Day 2
Synod Agrees to Seek Ways of Enabling Church to Deal with Trauma of Troubles
Synod Agrees to Seek Ways of Enabling Church to Deal with Trauma of Troubles
Members of General Synod have passed a Private Members Motion requesting the Church and Society Commission to explore, and if necessary recommend or draft resources which will enable parishes to engage pastorally with and care for individuals and communities that are still deeply affected by trauma from the Troubles.
Proposing the motion the Revd Raymond Kettle said he had heard stories from many people who had been affected by the Troubles. He suggested that there wasn’t a parish in Northern Ireland that had not been affected by the Troubles.
“The heart I have that motivates this motion, is that we as a Church would not be complicit in treating ‘the Troubles’ like some often do – like a dark stain on the carpet of our history – and hoping that if we just move a piece of furniture over it – then hopefully that’ll deal with it and no one will dare bring it up again,” he said.
He continued: “Because these are real people. These are people for whom Christ died. These are people whom Christ loves. And I suspect that at least in every parish in Northern Ireland there isn’t a single community that wasn’t affected by what happened during ‘the Troubles’ – whatever side that may have been – whether that be the one individual or the many in the community.”
Seconding the motion, the Revd James Boyd (Connor) spoke of the difference between people who had lived through the history and those who were now learning about it as history. He said that the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was being celebrated this year and that no one wanted to return to the violence of the past. However, he said there was a need to deal with the legacy of the past.
“We as a church need to help people to not just survive but to thrive. We need to help those who still feel the pain and who are lost and sidelined. There may be no right answers because everyone has experienced it differently. We cannot leave the victims’ voices silent for longer,” he said.
Dean Stephen Forde (Connor) supported the motion conscious that for many of the clergy of the Church of Ireland it was personal. The motion sought resources to support people who continued to minister to people who experience trauma as a result of the Troubles. “You have to be over 30 to remember the Troubles. We can easily feel that the trauma of the Troubles has already been dealt with. The moving on of society must not be the forgetting of those who were deeply traumatised by the acts of violence. It is seeking to have our Church provide resources sensitively,” he said adding that memory and remembrance were incredibly powerful and the motion asked for ministry to help people deal with memory well and move from being victims to survivors.
Archbishop Michael Jackson, chair of CASC, said he had every confidence that those who had listened had been moved with comprehension and compassion. He said there were households where there was silence and non–communication, where people could not talk of things that had not gone away and were very much part of the weave of their lives. He said he supported the motion and hoped to move it forward within the life of the Church of Ireland and across communities affected by it. “We would seek, if synod agrees, to meet with you and talk with you. You have put your fingers on deep pain and sensitivity. Thank you for your courage and for the personal reminiscences which are intensely painful. We cannot move forward without specific memories. If the synod passes this we will take it seriously and do our utmost to bring it forward,” he said.