diocesan News02 Oct 11

Address given by The Rt Revd Patrick Rooke at his Enthronement Service in St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam, Sunday 2 October 2011

‘Angels of Jesus, Angels of love.’

A verse from our second reading, 1st Timothy, Chapter 6, Verse 18: ‘To do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.’
 
There are many things in life that we do not understand – I’m not just thinking about our individual difficulties at grasping certain facts or philosophies or languages or subjects.
No, I mean sometimes in life we have chance encounters, or moments of great clarity or vision or incidents of coincidence that, when we look back on them, we can see they have shaped our lives beyond our wildest imaginings. Sometimes people turn up just at the right moment to lend us aid or support or encouragement or guidance or suggestions as to the way forward. Sometimes we call them angels – sometimes we really feel they are angels, which is my theme at this St Michael and all Angels-tide, or Michaelmas.
 
But first, some words of thanks to the Dean and Chapter for all the arrangements and planning that have gone into this service of enthronement. For the past number of years I have been a dean myself, and I know only too well how many tasks will have fallen on the Dean’s shoulders. So we are grateful to you Mr Dean for all your hard work and organisational skill, just as I am thankful to you for installing me this afternoon in the ‘Cathedra’ or Bishop’s Stall.
 
Here in Tuam, we are fortunate to have this magnificent ancient Cathedral with its extensive Synod Hall as our Diocesan Centre – and I trust that collectively, as Bishop, Dean and Chapter, and wider diocesan family, we will be able to breathe further new life into it over the coming years, by creating imaginative ways of making it available and opening it up to the Diocese, the local community and the wider tourist industry.
 
I should also like to express my deep appreciation to Archbishop Michael of Tuam who, along with Bishop John Fleming of Killala, travelled to Armagh three weeks ago for my Consecration. I realise that their presence for that occasion said as much about their working relationship and friendship with Bishop Richard as it did about anything else and certainly I would hope to take up where Bishop Richard left off, so I warmly welcome the Archbishop among us again this afternoon. Working with my Roman Catholic colleagues has always proved to be a most valuable and enriching experience throughout my ministry and I am confident, that here in Tuam, Killala and Achonry, this will be no different. Indeed I was delighted that my first public engagement in the Dioceses was on Achill eight days ago,and on that occasion the Archbishop and I presided together in marking the graves dating back to famine times.
 
About a month or so ago, one of the diocesan clergy sent me an email which drew to a close with the words: ‘The diocese awaits your arrival, with bated breath.’ Now I am sure that was meant kindly, although I wasn’t quite sure at the time whether it represented cynicism, enthusiasm or fear! And, perhaps some of you are expecting the new Bishop to use this occasion to set out his stall for the future – what am I going to do? – what is my vision for Tuam, Killala and Achonry and how do I intend to implement all these ideas?
 
If that is what you expect, I am sorry to disappoint you. Although brought up in a Rectory in Dublin, I have never served anywhere further south than Armagh – and although I am familiar with the West of Ireland, my knowledge of  these dioceses is limited – so I would be a very foolish man if I tried, upon my arrival, to tell those of you who know the situation far better than I do, what you ought to be doing! But I am here to listen and learn, so that then, and only then, I can assist and guide. More importantly, I am here to support both clergy and laity to tap the resources and to fulfil their potential.
 
Already, I have been most impressed by what I have read, particularly in the Diocesan Magazine ‘Tidings’, and by what I have seen for myself over the past couple of weeks.
There is obviously much going on in the parishes and a lot of hard and sustained work from clergy and laity alike. And I know there is enthusiasm – that was obvious for all to see at the Special Synod held at Christchurch in March. Despite the shortage of finance and personnel, despite the fact that we are geographically scattered (although it has got to be said things have improved greatly since I was a child and the trip to the West from Dublin was a whole day’s expedition, all crammed into my father’s Morris Minor) the real difficulty, I believe, is in promoting and communicating what is happening here.
 
How do we tell others that the church is active in the West? How do we promote our work and witness to inform others that the church in Tuam, Killala and Achonry is alive and indeed thriving? Certainly, I think we need to ensure that we go on playing our part at central church level thus enabling our dioceses to have the highest possible profile.
For only then can we really expect to be taken seriously by those in the wider Church of Ireland. But in the even bigger picture, in the advancement of the kingdom of God, in a world increasingly unwilling to listen or to show any interest whatsoever, there too we must all play our part.
 
The survival of these dioceses is about much more than the presence of a new bishop, or the calibre of the clergy and what we may or may not do on your behalf.  The survival not just of these dioceses but of the Christian Church as a whole, depends on the commitment and courage and witness of each person who claims Christ as Lord. If our faith goes no deeper than a label we wear, probably as a result of an accident of birth, then it will have little relevance in a world crying out for spiritual grace and meaning.
 
