Diocesan News
The Call to Discipleship – Four New Deacons Ordained in Dublin and Glendalough
Four new Deacons were ordained in Dublin and Glendalough on Sunday September 18 at a service in Christ Church Cathedral. The Revd Rebecca Guildea, the Revd Anne Lodge, the Revd Stuart Moles and the Revd Tom O’Brien have been ordained to serve as Intern Deacons in Zion, Raheny and Coolock, Greystones and Howth respectively.
Opening the service, Archbishop Michael Jackson said that all four people were known to many in the dioceses but now they were to be welcomed in a particular way into the weave and life of the dioceses. The service took place on Dublin and Glendalough Come&Celebrate Sunday and the preacher was the Revd Dr David Tuohy SJ, who was involved in the setting up of the Come&C discipleship programme in the dioceses and who also conducted the retreat for ordinands.
In his sermon Dr Tuohy said that we are all called to discipleship. “Very few of us hear the call to discipleship in quite such a dramatic way that Isaiah [Isaiah 6: 1–8] did but we all receive elements of it,” he said. “Our discipleship seeks a wisdom that goes beyond the superficial to the drama of God’s call to us.”
Those called to discipleship should avoid insincerity and fight against self deception but should accompany others on their journey, opening the Scriptures to them, Dr Tuohy explained.
He went on to say that the journey of discipleship was always undertaken with other believers. St Paul in the second reading [Romans 12: 1–12] points to the tapestry of gifts the Church has through bringing all its people together in one God.
In today’s social environment, he said, “discipleship needs a language that speaks of hope, mutual understanding and community in a way that is new and creative.” He added that there was a need to engage with fundamentalism that sees only one point of view without being open to others, the fundamentalism of science, the fundamentalism which seeks to see people only as a unit of production, political fundamentalism which sees to exclude the voice of religion.
Finally, he reminded those being ordained that the disciple strives to be like the master.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Dublin & Glendalough
087 235 6472
Mrs Lynn Glanville
[email protected]