People of many nationalities gathered under one roof for the annual International Christmas Carol Service in the Church of St George and St Thomas on Cathal Brugha Street yesterday (Sunday December 14).

The service featured music from St George’s Brass Band and singers from the Discovery Gospel Choir. There were readings in Irish, German, Luganda (Uganda), Igbo, French, Malayalam (India), Italian, Filipino and English. The congregation was welcomed by the Rector, the Revd Obinna Ulogwara, who is Diocesan Chaplain to the International Community.

The sermon was given by Archbishop Michael Jackson. Referring to St John’s Gospel he spoke about the long lasting gift of Christmas to the world. 

Many people worshipping at St George and St Thomas’s come from troubled parts of the world and the Archbishop spoke about opposition to the Gospel and to Jesus Christ. He said that that opposition was played out across our television screens and said many in the congregation may have experienced these difficulties.

“This level of punishment we who have grown up in Ireland from earliest childhood know nothing about; although some of you worshipping here, our sisters and brothers, know about it and I have no doubt that you know it first hand. We need and admire your witness and your testimony. We are blessed by your presence with us,” he stated.

The service concluded with a vote of thanks given by the Parish Reader, Gillian Dean, who presented gifts to the Archbishop and the Rector.

Photo caption: Archbishop Michael Jackson, the Revd Obinna Ulogwara and Gillian Dean with St George’s Brass Band.

Dublin’s Civic Carol Service of Nine Lessons and Carols took place in St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, yesterday evening (Sunday December 15) in the presence of the Archbishop of Dublin and the Lord Mayor.

The music was led by St Ann’s Choir under the direction of Charles Marshall. The congregation was welcomed by the Vicar, Canon David Gillespie.

Among those who read lessons was the Lord Mayor, Christy Burke; Audrey Craven of the Neurological Alliance of Ireland and founder of the Migraine Association of Ireland; the President of the High Court, the Hon Mr Justice Kearns; Major Rosemary Chatburn Spiritual Director of the Salvation Army Dublin Homeless Services; Dr Patrick Prendergast, Provost of Trinity College Dublin; President of the Royal Irish Academy, Professor Mary Daly; Judge Patrick Clyne, President of the Hibernian Catch Club and the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson.

Photo caption – Dublin’s Lord Mayor Christy Burke is greeted by Fred Deane in St Ann’s Church.

Dublin and Glendalough’s ‘Prepare a Place’ emergency Advent Appeal to raise funds for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City continues. The appeal aims to raise €150,000 for two projects at the hospital which is run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem. 

The hospital, which is the only Christian hospital in Gaza and serves the entire community, has asked Dublin and Glendalough to support two projects: the installation of solar panels and the refurbishment of the staff on call room.

The non–political appeal is being coordinated by a partnership between the diocesan Council for Mission, the United Society, Bishops’ Appeal and Friends of Sabeel. It is part of a longer term programme to develop a link between the Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and Jerusalem. 

In November, the Director of the United Society in Ireland, Linda Chambers, travelled to Gaza to visit Al Ahli Hospital with her husband and US volunteer, Jan de Bruijn. They witnessed the work the hospital is doing across the community in Gaza. As Al Ahli’s mission statement puts it: “The hospital offers to serve all who seek treatment without prejudice to any religious or ethnic community and irrespective of social class, gender and political affiliation. These services are delivered in a spirit of love and service. Ahli Arab Hospital recognises the value of its staff and volunteers and promotes equal and compassionate treatment with dignity and respect to all”.

The hospital director is Suhaila Tarazi. There are other, bigger hospitals, but Al Ahli is popular in the city, and provides services to all. 

Linda describes the wide range of patients she saw while visiting the hospital from a young mother with her underweight baby and a father whose sons are suffering from skin complaints to women in the mammography department. The hospital aims to meet the needs of the local population and the highest cause of death in Gaza is breast cancer. The hospital has developed its programme in response to figures released by the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics.

They visited the burns unit which, along with the operating theatres, was very busy during the conflict but it remains busy now as the lack of cooking gas in Gaza means the people cook over open fires. While they were there, they saw a woman who had stepped on hot coals and a young man who had burned his arm with boiling oil while deep frying over an open fire. They were both treated with a whirlpool – a tank of water like a mini jacuzzi which encourages blood flow into damaged tissue. The staff were awaiting the arrival of a tiny patient who, while learning to walk, sat on the cooking fire and had severe burns to his buttocks. 

The psychosocial services unit, which was full of children playing a noisy game of follow the leader when Linda and Jan visited, meets another local need. The children had been identified by hospital–trained community volunteers as being in need of psychosocial services as a result of the recent war. The children are mostly resident in the inner city and the refugee camps. They come every day for two hours Monday to Thursday, when they play games to boost self esteem and benefit from art therapy. On Fridays they are taken out for “joyful days” to the beach or to some of the limited free space in Gaza. They are assessed each week, and offered another week if necessary, or one–to–one counselling if appropriate.

After follow the leader, they settled into a large circle and were handed out worksheets and colouring pencils. “The task this day is to draw something that frightens them, something they would like to run away from. Almost all make reference to the war. Some draw very accurate helicopters and tanks. Some draw missiles hitting buildings, and one draws a dismembered body. They all draw from personal experience,” Linda recalls. 

