The Church Of Ireland
Press Release

This year marks, for me, twenty-five years in the ordained ministry. Although there have been sad times as well as immensely happy times, I can say truthfully that I have found a spiritual fulfilment within almost every minute of that time. In that time, I have always had huge hope for the future of Christianity, as I believe every Christian believer must have. Yes, I have always had hope for the future, but all Christian hope must be based on hard-headed realism not on the complacent assumption that "it should last our time anyway.. " First of all it will not last our time if we do not take seriously the reality of our context. Secondly, Christians are not called to maintain the Church for themselves and for their own time, they are called to proclaim an eternal Gospel to every generation, including those still to come. Membership of the Christian Church is not one affiliation among several, it is the bedrock of our existence. As time goes on,( as I have said often enough over the past four years in these Dioceses) it will more and more be the task of every believing Christian to defend the faith and to explain the faith to those who have either rejected religion or, increasingly in Ireland, have never known Christianity first-hand.

I would therefore again urge you all to make use of the opportunities to equip yourselves to be the witnesses to Christ you promised to be at your confirmation. I am delighted that two parishes (Navan and Mountmellick) are becoming pilot schemes in Ireland for the "Making Your Church More Inviting" (MYCMI) programme of our neighbours Scottish Episcopal Church - MISSION 21, and in the case of St Andrews Diocese in particular, our partners. I would also urge you, if you have not already enrolled, to consider enrolling in the pastoral studies programme being organised by Revd Olive Donohoe, to whom we are very grateful for all she does.

We must look out as well as in at ourselves. I have to admit some disappointment that the only project with regard to education in the past year which did not get reasonable support should have been that to do with the Travellers. What does that say about us as people - That we don't care, or that we don't want to know? Neither of them conspicuously Christian virtues.. But "looking out" involves others also.

Justice and the immigrant

The recent report of the Irish Refugee Council makes shocking reading. Not only are the waiting lists not shortening, but the grounds on which applications are being refused are not consistent. What are technically described as "determinations at first instance" (in other words, a system of quick decision refusals), are often based on generalisations and superficial assumptions. It is the role of the Churches to educate against racism. Let us be clear, racism in any degree and of any kind is an offence against the Gospel. But there must also be education at every age. There are opportunities for doing this in schools and in parishes. Trocaire and UN organisations for refugees have excellent material. There is the Christian responsibility to seek to change attitude. To extend our understanding and sympathy. There is also a bottom line below which no civilised society can fall, but below which I believe that we in Ireland have already fallen. For this reason, I believe that there must also be an effective mechanism to prevent all violent or insulting behaviour towards those of a different nationality or colour. The Incitement to Hatred legislation is a blunt and ineffective instrument. We need a government funded and properly staffed Racial Equality Commission in this country to whom all are answerable and accountable - the government itself and all the instruments of state, including the civil servants, the police, the local authorities, as well as the general public, you and me.

Jubilee

Turning to another fundamental issue of justice, I want us as a diocese to commit ourselves to continuing the 0.7% basic contribution towards third world development. This 0.7% is not the end of the matter. Personal generosity should flow from this. This 0.7% is the beginning, the "institutional" bottom line for us as a Diocese and as a Church if we are to expect others to do likewise. I feel a genuine sadness that we live in a country which prates on about its booming economy, throws money at already rich people in a budget and then makes great play about the fact that it hopes to get to the 0.7% target in overseas aid in another six years, barely having got half-way there so far.

A culture where corruption is acceptable

We also live in a country where, increasingly, corruption no longer has an impact. Already the line is being taken that backhanders and personal influence were always the way that business was done in Ireland so why should we get all moralistic about it now. Despite countless tribunals and enquiries, we've started the process of explaining it all away or arguing that it doesn't really matter. It is true that corruption has always been with us. The Church itself has certainly not been exempt from corruption, nor is it now. But if we as a country or as the Church seek to blur what we know the standards of integrity are meant to be, if we metaphorically move moral goalposts, and pretend that what is corrupt is not really anything more than normality, we are on a slippery slide to utter depravity, whether as a Church or as a country. Again, if we wish for accountability in others we ourselves must be open and accountable.

