Diocesan News
New Rector instituted in new parish grouping
Friday evening was an important one for the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe’s newest parish grouping – Kilrea, Tamlaght O’Crilly Upper and Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower – as its first Rector, the Rev Gary Millar, was instituted in a packed St Patrick’s Church in Kilrea.
Mr Millar had been Rector of the Grouped Parishes of Ahoghill and Portglenone in the Diocese of Connor for the last six years. He was ordained in Wales, in 1991, and served two curacies in the Diocese of Llandaff, although he is originally from Coleraine and was educated at Coleraine Academical Institution.
The Institution Service was led by the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, the Rt Rev Ken Good, who welcomed the congregation in St Patrick’s Church to what he called “a significant night of new beginnings”. It was, the Bishop said, a new beginning for the newly formed Parish Grouping of Kilrea, Tamlaght O’Crilly Upper and Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower, who were receiving their first Rector together. It was a new beginning, too, for the Millar family, and particularly for the Rector, who was being instituted “among new people, in a new situation, in a new house, with new neighbours, in a new community”. For the Rector and his wife, Gillian, it was “a step of faith, a step into the unknown,” the Bishop said. They were taking that step for one reason only – the conviction that God called them to their new parishes.
Bishop Good, who preached the sermon at the Service, said he felt for the people of Ahoghill and Portglenone, many of whom had travelled to Kilrea for Friday evening’s Service. He was certain, though, that they would have no hesitation in assuring Mr Millar’s new parishes that they were welcoming “a wise and gifted and godly pastor, who was faithful and committed and hardworking”.
Tears were shed, the Bishop said, over Rev Millar’s departure from Ahoghill and Portglenone. The Gospel reading for Friday evening’s Service – John 21:15–19 – had words of farewell, too. The reading concerned the period between the Easter resurrection and Christ’s ascension, and included some of Jesus’s final words on Earth, when he told Peter to “feed my sheep”. Bishop Good chose Jesus’s command as the theme for his sermon.
“It was such an important concept to him,” the Bishop said, “that he said it three times in particular ways: ‘Feed my lambs,’ ‘Tend my sheep,’ and ‘Feed my sheep’. So, it’s fair to assume that there was a key, central thought in Jesus’s mind that was really important for both of them. It’s fair to assume also that all of us clergy need to ask ourselves regularly: ‘Are we feeding the sheep?’”
Bishop Good said this was the thrust of the message he wanted to share, not just with the Rector but also with the people of the parishes present. In farming and in parish life, he said, there was a joint responsibility – a shared enterprise – between the shepherd and the sheep to be fed. He told the congregation that their new shepherd – their Rector – had a key role in feeding Jesus’s sheep, but so did they in being willing to be led.
He said he had a few simple questions: how did sheep get fed, and what happened if they weren’t fed? “The shepherd – or the pastor – does not literally put grass in their mouths. No, the task of the shepherd is to lead the flock to where the food is and make it available to them, but the sheep themselves are required to eat it. There is an onus on the sheep in the feeding process. They must identify food, they must chew it, they must swallow it, they must digest it. It’s not only the shepherd who does the feeding of the sheep.”
Bishop Good said this was a foundational principle that we needed to pay attention to because there were pitfalls if we didn’t. There were two in particular that he wanted to mention. “The first is that church members who expect the Rector to do all the feeding can become passive consumers who complain when it’s not done.”
Preaching and teaching, word and sacrament, and pastoral care were what the new Rector had come to these parishes to undertake, and the parishioners – the sheep – were the beneficiaries of it. “But your spiritual feeding requires something of you – the parishioner – as well. You need to take the word of God seriously as he does; you need to take the sacraments of the Lord seriously as he does. You need to be open to being spiritually nourished as he wants you to be. He will come to you with conviction, with authority, with a pastoral heart, and he will offer you riches of the Lord. He will also be looking to see evidence that the flock of Christ have a desire to be fed in these parishes – and I know you do.”
