Diocesan News
The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke's Presidential Address to the Meath and Kildare Diocesan Synod
MEATH AND KILDARE DIOCESAN SYNOD
Saturday 23 September 2006
Wilson?s Hospital School, Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath
Presidential Address by the Bishop of Meath and Kildare
The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke
Extract - the first part of the address deals with matters internal to the dioceses
As usual I am taking a particular theme for the second part of my address and this year it is summed up in one word, Children. It was after I had prepared what I wanted to say here that I spotted that a child is in fact at the core of the Gospel reading tomorrow, as Jesus tells his disciples that whoever welcomes a child in his name is in fact welcoming him.
I want us to think for a few minutes about four particular aspects of our dealings as Christians in these dioceses with children.
SAFEGUARDING TRUST
The first is one which is probably the most problematic at present in the everyday work of the diocese. It is, of course, the whole matter of Safeguarding Trust, the Church of Ireland?s code of good practice for working with children. I know that it is far from easy for any parish, and particularly small parishes, to implement rigorously the code, with its exacting demands which are not only on how adults must be extraordinarily careful that nothing they do or say could be misconstrued by an individual child who now - more than ever before - is almost encouraged by our culture to be on the look-out for adult misbehaviour towards them. There is also the vetting, the keeping of records, the updating of procedures, the specifics of the physical environment in which events involving children should be held, and also the constant feeling that things will become more, rather than less, restrictive as time goes on. I would want to say two things:
The first is that the Safeguarding Trust code is not an option, or even primarily moral sense (which it is), but it is also a legal requirement. The code is kept very much in line with the demands of the state on the matter and the Church of Ireland rightly now makes the code not just ?good practice?, but mandatory for dioceses and parishes. The diocese is charged with ensuring that its parishes are implementing the code in every detail. And this is as it must be. In this context I want to thank the Dean of Clonmacnoise, Dean Robert Jones, for keeping this before our eyes and for facilitating the process for the whole diocese keeping itself up-to-date on the demands of the code. No Christian tradition in this country - particularly in view of our experiences in Ireland over the past ten to fifteen years - could dream of setting a lower standard than the state requires. It would not only be moral irresponsibility, it would be illegal. In fact the Church of Ireland, so far as I can judge, does set the bar slightly higher than the State necessarily demands, and this is also as it should be.
Secondly, however, there is another matter ? how are we to respond to the demands the Safeguarding Trust code makes upon us? There is, I know, every temptation for people to say that this marks the beginning of the end of children?s ministry within the Church, and let us be clear that ?children?s ministry? is not simply adult ministry to children, it is also something equally important - children?s ministry to us as adults, something deeply precious, profoundly significant, and nothing less, I believe, than a grace of God.
And the temptation to see Safeguarding Trust as a reasonable obstacle to advancing work with children and young people is therefore one which we must at all costs resist. Yes, it does mean great care and great trouble have to be taken. We could even say, without being either irreverent or flippant, that the reference in tomorrow?s gospel passage to Jesus taking a child in his arms is somewhat poignant, given that Safeguarding Trust could certainly not approve of such behaviour. The reality is of course that we live in different times and are carrying very different baggage in our culture, but we must not let anything prevent us, as the Church, from encouraging and caring for the children of our local Church communities. If children were ever to believe that they were not loved by the Church because the adult members of the Church were more anxious to avoid risking a false accusation against them than to nurture and encourage the faith of Christ?s little ones, it would be Christ on whom we had turned our backs. Yes, it will mean more work and more care if we are to do our duties and follow a code of good practice, but never let this be the cause for us to allow children?s ministry in these dioceses to falter.
CHILDREN?S MINISTRY IN THE DIOCESES
The second strand in what I want to say is in relation to existing ministry among children in Meath and Kildare. There are two places where a child is given particular impetus in the nurture of their religious faith - the home and the school. I would like to suggest, very strongly, that we must - as parishes and a diocese - give every encouragement we possibly can to parents and families and to our schools. We are indeed fortunate with our schools in this diocese, obviously in the teaching staff and in their Christian concern for the children under their care, but also in the loyal and committed service of our clergy, of parents and of friends of the schools through the boards of management and the various committees. Most of our national schools, over the past few years, have had major development or refurbishment programmes completed. This is very encouraging. We are also fortunate to have a diocesan secondary school which takes its role as a reflection of the Christian faith in its Anglican manifestation with such utter seriousness.