Church Hymnal

In the wider Church of Ireland, the past few weeks has seen the launch of a new Church Hymnal, replacing the Hymnal which came into being in 1960, being up-dated (if that is the right word) with the addition of Irish Church Praise ten years ago.. In a nation (and a church) of people who are never short of opinions and are usually more than happy to express them, there has been the predictable query, "Why do we need another book?" I think the reasons should be clear enough. The second half of this century has seen a tremendous new interest in church music, in new hymns and songs. If we in the Church of Ireland are not interested in reflecting the reality of the world in which we live now rather than the culture in which our grandparents lived, we cannot reasonably complain if we do not even begin to attract the attention of real people who are actually alive today.. But of most importance, as I have said to the clergy of the diocese more than once, good worship is at the heart of a good parish. By good worship I do not, incidentally mean short worship however much some of you might regard that as a definition of good worship, but worship which does engage every part of the mind, the emotions, the experience of the congregation. That requires work, preparation, involvement and participation by everyone. Music, constantly re-appraised, is part of this.

Church-going trends

On the subject of worship, I would like to draw your attention briefly to recent research on churchgoing in the UK. This reveals a number of trends which may well relate even at the present to Ireland, if we had the courage to accept this. The first is that, yes - no surprise - statistics show that the average number of people in church on a Sunday by Sunday basis has dropped and continues to drop. But more detailed research would suggest that although fewer people do go to church, there is another tendency in that the real difference is that fewer people go to church every Sunday although more people than we might expect do go to church on a less regular basis. You can see how mathematically, this would not show through very quickly in statistics. So, for example, if 100 people go to church every second Sunday, this produces the statistic of an average of 50 people in a church on a weekly basis. We are already seeing this in Meath and Kildare. We can of course say simply that everyone should be in church every Sunday. Yes, they should. We might however also say that the glass is half full rather than half empty and that many people have retained some kind of involvement with the Church but that it is of a different kind than was previously the case. People for example will also come into church on weekdays more than might have been the case previously. The certainty is that today the local church community is changing as society and the mobility of people changes. Today, the notion of a single job for life and living in the same house all one's life is not the ambition of everyone. This is true even in country areas and those who have come from an agricultural background which traditionally produced a more settled community. In church terms this means that the glue of long-term residence and long-term familiarity is no longer holding church communities together as would have been the case even 25 years ago. We are seeing this already in the parishes in Meath and Kildare Diocese closer to Dublin. People coming in for a couple of years and then moving on. These people be sympathetic towards Christian belief. It is our task to ensure that the Church - all its membership and not just its clergy - is sympathetic towards them. Hence the notion of making your church more inviting. I would expect churches in other places to be sympathetic and welcoming towards my family if they turn up as strangers or newcomers in different surroundings. But developing the idea that the local community is not the property of those who have been around for a while will require an enormous change in attitude by everyone.

New research in Christian churches in Britain has also produced evidence of a rather surprising trend. Until now, older people would have been regarded as the backbone of the churches. There is however growing evidence now that numbers of elderly people are in old age jettisoning a Christian faith they had held for decades. Until now, most people would have held the view that belief mellows and strengthens with old age and, indeed, that as people have to confront the reality of approaching death they take their religion rather more seriously. The conventional wisdom has been that we needn't worry over-much about younger people dropping out of Christian involvement because 'leave them alone and they'll come home..', later if not sooner. This casual assumption, it would seem, may well be seriously flawed. Even those who have stayed may think about leaving as they age.

Older people and Church

It would of course be tempting to say that Britain is not Ireland, and that what pertains there may not be relevant here. This, I think, would be the height of folly, and extremely patronising to boot. People do not stop thinking in old age, and they are as aware as anyone else of the challenges to faith presented by a surrounding culture that has less time than ever before for spiritual values of any kind. The Church must take seriously a testing of faith today that is not the sole prerogative of younger people. This is both a pastoral and an intellectual challenge. It will not do to say smugly, "But what is the alternative to Christian believing in old age?" There are many people, no longer young, for whom atheism, let alone agnosticism, is not the unthinkable option it once was. Older people do need proper spiritual nourishment. The Church has to make sense, in the heart and in the mind. That is a challenge for a synod and for a diocese.

Website and logo

The Church has also to reach out to more people. As some of you know, over the next few weeks we hope to launch a diocesan web-site. It will take some time for this to build up but, of one thing we can be sure, more people will chance on the web-site in an average week than will wander by chance into one of our church buildings, even those open on week-days. We are having to communicate in new ways with new people through new tools for evangelism. The internet is such a means now at our disposal. You are also probably becoming aware of our diocesan logo. Although very attractive and professionally produced, this may seem to some of you a strange notion. No, in the world in which we live, the idea of an identity that is quickly recognized is not a luxury. I hope that the parishes will put this new logo to use - it would be good if people could see this sign, a sign that the risen Christ is among us as we seek to work together, as a symbol that immediately identifies Meath and Kildare as united dioceses. We belong together, we belong to this diocese. We belong first to that risen and glorified Christ.