The Archbishop commented particularly on diocesan renewal, the link with Connor diocese, human sexuality, education and inter-faith relations at the annual synod of Dublin and Glendalough in Taney yesterday.
The following is an extract from Dr Jackson’s address:
CONNOR–DUBLIN AND GLENDALOUGH PARTNERSHIP
The emerging links between Dublin and Glendalough and Connor Dioceses give us a unique opportunity to recognize the close relationships which we have across the Church of Ireland. In a time when there is now a generation of young people right across Ireland who have no knowledge of what The Troubles were, because they, mercifully, did not have to live through them, we are being called to live out our Lord’s command to love our neighbour and to test in public what this means. All of us are still rather positively taken by surprize by the fact that Queen Elizabeth ii and Mr Martin McGuinness shook hands. Each of these gestures and steps builds on the last and moves everyone forward in terms of good neighbourliness. The partnership has so many possibilities and I have every confidence that, as it develops, more and more people in the Dioceses will contribute to it and enjoy it. It will give us the permission to explore the grey areas which we would all rather hide and maybe blame on other people. It will enhance our capacity to talk about our faith openly and with others. But Dublin and Glendalough have the great advantage of being cosmopolitan in our membership and confident in who we are. This helps us to take up invitations and make them work for everyone concerned. Already we have had members of inner–city communities in Dublin and Belfast meet one another. Those most recently ordained have shared retreats for ordination to diaconate and priesthood and the bishop of Connor has preached at an ordination in Christ Church as have I at one in St Anne’s Belfast. The request and appeal has come to Diocesan Councils that we work together on fresh developments in church life and in youth work. The bishop of Connor is eager to do all of this with us, as am I. The bishop of Connor and I are fortunate that we both recognize the need for close collegial work in a position which often can be lonely and isolated and just too packed with commitments! This gives any bishop an insight into the loneliness which laity and clergy have in the life of the church and in everyday things also. There often is an idea that clergy generally can cope easily. The argument is that this is what they are for: to enable others to cope and therefore they must be able to cope themselves. Tragically we see, far more often than we would wish to, that this is not the case. And our heart goes out to those for whom the struggle is too much and to those who live with the sadness of the struggle after people have failed to cope. Lay people and clergy have a responsibility of compassion and care for one another and we always need to remember that this is a primary calling which too easily can get lost in the transmission of the priority of what is simple and effective. To this theme I will return in addressing the most successful recent Diocesan Growth Forum.
CAVAN CONFERENCE ON HUMAN SEXUALITY
When the bishops of the Church of Ireland decided to hold a Conference on Human Sexuality in the context of Christian Belief, there was considerable interest and commitment shown by people from these United Dioceses. People in large numbers expended their own resources to be there and I spoke with many who not only had high hopes of the Conference but genuinely felt that it had moved consideration of the issue forward in a way which was new to how we in the Church of Ireland do our work as a General Synod. The whole issue of sexuality is intensely private to people and always there is a fear and a risk that open exploration simply deepens the hurt of those who are struggling. There also, of course, is the anxiety that open honesty can lead to inappropriate invasion of such privacy by those who are ever in search of a cause. Many are impatient at the pace of change. Many others are frustrated by the incomprehension of the others – and there are always those whom we call: the others, whoever we are. The priority now is that people who need to talk of themselves in terms derived from their sexuality need to be afforded space by the churches to do so. Frankly, they do not need others talking on their behalf. There may have been a time for this. But we have to move past this log jam of communication to let people speak for themselves and to take ownership of an expression of membership and discipleship in the church.
Patience and understanding are both needed. Many I know to be upset and distressed, as indeed am I, by the outcomes particularly of General Synod. The structure and the mechanism of both gatherings were quite different from one another. In comparing, we are not in fact comparing like with like. The common factor, and rightly, was the people involved. The dividing factor was the sharp contrast between the conversational way of working in Cavan and the parliamentary way of working at General Synod. I have to say that the Conference showed me a quite different way of synodical life. I liked it. And the re–entry to the other way and style of synod was a real shock in relation to this issue. I hope we have learned that our public discourse in the Church of Ireland needs to be much more careful of others. I hope too that we will be able to find much better ways to address the many other complex issues which are on the horizon. We need urgently and rapidly to learn a much more sensitive way of dealing with matters to do with end of life, for example, which will, rightly, preoccupy us during the forthcoming decade. The relationship between these two different explorations of what are the one issue of human identity ought to alert us to the urgency of finding a way which gives space for understanding and for healing when the fracture is about the realities of human life and identity. Human sexuality is part and parcel of this need and we need to respect it as such.
EDUCATION
During the year past I have had the opportunity to visit a number of schools across the United Dioceses, particularly National Schools. I have blessed brand new schools. I have seen extraordinary grants used to enhance the experience of pupils and teachers in other schools and I have had the greatest of pleasure in being part of this new life across the Dioceses. If I may single out one such School – it is the Model School in Athy. A number of aspects of what a school is in contemporary Ireland came clearly to the fore on the day I blessed the new school in Athy. First, of course, there is the sad recognition of the tragic loss of the historic old school which had served the community of Athy for so long. Then there was the generosity of the people of Athy who came to the aid of the Church of Ireland population in their need. The new Model School is a fine building, spacious and attractive, on a VEC campus where the pupils and the teachers have their own identity and their own space. They also have a shared life and shared facilities with all of the others who use that same educational site. I applaud the people of Athy for taking this step and for embracing this opportunity when it came their way. Another thing is striking about Athy. The people who compose the community there represent a coming together of all that is best about the contemporary Anglican Communion in contemporary Ireland. Pupils and parents and parishioners alike all combine to make a most vibrant community of Anglicans witnessing unselfconsciously to the love of God in building and sustaining generous community.
The other great joy is, of course, the grant by the Minister for Education of a new Secondary School in Greystones, to be called Temple Carrig School. This is once again a tremendous tribute to the people of the area of Bray and Greystones and to the clergy who have proved themselves to be true community leaders. The school is to be under the patronage of the archbishop of Dublin and will in fact draw its membership from pupils who come from at least four school sectors: a Gaelscoil, an Educate Together School, Roman Catholic National Schools and Church of Ireland National Schools. This is an exciting development because it draws pupils from a very diverse range of schools into a completely new type of school. My thanks and congratulations go to the people of the community in Bray and Greystones who have done such a successful job in making this successful bid.