But the teaching profession is a far more arduous and demanding matter than it was a generation ago or even ten years ago, and I want to thank our teachers - both at primary and at secondary level - for what they might not describe as such, but what is truly their ministry in Christ?s little ones. Obviously I would also like to express our joy throughout the diocese at the new (or renewed) innovation of the diocesan schools? service earlier this year, and for the re-designing of the whole Bishop?s Medal project. In particular four people must be thanked : Canon John Clarke (who has really carried the Bishop?s Medal scheme for a number of years) and Revd Lynda Peilow deserve our gratitude that this exciting new development was urged forwards, and we thank Mrs Margaret Dunne, secretary of our Board of Education, who put a huge amount of time and effort into the logistical and administrative aspects. Dean Robert Jones ensured that the Cathedral in Trim gave us a great welcome. Indeed, the entire Board of Education gave great and enthusiastic support to what was happening. (There are photos of the event outside on the display boards in the foyer.)
We must continue and expand such a lively and attractive ministry among the children of the dioceses. Many others are involved with children ? some of our youth groups care for younger age-groups and such organisation as the Girls? Friendly Society make an enormous difference to the spiritual nurturing of another group of children and young people.
CHILD POVERTY
It was almost by chance that I became involved in the initiative suggested by Archbishop Eames at the General Synod of last year, 2005 ? the issue of child poverty in Ireland. I mentioned to him, some weeks later, that when the initiative was set up, I would genuinely be interested in some involvement. I perhaps should have known better but in many ways I certainly don?t regret it, but what happened was of course that I was instantly catapulted into a far more central role than I had either envisaged or, for that matter, would have sought.
It has, I think, been both a salutary and a valuable experience for many of us. Our main task, as I suggested from the start must be two-fold. First, we needed to ensure that we co-ordinated and, if possible, helped to streamline the work of different agencies in the Church of Ireland who are already involved in this area. If possible we should try to encourage real co-operation between the different committees or societies and try to have a unified focus.
The second aspiration I had was the usual one ? that this whole project would be more than just blather and rhetoric from start to finish and would actually do something real and constructive to help the plight of children, because life is truly appalling for thousands of children in this country.
The bare statistics of child poverty are horrifying. We cannot pretend we don?t know them or that we couldn?t know them if we wanted - they are, incidentally, readily available from such web-sites as Barnados or the Combat Poverty Agency.
So we know that one in seven children in the Republic of Ireland now lives in what is called ?consistent poverty?. The definition of consistent poverty includes a number of indicators - the indicators for consistent poverty for an individual would include having a decent cooked meal less often than every other day, of having no more than one pair of shoes, of never having new clothes, or of having to do without heating in the house at some point because there is not enough money to pay for it. We know also that the number of lone-parent families in the trap of ?consistent poverty? is now 1 in 5 in the Republic whereas before the so-called celtic tiger came into being, it was actually far lower - 1 in 20 (bad as that might have been)..
Now, as I have said before, if we want to help, but not to know more or to be actively involved in the reality or ? literally ? to get our hands dirty, our best route would be to raise money for an organisation such as Barnados and let them do our work for us. But there must be more. We do, after all, all have political representatives and we will certainly become more aware of them over the next few months ? what will we ask them to do in return for our vote, when it comes to the common good of a sadly fractured society?
We also have to think in terms of our own immediate attitude to those who are clearly suffering poverty. One of the phrases I most like from my friends of Sant?Egidio (of whom more later) is their insistence that part of the working out of the Gospel in the life of an individual disciple is what they call friendship with the poor.
