Editorial
The Ulster covenant was being celebrated and analysed in the media as this issue of SEARCH was going to press, so it is good that we can start off this autumn with a trio of articles considering not only the Covenant but the decade of mould-breaking - even seismic – events it led into. Bishop John McDowell, who chairs the C of I’s Historical Commemorations Working Group, leads off with an overview of the Decade of Commemorations, urging that we “listen carefully to the whole story”. There follow reflections relating to the Decade from two different perspectives, reminding us of the respectable unionist tradition in the South (Wilfred Baker) and noting also the positive attitude to the events of 1916 expressed by distinguished Church of Ireland preachers in the jubilee year of 1966 (Aonghus Dwane).
A second trio of articles on sexuality issues seems inevitable – with apologies to those who have had more than enough of this church-dividing subject. All the material is designed to foster much needed thoughtful discussion rather than polarisation. Bishop Michael Mayes’ article, spontaneously offered to SEARCH, charts his own journey through the territory in relation to the biblical texts and the community issues. Ron Elsdon poses questions from the conservative side which he would like to discuss dispassionately with those who support the LGBT agenda; and Tom Gordon, stating and then setting aside his personal situation, offers some important social analysis from recent surveys for our consideration. Context in relation to Christian biblical interpretation, practice and mission is one of the issues which is basic to the sexuality discussion, so it is felicitous that Keith Scott’s article “Missionary Gospel – the challenge of changing contexts” was available at this time. There follows a vital consideration of the value and practice of “pastoral supervision”, a discipline from which all ministers should benefit, by Diane Clutterbuck, a leading practitioner in this field. Finally, marking 350 years since the 1662 Prayer Book, William Marshall offers a concise summary of our common worship since the Reformation, leaving some space for our book reviews. And this editorial concludes with a plea to subscribers to forward their 2013 subscriptions before the end of the year to our new treasurer, Mr Michael Denton, also their 2012 ones, if this remains to be done. Detachable subscription forms are at the back of the journal.
THE CHURCH of Ireland is engaged in a sustained process in which people with various differing and sometimes divergent convictions are seeking to establish what an official church position might look like on issues to do with sexuality...
Michael Mayes’ article charts his own journey through the territory in relation to the biblical texts and the community issues. (Former bishop of Limerick and Killaloe)
In Ireland the past can be at least as unpredictable as the future. So the imminence of a welter of centenaries marking very significant political events, North and South, was not necessarily a prospect of unclouded attractiveness to civil society or to the Churches.
During my childhood and youth in the 1950s and ’60s, historical commemorations were an ever-present feature of public life in the Republic of Ireland. Every Sunday, or so it seemed, members of the government and various other politicians attended a ceremony in memory of one or another of those who had died in “the fight for Irish freedom”. These events were reported fully on Radio Eireann, and subsequently on Telefis Eireann. The most frequent venue was Arbour Hill, though they took place at numerous places around the country as well, and mass or a decade of the rosary generally seemed to be a feature. Most of those attending – Eamon De Valera, Frank Aiken, James Ryan, Sean McEntee, etc. – were “Old I.R.A. men”, who had taken part in the events of 1916 – 22, remembering deceased colleagues with whom they had fought. Commemorations also took place, of course, for those who had taken the other side in the Civil War, but with Fianna Fail almost permanently in government during that period, their particular view held sway.
In 1966, the Government in the Republic prepared elaborate plans to mark the Golden Jubilee of the 1916 Easter Rising. The Commemoration Committee’s programme was announced by Taoiseach Seán Lemass on February 11th, and featured religious ceremonies, military, public and children’s parades, the opening of the Garden of Remembrance, the unveiling of the Thomas Davis statue in College Green, Dublin, a pageant at Croke Park and numerous other cultural events. There was a determined effort to include all sections of southern society and the official programme set the agenda for local initiatives. On Easter Monday, there would be religious ceremonies throughout Ireland, including Solemn Votive Masses, “Church of Ireland services and special prayers in Diocesan Cathedrals”.
During the current civil partnership controversy, the phrases “the plain meaning of scripture” and “we have no choice but to obey” have been used on several occasions, often in the context of persuading people not to accept same-gender civil partnerships in the life of the Church. “Scripture explicitly condemns such unions; therefore Christians have no option in the matter,” is the assertion.
The Church of Ireland is engaged in a sustained process in which people with various differing and sometimes divergent convictions are seeking to establish what an official church position might look like on issues to do with sexuality. In particular, the process is to do with the nature and validity of homosexual relationships and the issue of gay marriage or civil partnership. Some of the exchanges have been thoughtful and courteous; others have been vitriolic and dismissive. What makes this particularly regrettable is that, given the current public mood on such issues, animosity tends to become public news.
THIS PAST year has seen controversy in relation to my entering a legal union with my male partner of twenty years. This was a relationship about which there was no secret nor any lack of transparency regarding my identity as a gay man. In this context I was appointed to a range of full-time and part-time lecturing positions in the Church of Ireland [six in all] after which I was nominated and installed as Dean of Leighlin and Director of Adult Education in the Cashel and Ossory diocese. In spite of the transparency regarding my relationship, the registering of our Civil Partnership became the focus of controversy. Much of the reaction has had a highly personal focus, both negative and positive. There has certainly been a robust and public expression of views not least in the convening of the Cavan conference on Human Sexuality. This article is a contribution to the discussion. As I am the one who appears to have been the “cause” of the controversy, it is a thus a view from the Naughty Step.
In the summer of 2002 my family and I moved to Zambia, where my wife Lyn and I were to work as a lecturers in the Anglican Seminary of St. John the Evangelist in the Copperbelt city of Kitwe. That sentence, a simple statement of fact, is problematical. What do I mean by summer? An Irish summer is somewhat different from the tropical rainy season which constitutes Zambia’s summer. But the real problem with that statement is that it does not actually tell you at what time of year we moved from Ireland to Zambia. The two countries being in different hemispheres, what is summer in one place is winter in the other. So I have to be more precise and say that we moved sometime towards the end of June, mid-summer in Ireland, mid-winter in Zambia.
I was recently running a Pastoral Supervision Skills course for ministers, ordained and lay. The major concern for the participants as the course began was to know what is meant by the term “pastoral supervision”. We started by exploring the group’s experience of giving and receiving supervision of different kinds. The two course facilitators then did a demonstration of a pastoral supervision session. This was not a role-play, it was a live supervision using a real live piece of ministry the supervisee wanted to explore. We invited the group to observe the session and feed back to us, what they saw/noticed, what they wondered and what they realised as they observed the supervision taking place.
The reformation of worship The first Prayer Book of the reformed Church of England was introduced in Ireland on Easter Day, 1551, in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Under Henry VIII the Church of England ceased to be in communion with the Pope but the reform of worship only happened when Edward VI was king with the issue of the 1549 Prayer Book. Its chief architect was Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)1, whose aim was not to change completely the church’s worship but to purge from it what was unscriptural or superstitious, to ensure that the Bible was read systematically in services through the year, and to encourage lay people to take an active, vocal part in worship. For this reason worship was in English rather than Latin. The whole book was meant to be user-friendly both for priest and people. Hence the services were simplified and the service books of the medieval church were combined in one, The Book of Common Prayer.
