01.12.2014
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Addresses Christian Aid Advent Hope Service
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was the preacher at yesterday’s (Sunday November 30) Christian Aid Advent Hope Service in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. The service took place on the first Sunday in Advent but it was also the day before World AIDS Day.
This year Christian Aid was joined at the service by ACET Ireland (Aids Care Education & Training). ACET works to improve the lives of people living with, and affected by HIV and AIDS in Ireland. It also works to reduce the number of new cases of HIV in Ireland. ACET has partnered with Christian Aid on some of its overseas work in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
People traveled from all over the island to join in worship, prayer, thanksgiving and reflection as part of Choral Evensong which was sung by the cathedral choir. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson was present, along with Christian Aid Ireland CEO, Rosamond Bennett and ACET CEO, Richard Carson. Dr Williams is chairperson of Christian Aid UK and Ireland.
In his sermon, Dr Williams drew on the Collect for Advent Sunday – ‘Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light…’ This, he said, reminded us that for all our primitive terror of the dark, it was sometimes in the dark that we felt safest. Light shows us who we are who other people are and who God is.
He said that the darkness damaged us and light defended us from all the things we did to ourselves when we burrowed into the darkness and denied who we were, who others were and who God was. He referred to the Christian Aid exhibition at the back of the cathedral stating it was about witness and clear seeing and bearing testimony.
“The work of Christian Aid and similar agencies, is about seeing what God wants to see in our neighbours and seeing their dignity and their presence in God’s eyes. It’s about seeing their gifts as well as their needs. The light of grace drawing us out into the fresh air of relationship and interaction is the light in which we see something of the glory of God in those whom we work with and see those whom we work with not as dumb objects but as our partners, as those who give us gifts, as those God delights in,” Dr Williams said.
He said that Advent was a time when people thought about what they really wanted. Those who supported Christian Aid wanted for the people that they worked with what they wanted for themselves and what God wants for all of us, he stated.
After the service Dr Williams was interviewed in the Deanery by Gay Byrne for a programme which will be broadcast on RTE in the New Year.
Photo captions:
Top – Richard Carson of ACET, the Rt Revd Trevor Williams, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, the Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams, the Very Revd Victor Stacey and Rosamond Bennett of Christian Aid.
Bottom – Joanna Donaldson, Michael Briggs and Jennifer Swensson of Christian Aid.