The provision of solar panels will directly meet a need at Al Ahli Hopsital. Currently in Gaza all homes, businesses and hospitals have only four hours electricity per day. Areas are scheduled on and off, and sometimes the four hours will be during the night. Al Ahli Hospital has generators as back–up, and these allow operating theatres and electronic equipment to continue to be used. But fuel for generators is expensive, and one of the generators is 15 years old.

The cost of providing solar panels is €150,000, but this is a very cost effective project as the annual saving on fuel for the generators will be €80,000. It will also be more environmentally friendly. 

The second proposal is for the refurbishment of the on–call doctors’ residence – an apartment on the top floor. It hasn’t been refurbished for more than 15 years. It is in poor condition, and has no hot water. It also needs to be enlarged to provide more beds.

Donations to Dublin and Glendalough’s ‘Prepare A Place’ Advent Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital can be made via Bishops’ Appeal either by using envelopes which are available in all parish churches or by electronic transfer to IBAN: IE BOFI 9000 1749 8394 99 BIC: BOFIIE2D (reference Gaza).

Keep up to date with the campaign and let people know what you are doing by posting on the ‘Prepare a Place’ Facebook page: www.facebook.com/prepareaplace

Photos show:

Suhaila Tarazi, Linda Chambers and Samira Farah

A man being treated in the burns unit.

Children in the psychosocial services unit.

Dublin’s Black Santa Appeal was launched at St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street, this afternoon (December 17). Archbishop Michael Jackson joined the Vicar of St Ann’s, Canon David Gillespie, for the official start of the sit out which will see the Vicar and his team of volunteers collecting money outside the church from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm daily up to and including Christmas Eve.

Taney Junior Parish Choir joined the festivities today and throughout the next week collectors will be joined by different choirs each lunchtime including the choirs of Castleknock NS, St James’ PS, Francis Street CBS, CUS, The Seafield Singers, the Brook Singers, Dublin Male Voice Choir, the Line Up Choir, Kildare Place National School, Loreto College, John Scottus School, the Revenue Choir, Dublin Male Voice Choir and the Steadfast Band.

The Black Santa Sit Out is modeled on a similar appeal, which has been run by successive Deans of St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast for many years. It became known as the Black Santa appeal because of the long heavy black cloaks worn by the clergy to keep out the cold. This is the 14th year that the appeal has been held in Dublin and in that time almost €400,000 has been raised for local good causes.

Last year just under €30,000 was distributed to local charities, among them Trust, The Salvation Army, The Simon Community and the Peter McVerry Trust all of which work with homeless people.

Other charities supported include Protestant Aid, Barnardos, St Vincent De Paul, the Laura Lynn Foundation and Solas Project.

The collectors were out on Dawson Street yesterday and got the appeal off to a flying start by gathering over €7,000 on the first day. Canon Gillespie said the generosity of Dublin people was heartening so early in the sit out.

Every cent donated to Black Santa goes directly to the charities. The money raised by the appeal will be distributed at a special service in St Ann’s in the New Year.

Photo caption: Canon David Gillespie and Archbishop Michael Jackson with Taney Parish Junior Choir and Fred Deane outside St Ann’s Church this afternoon.

It has come to the attention of the organisers of the ‘Prepare a Place’ Advent Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza that the IBAN bank details for Bishops’ Appeal given in some of the correspondence are incorrect.

For those wishing to donate to the appeal by electronic transfer the bank details are: BIC: BOFIIE2D, IBAN: IE31BOFI90001749839499 (reference Gaza). (The digits 31 are missing in some correspondence).

Anyone who has already donated to the appeal via electronic bank transfer is asked to check their accounts as the funds may have reverted to their own accounts without notification if the incorrect IBAN details were used.

Donations to ‘Prepare a Place’ can also be made via Bishops’ Appeal by using the envelopes available in churches, marking them Gaza, and by sending a cheque to: Bishop’s Appeal, Church of Ireland House, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6.

For more details on Dublin and Glendalough’s ‘Prepare a Place’ Advent Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza see www.facebook.com/prepareaplace

At Christmas we pray for peace as we herald the coming of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace. Peace, of course, makes us yearn for the end of war but it also makes us think of dignity. And I mean the dignity withheld and the dignity destroyed by those who have taken to themselves the entitlement to deprive others of their personal dignity and peace. And so the word peace enables us to tunnel right down to the dignity that defines the human person. In this way, the Prince of Peace both gives dignity to those who follow him and restores dignity to those who are touched by him today through the power of the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection.

A few weeks ago, I was in the company of a Christian from the Middle East. As well as listening to his story and the stories of others that he told us, the group of which I was part was able to hear from him what he understood as a theology of martyrdom. He began by telling us that those who write in the Western theological tradition do not now have the building blocks of a theology to address the problem of suffering. When pressed on the point, he gave us three words that for him epitomize a theology of martyrdom: obedience to the Lord in that he suffered and asked us to carry our crosses; hope in such a way that the world should see the hope that is in us and wonder at its source; blessing in being persecuted for righteousness and, in such a way as this, being a blessing to others in society.

As never before the Christians in the Middle East are looking open–eyed at their own invisibility. Their numbers on the ground have shrunk to no more than a trace. Jesus Christ came for their peace and dignity as well as for the peace and dignity of you and me and for the peace and dignity of their oppressors. There is no peace that is not shared. This is the double–edged message of Christmas in 2014. 

