27.04.2012
Vatican Radio Features Interview With Archbishop Jackson
Archbishop Michael Jackson has taken part in an interview on Vatican Radio. The interview will air this evening (Friday) and is posted on the station’s website having been translated into many languages for listeners worldwide. The station has conducted a series of interviews with the people involved in the International Eucharistic Congress 2012, which takes place in Dublin in June. Archbishop Jackson will participate in the first day of the congress.
Below is the text that appears on Vatican Radio’s website. At the end of the article there is a link which will take you to the website where you can listen to the full interview.
IEC2012: Dublin’s Churches unite for Congress
If
you thought that the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin,
Ireland, this June was just for Catholics, you would be wrong. “There
is a genuine sense of excitement and expectation right across the
Christian traditions in Ireland”, says Rev. Michael Jackson, the
Anglican Archbishop of Dublin.
It may be the 50th
global gathering of the Catholic Church on the Eucharist, but from the
outset the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin, decided
this Congress should also become an opportunity to further the
ecumenical journey in Ireland, which for historical reasons has often
been an uphill climb. On the opening day of the Congress, Monday June
11, pilgrims will explore the theme, Communion in One Baptism with
key–note addresses from Br. Alois Löser (Prior of the Taizé Community,
France), Dr Maria Voce (President of Focolare) and Metropolitan Hilarion
Alfeyev (Metropolitan Archbishop of Volokolamsk –Russian Orthodox).
Archbishop
Jackson has been invited to preside at the main liturgy of the first
day, a special Ecumenical Liturgy. “The whole world knows of the current
economic and social difficulties that we have in Ireland”, he notes.
“This I think is a tremendous invitation to all of us who carry the
Cross of Christ to make a contribution together to try to formulate and
shape a fresh direction for our society”.
Eucharist and ecumenism
Speaking
to Emer McCarthy, Archbishop Jackson confesses he is particularly
excited to be part of the IEC2012 experience. “I think one of the things
that comes across is that communion as understood more widely is at the
very heart of this Congress. So Baptism as something which is
recognised, respected and practiced across the traditions in a very
specific way is a wonderful way into the exploration of communion as
shared life”
This, he says, will hopefully bring a greater
understanding between Ireland’s Christian traditions: “I think two
things in particular will probably happen: there is an element of what I
call internal instruction which is actually facilitating people who are
faithful in the Catholic tradition to see communion as something beyond
Eucharist, something within it and something beyond it, and to enable
the rest of us to see it in the same light”.
The leader of the
capital’s Anglican Church adds “Its important for us all to see beyond
what to many people is an ecumenical logjam which is the fact that we do
not together celebrate and share the Eucharist. I think what the
Eucharistic Congress is encouraging us to do its to take the fullness of
the Eucharist in the tradition of each of us, and actually to take that
sense of belonging to Christ and share in that spirit more widely”.
Witnessing to Christ together in a secular world
In
recent years in Ireland, as elsewhere in western society, Christian
witness has increasingly been marginalised to the private sphere. For
Archbishop Jackson, Congress presents a unique opportunity for people of
faith to come together and witness to their beliefs in prayer and in
public: “I think this very public and this very worldwide expression of
our desire to be a fresh and new community together through the
Eucharist and through Baptism is very important”.
This communion
of witness, he says, is just one of the examples of practical
expressions of ecumenism. “Many people are saddened and frustrated at
the fact that it is not possible to officially share the Eucharist
together. I can understand that pain… but I think that we need to work
with a mixture of holy patience and holy impatience, and if this is the
situation where institutionally the Churches are then we need to dig
deeper and look for ways in which we can express that communion. There
is of course a communion of the sacraments. But there is also a
communion of charity, a communion of belonging to one another, there is a
communion of faith and a communion of action”.
“What I would
love to see coming out of the Congress is that those who are leaders –
and leaders aren’t always the people at the top – but those who are
leaders in their own community might have opportunity to work through
what communion in fact means on the ground. There is tremendous
potential for the future in all of this”.
He concludes: “I
regularly say a divided Christian witness convinces nobody. It doesn’t
convince anyone in the Churches and it certainly doesn’t convince those
who look quizzically at the Churches. We need to build in simplicity.
Our smaller scale in Ireland means that we need to know one another.”