Taken seriously, that phrase implies something very costly. It is not ?be generous to the poor?, important as that might be, it suggests also the willingness to have a real relationship with those who are poor, and that is a two-way thing. It is a total change in mind-set for most of us. It is not a matter of hiring good people to do good things to others on our behalf ? we don?t pay people to do our friendship on our behalf in our everyday lives. Maintaining a friendship is a matter of effort and of commitment. It is also a matter of access. How accessible are we or our church communities to those who need us most? Would someone - a child perhaps - walking in off the street who didn?t look respectable or who perhaps smelt a bit (because they didn?t possess fresh clothes for every day) or who didn?t seem to know what to do in church, be welcomed or be the object of communal embarrassment? ?Whoever welcomes a little child in my name,? says Jesus, ?welcomes me...? Of course we can all say we don?t have the time or don?t have the expertise to deal with children or any others who are living in consistent poverty (and they do not all live outside our diocese..), but we have as much time as we choose to make available, and just how much expertise does it take to show simple kindness or unfussy generosity to another person?
AIDS PROJECT
But my final strand takes us a little further away from our doorstep ? the plague and scourge of AIDS which destroys the lives of millions of children, in particular in Africa. Earlier in the year, at our clergy conference in March, I asked the clergy if they believed that our involvement with Bishops' Appeal might be better served if we were to find specific projects and ask Bishops' Appeal if they would enable us to help these schemes while giving our money through them. They gave this complete support. I spoke also to Mr Adrian Oughton, our Bishops' Appeal organiser for the diocese, and he too agreed that this should serve to re-energise our commitment and give it real focus and force and hence - we would hope - bring even greater support, generous though our support may be at present.
Revd Olive Donohoe is, as most of you know, a member of the Bishops 'Appeal central committee and we have, we think, worked out a couple of very valuable projects for our diocese, both of them to do with the pandemic of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly two-thirds of the 40 million people who are HIV positive live in sub-Saharan Africa, some 26 million. In 2005, there were 14000 new HIV infections every day, of which 2000 were of children aged less than 15 years of age.
Some years ago my son Nicholas, whom some of you know, did a medical elective in Malawi and on his return spoke to us in harrowing terms of the numbers of those admitted to the hospital in which he was working who were HIV positive ? the vast majority in fact, even if they were not being admitted for a specific HIV or AIDS related illness. It encouraged me to think of Malawi as a possibility for a project. It is one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the countries most threatened by the HIV epidemic. Through the Sant?Egidio Community, we have identified a project in Balaka in the southern part of the country, which is to provide a specific piece of apparatus which - put simply - monitors the levels of infection and toxicity (through treatment) of those who are HIV positive or have full AIDS. It will be in a new clinic and will be used for the most part on women who are pregnant or who have just given birth and who might be able to breastfeed their new babies. If the mother-to-child transmission of HIV or AIDS can be reduced or halted, there is some real hope for the future. The particular piece of medical apparatus we?re being asked to provide costs something under 11,000 euro and so I hope that providing this will be just the start of our support for the whole Sant?Egidio DREAM project in Africa ? DREAM, incidentally, stands for Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition. I know that, later in the synod, Revd Olive Donohoe will give you other details of the project with which she has had direct involvement, in South Africa - home of one of our much loved priests, Revd Kevin Ronné. This is also connected with the AIDS pandemic but at a later stage in childhood ? in schooling. Here again there is a link with these dioceses which Olive will explain to you later on.. It is important not only that we try to give generously to Bishops' Appeal but also that we seek to have a real relationship with those whom we are trying to help - in this way we can focus not only our giving but our prayers as well.
I am aware that I have taken you on a speedy, perhaps bewildering and certainly rather harrowing tour of four aspects of your and my responsibility to children. In all these areas, we can help ?
? in ensuring that, as a parish and a diocese, we keep very high standards in our care of children,
? in supporting all those in our parishes, in the diocese and in our schools who have responsibility for the care of our children,
? in showing real friendship and support to those all around us - especially children - who are clearly and obviously existing in grim poverty,
? and in participating generously in diocesan projects to bring hope to those - mothers and children - who are crushed by the spectre of AIDS in another part of God?s world, Africa.
In all these ways, the gospel for tomorrow makes clear, it is Jesus Christ himself we encounter and it is Jesus Christ himself to whom we are ministering, and that can surely be nothing less than an awesome and undeserved privilege.