+Michael

The Revd Hilary Dungan (pictured) has been appointed interim Church of Ireland Chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin, following the departure of the Revd Darren McCallig who has taken up the post of Chaplain of St Alban’s in Copenhagen in the Diocese of Europe. She will occupy the post from January until June 2015.

Hilary’s association with academic life at TCD began in 1989 with an evening diploma course in Biblical & Theological Studies which she undertook whilst earning her living as music teacher in Brook House School, Bray and as a church musician.

The diploma was followed by a two–subject degree in Biblical & Theological Studies and Classical Civilization which led to B.A. Mod.

Hilary then entered the Theological College and while there also attended the Irish School of Ecumenics. She was ordained to the Priesthood in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, for the Curacy of St Mark’s Parish, Armagh. In 2003 she was instituted incumbent of Portlaoise (Maryborough) Group of Parishes where she served until her retirement in 2011.

Since then Hilary has been taking services as required, including the recent four month coverage of a rector’s sabbatical, and is on the rota for mid–week services at St Ann’s Church, Dawson Street.

Hilary is also a continuing education student in piano and chamber music at DIT’s Conservatory of Music and Drama.

Commenting on the appointment, Archbishop Michael Jackson said: “I am delighted that the Reverend Hilary Dungan has accepted my invitation to be interim Church of Ireland chaplain of Trinity College, Dublin with effect from mid–January 2015 until June 2015. Building on the creative and pioneering work which the Reverend Darren McCallig has done while chaplain, Hilary will bring a warm personality and an open interest in people to this job along with her considerable musical capacity”.

“Prepare a place at your table … is an invitation to each one of you to contribute to a better life of dignity and well–being for the people of Gaza, as Christmas 2014 approaches and is almost upon us. Our intention is to raise €150,000 from right across the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough for the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The Hospital is non–political and is run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East. It serves the need of everyone in need. After everything that 2014 has bought to bear on the ordinary people of Gaza, there is a real note of urgency in my appeal to you for generosity and for money to enable reconstruction and development in the Hospital. People who are sick need good facilities if the nursing and medical staff are to do their work and to give effectively of their skill and compassion. We need money. 

Prepare a place at your table … is something you can do at home, in your neighbourhood and in your community at any time throughout The Twelve Days of Christmas. It is your opportunity to gather some friends and family in your home. All of you can eat together and make a difference to those who will appreciate most of all the friendship in Christ which you will be sharing with them from our United Dioceses. We are doing something unique in the world–wide Anglican Communion. Please make space for a few hours to clear your table for this purpose. Please get the money to us by whatever means is most suitable and most convenient. Please lay your table for those whom you may never meet but who will know that during The Twelve Days of Christmas you made room for them in your heart and at your table … You will enjoy it!

I wish to thank most sincerely all of those who have contributed generously to date and have already gone out of their way to prepare a place at their table for the people of Gaza.

A very Happy Christmas and Twelve Days of Christmas to you and a Blessed New Year,”

+Michael 

Prepare a Place is a Dublin and Glendalough Diocesan Appeal to raise funds for the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. The dioceses plans to raise €150,000 for solar panels for the hospital to ensure a sustainable supply of electricity. Funds will also go to the upgrading of facilities for on–call staff. Read more about the work of Al Ahli Hospital by clicking here.

Donations to Dublin and Glendalough’s ‘Prepare A Place’ Advent Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza can be made via Bishops’ Appeal either by using envelopes which are available in all parish churches or by electronic transfer to IBAN: IE31BOFI90001749839499 BIC: BOFIIE2D (reference Gaza). Cheques may be sent to: Bishop’s Appeal, Church of Ireland House, Church Avenue, Rathmines, Dublin 6 or you may simply hand your donation in an envelope marked Gaza Appeal to your Rector.

For more details on Dublin and Glendalough’s ‘Prepare a Place’ Advent Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza see www.facebook.com/prepareaplace

Photo captions: An extended family enjoying their Christmas dinner and a child who is receiving treatment at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.

A full Christ Church Cathedral was treated to a wonderful Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols last night (Monday December 22). The service, which traditionally tells the story of the Fall and our Redemption through readings and carols, was sung by the Christ Church Cathedral Choir.

In the Bidding Prayer, Archbishop Michael Jackson urged the congregation to read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our disobedience unto the glorious Redemption brought by the Holy Child.

But first he prayed for the needs of the world, for peace on earth and goodwill among his people, for unity within the Church he came to build and especially in the city of Dublin.

The readings were delivered by people who are connected with the cathedral including: Sue Hemmens, a member of the choir; Aonghus Dwane, a member of the cathedral community; Una Caulfield, a cathedral bell ringer; Jean Finch, an altar server; Hazel Graves, a diocesan lay reader; Brian Bradshaw, a member of the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral; Nuala Kavanagh, a cathedral staff member; and Canon Robert Deane, a member of the cathedral chapter. The ninth lesson was read by Dean Dermot Dunne.

Photo: The Wise Men – Members of Christ Church Cathedral Choir preparing to sing ‘We Three Kings of Orient Are’.

One hundred years ago today, on Christmas Eve 1914, the first Irish Service of Nine Lessons and Carols was held in North Strand Church in Dublin (pictured). The service was organised by the Revd David Wilson who later became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

He had seen a reference to such a service in Archbishop Benson’s ‘Prayers’, which was published in 1899. In it there was an outline of a Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.

