01.07.2013
Ecumenical Pioneers Remembered at Broadcast Service to Celebrate Forty Years of Shared TCD Chapel
A special Ecumenical Service of the Word was broadcast on RTE 1 Television on the morning of Sunday 30 June to mark the fortieth anniversary of the ecumenical sharing of the Chapel at Trinity College Dublin.
The service, led by the TCD Dean of Residence the Revd Darren McCallig and the TCD Chapel Choir, commemorated the 1973 decision by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Alan Buchanan, to rededicate the College Chapel so that it could be used for worship by all Christian Churches. It was the beginning of a unique ecumenical chaplaincy arrangement in TCD which continues to this day.
In his sermon, the Dean of Residence, paid tribute to those involved in what he described as “an unprecedented and courageous act of ecumenical co–operation.” It was, he said, very important to be reminded of what did and also what did not happen forty years ago.
“Did this ecumenical sharing come about because in 1973 the Church of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodists and the Presbyterians had resolved all and every theological and doctrinal difference between them? Did this ecumenical sharing come about because, unbeknownst to the world‘s media, Christians in Ireland had reached full and final agreement on all that had divided them for hundreds of years? Of course not! No, it came about because a group of far–sighted people realized that if they were to wait for a ‘perfect’ moment in which to make such an historic change then change would never ever happen.”
“So, today we pay tribute to the pioneers … those like Archbishop Buchanan and others who show us that the life of faith can be – and often should be – about impatience, about vision and about courage. We pay tribute to those who show us that – despite the impression you may have been given – religion is not sanctified inertia. No, not sanctified inertia but a call, an urgent call to throw off all that is holding us back and to step out into the future with hope.”
The service also included contributions from three people who were students in Trinity in the 1970s and closely involved in the work of the ecumenical Chaplaincy: Soline Humbert, Dermot McCarthy and Rosemary Grant. They shared their own personal memories of the time and spoke of the evident sense of co–operation and shared ministry which they experienced in the chaplaincy.
The broadcast can be viewed on the RTE Player until 21 July: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10161256/