The second pitfall of not being fed in the way Jesus was describing was that the pastor or the teacher or the priest could become overburdened. In the Old Testament reading (Exodus 18: 13–21), an exhausted and over–worked Moses received advice from his father–in–law, Jethro. “He said, ‘Moses you are carrying each day with you too much of a heavy weight in leading and feeding this flock. You are exhausted by the pressures of deciding and implementing and pushing and shoving and preparing. And people have become overly–dependent on you – waiting for something to be done to them.’”
Bishop Good appealed to the congregation to encourage their new Rector and protect him from his “instinctive desire” to overdo the work. “Remember, he needs to be fed too. He is one of the sheep, as well as being the shepherd.
“But what does spiritual feeding achieve when the sheep are fed?” the Bishop asked. “The result of the experience of being fed is not just that we feel better or feel happier, or that we are entertained. It’s that our souls are replenished to serve the Lord. Spiritual feeding leads to spiritual growth and transformation, for the Lord is allowed by us to do a deep work within us and to change us. And I believe that your new Rector will want to see this happen in you.
The result of the experience of being fed is not just that we feel better or feel happier, or that we are entertained. It’s that our souls are replenished to serve the Lord. Spiritual feeding leads to spiritual growth and transformation, for the Lord is allowed by us to do a deep work within us and to change us.
“In Psalm 23 – the Shepherd’s Psalm – the psalmist reveals that the benefit of the green pastures to which he is led by the shepherd is that his soul is restored and refreshed; there’s a transaction going on in the soul, and that’s what your new Rector will want to see. He is a man of vision, I know, who longs to see the transforming grace of God at work in people’s lives so that it makes a difference.” This was what Jesus did with people, the Bishop said; this was what Jesus did with crowds: “He fed them so that they were transformed and made a difference in the world. My prayer is that this is exactly what will happen in this place.”
Friday’s Service of Institution was the first organised by the Rural Dean for Maghera and Kilrea, the Rev Colin Welsh. Among those in attendance were the High Sheriff of County Londonderry, Mrs Ann Clyde, John Dallat MLA, local councillors, and representatives of other local churches, including the Minister of First Kilrea Presbyterian Church, the Rev Trevor McCormick, and the Parish Priest of Kilrea and Desertoghill, Fr John Cargan.
Mr Welsh also hosted an event after the Service, in the nearby Presbyterian church hall, at which refreshments were served and speeches made, celebrating Mr Millar’s institution.
Mr Millar said he had been asked how he felt on the evening of his institution? “I’ll tell you how I feel: like the father who’s standing outside the maternity ward and waiting for the doctor to come through the door with the news of the impending birth. And the door flies open, and the doctor takes my hand and says, ‘Congratulations. You not only have one, not two, you’ve got three children.’”
The Rector said it was a privilege and an honour to be called to the new group of parishes. “I look forward to working with each and every one of you. I come with great excitement but also with apprehensiveness. I come with great amazement at what God is doing and wonder about what God can do. As a father holds his children he embraces them with love, he prays over them and he encourages them, and he wonders what the future holds. As your pastor, and as your Rector and as your priest, I will hold you in my arms, I will hold you in my heart, and I will hold you before the throne of God in prayer.”
Mr Millar asked those present to pray for him and his family. And he thanked his former parishioners for their love and encouragement. “As I have walked alongside you, you have walked alongside us,” he told them. “As we have taught you, so you have taught us also how to love and to grow deeper with the Lord. So, to you, I say thank you and assure you of our love and prayers.”
Mr Millar thanked those who had taken part in his Service of Institution – the clergy, readers, musicians and choirs – as well as those who had prepared the tea afterwards, and Kilrea Presbyterian Church for their hospitality and generosity in hosting the event.
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Derry & Raphoe
Mr Paul McFadden
028 7126 2440
07525 826290
[email protected]