The service has taken place in North Strand Church for 100 years and to celebrate this, the parish will mark the occasion with a special carol service on Sunday December 28 at 11.00 am. All are most welcome to come along, to sing many favourite carols and hear the traditional language readings.

“…we need to remember in silent grief and in staggering alarm that a man has died in a doorway in Dublin in the same month in which we celebrate God’s stooping to be one of: the poor. And we need to act…”

The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, delivered his Christmas Day sermon in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, during the Cathedral Eucharist on this morning (December 25).

In it the Archbishop spoke of the increasingly distant relationships between people, driven by market forces which mean that we touch, make direct contact with, know and engage with fewer and fewer people in the chain of production, distribution and delivery of things we buy. He compared this to the gap which has opened up between us and God in the modern world.

“The chasm has opened up between our getting something instantly and the range of people who get it to us in all the stages along the way. The gap between us and God in the modern world is not actually all that different. It is based on the fact that we have let the gap open up between us and our neighbour and thereby have failed to see God in our neighbour,” he stated.

The Archbishop said that the political system works to keep ordinary people out of power but at Christmas God came to earth to empower humanity. He observed that Jesus bent low to identify with the nameless masses – the helpless and the harassed anonymous who are so angry with the way things are that they want change – bringing their indignation to the heart of public discourse.

Archbishop Jackson said that Christmas is a time which is troubled for many people – the ill, those with little money with which to celebrate, immigrants, refugees, the homeless, Christians around the world who are facing persecution. He added that we are right to be joyous at Christmas but wrong to be complacent.

“The Market, even when it is functioning, does not create a society of dignity and of welcome. The Market Forces which we tend to worship every day have brought about an inhumanity which now lies at the heart of what it is to be human – until you are rejected, homeless, hungry, persecuted and find yourself joining the anonymous non–persons whose Agenda Jesus Christ has brought to the heart of this world’s agenda: the poor, the homeless, the refugees. We all make choices; not all of us can see them through; not all of us can change them when they unravel as the wrong choices. We need to spare more than a thought on the day when we mark the baby born in a manger in Bethlehem; we need to remember in silent grief and in staggering alarm that a man has died in a doorway in Dublin in the same month in which we celebrate God’s stooping to be one of: the poor. And we need to act,” he concluded.

Archbishop Jackson’s Sermon is reproduced in full below:

Christ Church Cathedral, diocese of Dublin Christmas Day 2014

Reading: St John 1:1–14

A sermon preached by the Archbishop

St John 1.14: And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Just as The Season of Advent was about to shed its grey and steely light upon us at the end of November, I found myself part of a Porvoo Consultation on Ethics and Economics in the Lutheran Evangelical Academy in Bad Boll near Stuttgart. The Academy had begun its life as a caring institute in the nineteenth century, a pioneering place to support and give dignity to those suffering from bereavement and depression. It subsequently flourished as a centre for writing and the visual arts including theology and, after World War ii, began a new life as a place in which German Youth, following the ravages of The Third Reich, might learn all over again politics and citizenship. It was a place which had, in and of itself, responded to what the hymn–writer calls: all the changing scenes of life. 

The first formal contribution at the Consultation was from a Spanish Anglican. He is a pathologist and a priest. He drew us to St Luke chapter 7 where Jesus visits the town called Nain and, on entering the gate, meets the funeral cortege of a young man. The point which the speaker highlighted was that Jesus physically touched the coffin, to the consternation of all, and commanded the young man in the coffin to live. The speaker told us of his own passing through Madrid Airport to the Consultation earlier that day and finding that an African person had died some hours earlier; and, of course, nobody had touched him in that intervening time because of the alarm and threat of Ebola. The instinct of all who passed by was that they should live and not impair the life that was in them or contaminate the life of others. And, ironically, as I re–entered Ireland through Terminal 1 of Dublin Airport at the end of the Conference, the only piece of Welcome Literature was a series of leaflets warning about not bringing into Ireland the same Ebola. I am not in any way naïve about the distinction between Biblical times and the times we live in; nor again about the relationship and non–comparability of Jesus and modern medicine. But I still find the issues around death in these two stories interesting. And I cannot but ask if the default setting of reaction today has finally and definitively become, in the words a friend once offered me: the containment of contamination. 

In the context not only the pre–Advent Consultation, but even more specifically of Christmas itself, the point was comprehensively made. Our world is an economically–driven world not a world driven by care of The Other. The Market and its voracious forces mean that we touch, make direct contact with, know or engage with fewer and fewer people in the chain of production, distribution and delivery as these increasingly distanced relationships and transactions relate to more and more of the things which we buy and on which we depend in everyday living. The chasm has opened up between our getting something instantly and the range of people who get it to us in all the stages along the way. The gap between us and God in the modern world is not actually all that different. It is based on the fact that we have let the gap open up between us and our neighbour and thereby have failed to see God in our neighbour. My friend’s phrase that I used before: the containment of contamination has its flip side in another phrase: the allure of alienation. Much political effort today centres on keeping so–called ordinary people on the outside of power – power for good. At Christmas God came to earth to em–power humanity.