So how can each of us make a difference? What is your contribution and what is mine?   Are we to be a part of that metaphorical company of angel voices round the throne of God?
 
Recently a friend of ours startled me when, quite seriously, she announced that she had seen two angels. Not a woman given to exaggeration or drama of any kind, I did something of a double take! They had come to her, she said, on the London Underground one November afternoon.  I looked at her somewhat askance, but she continued in utter seriousness, that they (the angels) had come in the form of two shaven-headed young men. They had come to her aid, comforted, calmed her when she had taken a panic attack. And just as she was coming round and feeling a bit more like herself, she turned to say thank you to them but they had disappeared. “Surely they were just two young men who were kind to you when you were at your most vulnerable?” I dared to say. “And what else are angels?” she replied.
 
‘To do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.’
 
Each of us will have our own interpretation of such an encounter. Like this lady, we will have had deeply personal spiritual experiences and moments in our individual lives.
For some, it will have been at times of illness or deep trauma; for others it will have happened totally unexpectedly and indeed there may seem no logical explanation for such encounters.
 
The scriptures tell us that Angels appear for an infinite number of reasons – to warn, to guide, to rescue, to announce, to open prison doors. They can enter our lives at the most unexpected of times as indeed for example, we read in St Luke’s account of Gabriel’s visitation to Mary and the ensuing confusion and consternation it caused.
 
When we remember occasions in our own experience where people have come to our help, we realise how much we too have been guarded, protected and guided, often when we were completely unaware of it. God’s presence, sometimes through his ambassadors, is still available for us, unconditionally, if we will but realise it.
 
Scripture demonstrates that the characters such as Joseph, Elijah and Mary to whom angels appeared, differed from us - in that they were quick to recognise and appreciate God’s power working through all circumstances and they were then quick too – to grasp the opportunity they were being given to make a real difference in the world.  Their power to bring about change was valued and used, as each individual felt God was calling. 
 
Our Gospel reading was the well known story of Lazarus and the rich man.  Here we see the contrast between one who has nothing and the other who is wealthy and powerful and has the ability to change so many lives for the better if he chose to do so - not least that of the beggar Lazarus. Not a lot changes; society throughout the world, is still divided between the wealthy and the poor.  And equally pertinent today is the divide between the secular and the spiritual. Lazarus had nothing, but he clung to his God. The rich man had all he thought he needed but, only in death, did he discover that in the things of God, he was the impoverished one.
 
Sometimes, it is the most unlikely people who are glimpsing the vision of God while the rest, so caught up in feathering and furthering their own ends, fail to see the proverbial wood for the trees.
 
Lazarus wasn’t exactly a very attractive specimen, covered in sores as he was, scrounging to pick up the scraps from under the wealthy man’s table.  But God chose him, and that must give us all consolation. God is not necessarily looking for the best qualified among us; nor the most pious, nor the most hard working, nor the most intelligent. God has made us as we are and he loves us. With all our weaknesses and inadequacies,
he chose us and we must never underestimate the charge that is ours.
 
‘To do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.’ Perhaps my friend’s saviours were indeed angels, perhaps they were not.  But we all have the potential within our individual, limited capabilities to bring goodness into this world and to advance the kingdom of Heaven.
 
St Francis believed that our whole life should be a sermon. ‘We should preach the gospel at all times and, when necessary, we may even use words,’ he told his followers. We can all act as examples, as those who through our actions communicate the love of God – and in this sense we are all involved, clergy and laity alike, in the work of ministry and not just here in the Dioceses of Tuam, Killala and Achonry but on a much wider stage, on behalf of the church universal. We are not angels, as the Bible portrays angels to be, but that same spirit of helpfulness and kindness and compassion and love is still very much in evidence in this world, secular and sinful though it may seem on so many occasions.
 
So let us not despair, for the spirit of the Lord is alive in these dioceses and, let us be thankful for those whose goodness and kindness radiates Christ’s love and who, in a very humble, understated way, may have striven to make a difference, the significance of which may never have occurred to them.
 
If you will look at the Episcopal Crest for the Diocese of Tuam on the front of the Order of Service, it is not without significance that on either side of Mary, to whom this Diocesan Cathedral is dedicated, are the Bishop and an Angel. The Bishop must play his part ‘in doing good, being rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share’, but so too must you the clergy and people – God’s holy angels. At this Enthronement Service, I pledge to play my part as best I can. And I must ask you – will you play yours?

+Patrick