23.06.2014
Clergy Hear of Exciting New Dublin Missional Initiative
Clergy from across Dublin and Glendalough gathered on Friday (June 20) to hear about a new ministry which will be located in Dublin. Eoghan Heaslip, who is currently a priest working in the Diocese of Worcester in England is moving back to his native Dublin this summer to explore and develop the ICON community here.
ICON is a missional community and while it is not a diocesan ministry, Eoghan will operate with a licence from the Archbishop. He will develop the community of faith through discipleship, spirituality and social action. ICON is not parish based and it is expected that those who come to be involved in the community will probably not already be in church.
Eoghan explained the shape of his new ministry to those who attended the session in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. He said that Dublin as a city was constantly changing and as the Church of Ireland continued to explore how to be and do church for everyone, we were going to have to find ways to connect church and culture.
Statistics suggest that Dublin is Europe’s youngest city with a huge proportion of its residents aged under 36 years. However, Eoghan pointed out that the 18 to 36 year olds were largely missing from church and he asked who would go to them. “I believe with every fibre within me that we have to do everything we can to reach the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who are not worshiping with us,” he stated.
He suggested that the Gospel had to meet people where they were and network churches such as ICON could reach new people. He said he was not suggesting that network churches were better but that they were needed in tandem with traditional church.
The plan for ICON is to plant missional communities in the city. These would not be a substitute for gathered church but they would orbit the centre. “ICON will gather and go. It will be a church which is both rooted and radical – coming together to be sent back out again. Our primary identity will be to live as families on mission around the city. Each community will be shaped by its desire to engage with culture and the Gospel. Our commitment as communities will be to live intentionally,” Eoghan explained.
He added that they would not be able to do this alone and would look to their brothers and sisters in the Church of Ireland to work out what God was doing in front of them and to reach people that no one was reaching.
A question and answer session was conducted by the Revd Adrienne Galligan who enquired how the network would fit in with local parochial structures. Eoghan said it would fit but what that meant in practice had yet to be fleshed out. He said he hoped that a senior clergy person in the dioceses would work alongside him and mentor him.
He said he hoped to find ways to keep parishes connected with ICON, whether through prayer, events like prayer walks in the city or social action. He hoped also to share the good news of what they were doing at regular events. He said ICON was not a diocesan ministry and they were not asking parishes to send them their 18 to 36 year olds.
The longest serving priest in the dioceses, Canon Horace McKinley, gave a reflection at the seminar in which he reflected on the vast changes that had taken place in Dublin’s parishes. He said he was “struck by the Icon vision and its title deeds, as I read of “a combination of living spiritually, the sacraments, a rooting in scripture, engagement in social action and blending both ancient and modern forms and practices of worship”. All really rather familiarly Anglican, you could even say.”
He said he believed new ways of being church need not be an alien concept to the Anglican way and added that the traditional and experiential could always work provided they practiced mutual trust and respect under the one roof. In his closing words, under the heading ‘Do not be afraid’, Canon McKinley said, “Jesus promised that “The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth”. The verb “guide” has the language sense that this is a continuing process and an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit therefore invites us to look forward both with faith’s imagination and expectation”.
Fr Kieran McDermott, Parish Priest of Dundrum, said all of us were charged to bring the message of Christ to the world. In an age where sound bites ruled, he said our culture turned off what was not immediately accessible. He said that one of the functions of leadership was to recognise authentic discipleship and that new models of church could be seen throughout the history of Christianity. The reason for church was to make Christ known and Fr Kieran pointed to a recent address by Pope Francis in which he said that the church was called to go to the outskirts or the peripheries. “ICON offers a pathway to rediscover and reconnect with the person of Jesus or for the curious to come and learn. I will follow this initiative with great interest,” he concluded.
Photo captions: Top – The Revd Eoghan Heaslip talks to Archbishop Michael Jackson.
Bottom – Canon Horace McKinley.