There are of course many other examples from other aspects of life. What is referred to quite openly as Fortress Europe’s Graveyard, the area of water off the coast of Italy where rescue vessels no longer patrol to lift out of the water refugees who are freezing and drowning as they fall from overcrowded vessels, is one such example. And this situation obtains while Syria alone has three million refugees seeking to find new life, new home and new dignity following one of the worst humanitarian crises in living memory. The repeated delaying of Western intervention has in fact rendered every intervention more difficult and less effective.

The gap of which I spoke is a willful gap of decision–making. It is the decision to de–spiritualize oneself, one’s relationships with nature and with the rest of humanity and to turn both nature and humanity into commodities of convenience and, therefore, of disappointment. The poetry of the creation story in Genesis 2 modulates into the social conscience of the prophets: destruction of the environment and neglect of the vulnerable – widows, orphans and strangers – are of a piece with one another. And it does so because the connection between the humans and the rest of creation comes from the inescapably theological vision that we are made of the same substance as the creation.

At Christmas we celebrate creation. The Prologue of St John’s Gospel makes clear that creation is the first gift of God to us. To creation we owe life itself and creation is given to us from and through Christ Jesus. Once we tie in this understanding of God with the understanding of Emmanuel (God with us) from St Matthew, we are brought right to the heart of the Christmas Story as we know and love it and we are brought forward into the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. The stooping down, the bending low, the self–emptying has always been seen as the guiding star and the leading light of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus bends low to identify with the nameless masses, the helpless and the harassed anonymous who are so angry with the way things are that they want change. He brings their humiliation and their indignation to the centre of the public discourse. He relentlessly and prophetically acts and speaks of the Kingdom of God. This kingdom is not only counter–cultural; it keeps forcing the world of self–serving expectations to recognize greed, disease and discrimination and it keeps forcing this same world which God has created to go instead for growth in the areas of reconciliation, wholeness and flourishing. These are the components of the value–system which God wants to replace the values of the kingdom of this world. The birth of Jesus Christ gives hope to the vulnerable that both he and they will rise together. The church on earth is called to a prophetic ecumenism. God’s own economy is built and based on the ethic of mutuality and accompaniment of the vulnerable, the destitute and the homeless. They are what Jesus does.      

If the first gift at Christmas to us is creation, then there is at least one other gift which features strongly in the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. This is the gift of presence. Christmas, as all of us know, is a time which is troubled for many people, as well as being joyous for many more. It is a time of absence as well as a time of presence. Such people may be ill, they may have very little money to contemplate enjoyment, they may be away from their homeland for longer or shorter periods. And in this year they may be refugees and exiles who will never see home again. And in our city there are people whom we have made anonymous by calling them: the homeless and their numbers are rising daily. St John’s Gospel recognizes that we are part of this presence and that Jesus comes to us and abides with us. The question now is: Who is absent from whom? In our day and on our television screens we see persecution and martyrdom worked out in terrifying and unimaginable circumstances. We see it hammered out against the old and the young, against women and children – the widow, the orphan and the stranger – so familiar to us from our own Scriptures. We see it destroying maybe for ever Yazidis in Northern Iraq, as IS sweeps forward and closes down anyone who is different from the new self–styled caliphate which is fast establishing itself in the crucible of faith itself, the Middle East and Mesopotamia. We see it in the many, many people who sit all day long in our streets – looking at little else than the passing shoes of other people, at bags of shopping and at people preoccupied with preoccupation itself. We are reminded at Christmas of what incarnation itself is about – flesh and blood, you and me and all the others wherever they are whom God has created in God’s image and likeness. We are told of the birth of joy and the life of service to the purpose of suffering and solidarity. The same Jesus Christ came to abide, to pitch his tent and to locate among us the glory of God and to be a sign of a different life on earth as it is in heaven.

We are right to be joyous at Christmas. After all the Word became flesh and lived among us. We are wrong to be complacent at Christmas. The Market, even when it is functioning, does not create a society of dignity and of welcome. The Market Forces which we tend to worship every day have brought about an inhumanity which now lies at the heart of what it is to be human – until you are rejected, homeless, hungry, persecuted and find yourself joining the anonymous non–persons whose Agenda Jesus Christ has brought to the heart of this world’s agenda: the poor, the homeless, the refugees. We all make choices; not all of us can see them through; not all of us can change them when they unravel as the wrong choices. We need to spare more than a thought on the day when we mark the baby born in a manger in Bethlehem; we need to remember in silent grief and in staggering alarm that a man has died in a doorway in Dublin in the same month in which we celebrate God’s stooping to be one of: the poor. And we need to act.

St Luke 7.14: Jesus stepped forward and laid his hand on the bier; and the bearers halted.

ENDS

Day follows day and night follows night. This is the simplest pattern of life as we know it and as everyone lives it, the world over. Some of us are asleep by midnight. Some of us find it difficult to get to sleep at all and settle for no more than fitful rest all through the night. But at midnight, whether we are asleep or not, something changes when we move from one day to the next day. At any given point somewhere in the world there is darkness and somewhere else there is light.

New Year’s Eve is one of those special midnights. After the clock has chimed, everything is in a real sense the same and yet time has moved forward. Perhaps one of the most useful things that a New Year can show us is our need to learn to embrace the future. It carries us forward with it. It introduces us to new possibilities, new people, new perspectives. All of these new experiences ahead of us may well frighten us, but an attitude of trust and friendship will go a long way.

For 2015 we remember the same individuals and communities who have suffered terribly throughout 2014 at home and worldwide. We remember the loved ones who are ill and those whom we have lost from our sight in the course of the year past. We ought to remember also the warm summer wind on our faces, the sunglasses to shield our eyes from the brightness, the laughter and the joy of those who matter to us at home and abroad, the ways we have to communicate with them, the positive attitude of children and young people.

We remember the points of celebration that have brought communities together over the past year in the United Dioceses. And we ought to give thanks for the sense of community that is still alive and abroad throughout Irish society.

I wish all of you everything that is best for 2015.

Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin   

By popular demand, and to encourage followers of Archive of the Month to consider buying this high–quality colour publication, the RCB Library opens 2015 on the theme of “keeping the records safe” (which is what they do at the RCB Library) by providing some visual insight to the content of the annual publication of the Irish Society for Archives which devotes its current edition (vol. 21) to the records of the Church of Ireland.

The journal Irish Archives reflects the vast array of materials that are kept safe in the RCB Library. It was launched in the Deanery of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, in November 2014 by the Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan TD, who said great credit was due to the Church of Ireland for gathering its records and keeping them safe.

Referring to the journal’s cover photograph which features American First Lady, Michelle Obama and her daughters viewing the parish registers of Templeharry, County Offaly, the Minister stressed the importance of record–keeping:

“We are all aware that there are parish records. But it is important that they are gathered together and made available to the public. Looking at the cover photo, we wouldn’t have had President Obama’s visit if it hadn’t been for archives because he would have been able to trace his family,’ she said. ‘The gathering of these records and the provision of them to people is a service to the nation. And as a national we rely on these archives because of the destruction of the Public Records Office in 1922.”

Commending the journal, the Minister suggested that it would make interesting reading not just for Church of Ireland people, but for anyone interested in the evolution of modern Ireland.

The volume provides a published platform for the current generation of historians and archivists to reassess and reconstruct some of the complex aspects of Church of Ireland identity which the safe custody and availability of these records makes possible.

To give some visual insight to the journals’ content (produced in full colour throughout) a taste of the illustrative material it includes is given below.

The lead article by Dr Refaussé charts the evolutionary story of the creation of a Church of Ireland archive and establishment of the Representative Church Body Library (RCBL). He pays tribute to those who have looked after an array of parish collections, diocesan papers and miscellaneous manuscripts in local and central custody through the ages before efforts to centralise and co–ordinate record keeping were taken up by an Ecclesiastical Records Committee appointed by the Standing Committee of the General Synod in June 1925.

The Church’s leading historians at the time were co–opted to its membership and included such figures as Revd J.B. Leslie whose monumental work on the biographies of clergy now form a corpus of work – the diocesan clerical succession lists – which provide enriching information about individual clergy, their families and family connections.

Next, Dr Miriam Moffitt (St Patrick’s College, Maynooth) acknowledges the strength of the RCB library lies in its holistic approach to historical documents. Her analysis of a broad selection of late 19th and early 20th–century collections demonstrates how they can be used to explore not only the experiences of the Church of Ireland community of southern Ireland, but also the motivations, attitudes and feelings which underpinned their actions and responses.

Careful analysis of the Church of Ireland Gazette for example revealed this unusual reference to the lack of support within the Church membership for Home Rule during the third Home Rule crisis in 1912.

Later insecurities and feelings of vulnerability during the early days of the Irish Free State are revealed by the Church’s decision to commission the writing of a new history in 1929 (eventually published in three volumes in 1933) which is further explored by Moffitt, and includes analysis of such materials as this letter of the Most Revd John A. F. Gregg, Church of Ireland archbishop of Dublin (1919–39) to Professor Walter Alison Phillips, first Lecky Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin, who was to undertake the task of editing the work.

The exploration of identity issues is followed by the essay by Dr Martin Maguire (Dundalk Institute of Technology) who examines the wide range of sources available to document social tensions within the Irish Protestant community from a class perspective. These include such gems as a parish visitation book including family information about parishioners of St Peter’s parish during the 1840s and the papers of the City and County of Dublin Conservative Working Mens’ Club 1883–1987.

Turning to education, Andrew Whiteside (Archivist and Historian) focuses on the large number of Church of Ireland secondary schools that had past pupils at the front during the First World War and how their memory was preserved by these institutions, resulting in an array of illustrative documentation on paper and in memorial tablets.

Dr Robbie Roulston (UCD School of History and Archives) reassesses the Church of Ireland’s relationship with the Irish state in education using recently catalogued collections of papers including those of the General Synod concerning education and diocesan reports.

A visual dimension is provided by Dr Michael O’Neill FSA (Architectural Historian) focusing on the architectural drawing collections in the Library and ongoing efforts to digitize and make available the contents of these resources online. Focusing on these visual materials, combined with other text–based sources such as the vestry minute books, he shows how it possible to reconstruct how buildings were constructed to various styles and layouts.

Susan Hemmens (Marsh’s Library Dublin) focuses on Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin’s 18th–century music archive of both manuscript and printed materials and draws attention to its uniquely rich informational context.

The volume concludes with Dr Susan Hood’s summary of the RCBL’s effort to reach out to the wider world by showcasing selected collections and updated lists online via the ‘Archive of the Month’ medium, of which this presentation represents the 37th continuous online exhibit.

Copies of Irish Archives are available for €10 at the Representative Church Body Library. Orders will be distributed direct for an additional €2.25 per copy to an address within Ireland or €4.25 per copy for international orders. Please make payments to the Representative Church Body.

 Photo captions:

Top – The cover of Irish Archives Vol 21 which features The First Lady of the United State of America, Michelle Obama, viewing the parish registers Templeharry, County Offaly, during her visit to Ireland with her daughters Sasha and Malia, 17 June 2013. Photograph courtesy of Maxwell Photography, www.maxwellphotography.ie. The Obama family all received copies of Irish Archives vol. 21 as Christmas gifts from a relative and genealogical researcher.

Bottom – Launch of Irish Archives vol. 21 Records of the Church of Ireland, at the Deanery, St Patrick’s Cathedral, November 2014. Back row: Dr Raymond Refaussé, Dr Susan Hood (co–editor) Dean Victor Stacey, Minister Jan O’Sullivan and Ms Elizabeth McEvoy (co–editor). 

Organists, singers and clergy are invited to join Church Music Dublin for Living Worship 2015. This year’s series, which takes place over three consecutive Saturday’s in January, will explore new musical resources in the context of worship. The sessions will take place in the Mageough Hall, Cowper Road, Rathmines, from 10.00 am to 12.30 pm on January 17, 24 and 31.

Living Worship is a course for church musicians, clergy and others involved in parish worship. It has been held since 2006 and explores the interface between music and other aspects of what happens in church Sunday by Sunday.

The 2015 series will take place against the backdrop of Thanks and Praise, the forthcoming supplement to Church Hymnal which will be published in May. Material from Thanks and Praise will be used each week and participants will gain a useful overview.

The first session on Saturday January 17 will be led by the Revd Adrienne Galligan (pictured), Rector of Crumlin and Chapelizod and who will be Rector of Rathfarnham, with Jacqueline Mullen providing musical assistance. They will focus on the Service of the Word with hymns and songs from Thanks and Praise.

On Saturday January 24, the Very Revd Gerald Field, Dean of Cashel Cathedral and Secretary to the Liturgical Advisory Committee will lead a session entitled ‘Morning Prayer: applicable to today’s church?’ with David O’Shea and there will be Canticles with reference to Thanks and Praise.

The Dean of Limerick Cathedral, the Very Revd Sandra Pragnell, will lead the session on Saturday January 31 assisted by Derek Verso. The session will focus on ‘The Eucharist: sign, symbol and space’ with liturgical examples from Thanks and Praise.

Aside from the course content, Living Worship also offers an opportunity for musicians to meet and network. Often the course is attended by teams of rectors and musicians which helps build a shared vision.

The fee is €10 per session (payable on the day) which includes refreshments. Participants are requested to bring a copy of the Book of Common Prayer if possible. For further information and booking see www.churchmusicdublin.org or contact (087) 6683998.

“Communicating your Vocation in a changing world” is the theme of a mini retreat for Diocesan and Parish Readers and other lay ministers across the Church of Ireland next month. The mini retreat will be facilitated by Bishop Richard Henderson (pictured) at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin on Feburary 20 and 21.

Designed to allow Diocesan and Parish Readers or those who exercise a lay ministry authorised by a Diocese (such as a Healing Ministry) an opportunity to reflect on their vocation amidst a changing world, the mini retreat will provide time and space for Biblical reflection, discussion and prayer.

The retreat costs €50/£40 per person (Residential) or €25/£20 per person (Non–residential). All bookings should be made through the Church of Ireland Theological Institute Lay Training Coordinator, David Brown via davidbrown@theologicalinstitute.ie. Reservations must be recived by 12.00 noon on Tuesday February 16.

Same–Sex Issues and the Bible is the title of the five–part series of Bible Studies for Lent 2015 put together by BACI (the Biblical Association for the Church of Ireland) with a view to bringing the Church’s discussion and discernment process on these issues to everyday Christians in the Church of Ireland.

The series has been carefully designed to take note of recent biblical thinking in this area and to offer both traditionalist and more modern ways of considering the key texts. It demands no theological expertise of participants, but does invite groups to ponder the theological, biblical and sociological questions in a non–academic fashion.  It is hoped that it will enable participants to think over the issues prayerfully with respect both for the biblical texts, for one another and for those whose lives are affected by the debate.

The sessions are as follows:

1.     The Teaching of Jesus – extracts from Matthew’s Gospel.

2.     The Prohibitions of Leviticus.

3.     Implications from the Creation Narratives.

4.     Paul’s teaching on unnatural or depraved sexuality. (Romans 1)

5. Sin lists, condemnation, exemption and redemption. (Other Pauline texts with Acts 10–11.) 

The BACI team – on this occasion Canon Ginnie Kennerley, the Revd Dr William Olhausen and ordinand David Compton – hope that this opportunity for people of differing views to study Scripture and meditate together on the issues will assist in the ongoing discernment process in the Church of Ireland. The 36 page booklet cab be down–loaded from www.bibliahibernica.wordpress.com and copies can also be purchased from Best Sellers (The Bible Society) or Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, for €1.50 or £8 for six copies, and from The Book Well (postage included) and St Anne’s Cathedral Belfast for £1.60.

The Bible Study series has been commended by both patrons of BACI, the Archbishop of Armagh and the Archbishop of Dublin.

In his commendation, Archbishop Richard Clarke said: “Although the entire area of human sexuality in the context of Christian belief is deeply contentious for many people (and from many different perspectives), it surely behoves every Christian disciple to listen with genuine respect to viewpoints other than their own, but which are nevertheless held in conscience by fellow Christians. My true hope is that these studies may enable a process of respectful and spiritual mutual listening to continue and, with God’s guidance and blessing, to bring us unitedly closer to His will for all his people”.

Archbishop Michael Jackson said: “My hope and prayer are that the Studies contained within it will contribute to the enlargement of the attentive listening on which we are currently engaged across the Church of Ireland in the area of human sexuality in the context of Christian belief. Both the subject and its content have long aroused significant energy and vigorous argument on the part of many people. My hope and prayer would be that attentive listening might bear the fruit of respectful hearing”.

The Dublin City Interfaith Forum, which has Church of Ireland representation, has called on people of all faiths to stand up to and utterly condemn the violent attack on the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo.

Condemning any actions which endanger the capacity of people of different origins, cultures and religions to live in harmony together, the DCIF said it was actively working to build relationships based on understanding and respect among Dublin’s diverse faith communities.

The group also condemned any incitement to hatred and division. “Respect for and acceptance of the rights of all citizens to practise their religious beliefs in peace and harmony and the rejection of violence are the cornerstones of any society that wishes to claim to be democratic, modern or indeed truly human,” the DCIF said.

It added that it is up to every one, individually and collectively, to work together to create such a society.

DCIF works with interested members of faith communities to deliver interfaith gatherings and activities in Dublin City.

Recognising the diverse nature of the backgrounds of the residents of Dublin, DCIF seeks to provide the space and opportunity for Faith Communities to build relationships with and between Dublin City communities, statutory and voluntary organisations and the residents of Dublin City.

See dublincityinterfaithforum.org for details.

The first Church Review of 2015 is out now. The January edition of the diocesan magazine of Dublin and Glendalough is full of news and photographs from events around the dioceses as well as information on upcoming activities.

In his regular column, Canon Patrick Comerford focuses on TS Eliot, who, he contends, remains one of the great Anglican poets fifty years after his death.

Apart from some seasonal fair there are reports from Christ Church Cathedral where parish choirs sang evensong as part of the music department’s outreach programme, from the Revd Darren McCallig’s last service as Dean of Residence of Trinity College Dublin, Mothers’ Union Autumn Council and the handing over of the keys of the refurbished Donnybrook and Irishtown Vicarage.

As usual the notes section brings news from Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral as well as all the parishes in the dioceses.

All Saint’s Church, Raheny, plans to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Arthur Edward Guinness, Lord Ardilaun, with a concert by Irish Harpist, Anne–Marie O’Farrell, the UCD Choral Scholars and Organist and Traditional Irish Musician, Donna Magee. The concert will take place in the church on Sunday January 18 at 7.00 pm and will feature a varied programme from both traditional and temporary composers including some new works based on poetry from the Great War era.

The concert will form the backdrop for the launch by Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordán of a new Music Education and Development Project at All Saints’ aimed at enabling young people from north Dublin engage with choral and musical development. Advisors to the project include Dr Desmond Earley, Artistic Director (Music) of the Performing Arts Strand of UCD School of Music and Lt Col Mark Armstrong, Director of the Defence Forces School of Music. The concert will also be attended by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson.

Arthur Edward Guinness (Lord Ardilaun) died on January 20 1915 at his home at St Anne’s, Raheny. A great–grandson of Arthur Guinness, founder of the brewery, Lord Ardilaun was a businessman, politician and philanthropist and is best known for giving St Stephen’s Green to the people of Dublin.

Lord Ardilaun also funded the building of All Saints’ Church in Raheny which was built on the grounds of his estate at St Anne’s and is regarded as an architectural gem in the Dublin Diocese. 

Commenting on the concert and the development of the music project, the rector of All Saints’, the Revd Norman McCausland said:

“The concert marks the significant anniversary of the end of the life of Arthur Edward Guinness but the occasion also looks forward to the beginning of something new. The ‘Ardilaun Music Project’ will provide opportunities for choral development especially with young people while also engaging in a collaborative way with Traditional Irish Music performers and composers. This will be a major addition to the cultural life of north Dublin and we are delighted to make this contribution to the Decade of Centenaries”.

The Ardilaun Music Project will be funded by subscriptions and by income from a regular series of concerts. Both the Concert and the Music Project are quickly gaining interest with a number of community leaders and professional musicians indicating their support.

Admission to the concert will be by ticket only. Tickets cost €12 (€10 concession) and are available by contacting (01) 8313929.

Archbishop Michael Jackson has commented on the Government’s publication of its terms of reference for a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matter today:

“I welcome today’s announcement of the Terms of Reference for an investigation into mother and baby homes and a range of related matters to be chaired by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy. I note that three Protestant homes will be considered, one of which is Bethany Home. Bethany Home has been a matter of significant concern to a number of former residents, the Bethany Survivors Group, with whom I have met on several occasions. As I have said previously I have been conscious of the strength of their feeling that the State has not examined the Home in a similar way to other institutions, until now. For this reason, among others, I welcome today’s news. The plight of those who have suffered and still suffer remains a pastoral concern to me.”