02.10.2015
Could Churches Write a Proclamation of Hope to Commemorate 1916?
Churches have a lot of ethical and theological thinking to do before next year’s commemoration of the 1916 Rising. Members of the Dublin Council of Churches were treated to a deeply thought provoking talk at their annual forum day last week. The Revd Dr Johnston McMaster urged churches to do more in 2016 than merely commemorate the past – they must look to the future. He suggested that in a secular society churches could write a proclamation of hope as their contribution to the commemoration. Dr McMaster also highlighted the central role of the theologically based ideas of redemptive violence and blood sacrifice in the foundation of the State and asked how faith communities should confront this.
Dublin Council of Churches held their annual forum day in the Quaker Meeting House in Rathfarnham. The theme was Memory, History, Faith and the Future and 40 people from 10 denominations gathered to tease through the issues raised by acts of commemoration, their various interpretations and their cultural, political and religious implications. The keynote speaker was Dr Johnston McMaster, renowned peace–activist, educator, and staff member of the Irish School of Ecumenics. The morning was facilitated by Geoffrey Corry, a specialist in conflict resolution, facilitation and mediation in a number of settings: the peace process in Ireland, family mediation, workplace and community disputes, restorative justice and the environment. He is also a member of the Methodist Church in Dublin.
Among the questions explored were: Can the churches provide their own critique of the myth of redemptive violence and blood sacrifice? What might we be able to contribute toward articulating a new ‘Proclamation’ of life and hope in the Ireland of 2016?
In his opening remarks, Dr McMaster said that the events of 1912 to 1922 have shaped Ireland. It would be a great mistake to cherry pick our way through the decade as each event led to the other and our memory will be skewed unless we grasp the connections between the events, he stated. He said the framing event was the Great War which took 15 million lives, 35,000 or more of whom were Irish. Without the Great War there would have been no Easter Rising, the foundation event of the Republic of Ireland, he stated.
He reminded participants that in 2016 there would be two centenaries: the 1916 Rising and the Battle of the Somme. In Dublin the Rising would be commemorated while in Northern Ireland the Battle of the Somme would be remembered. ‘Dublin and Belfast will have to recognise that without the Great War there would be no myth of origin for either and there would have been a very bloody civil war without the Great War. Because of the Great War many of those Irish men went to fight and die together,” he said.
He added that there were ethical challenges for the churches: what do the churches do with the politics of the commemoration and memory? What do faith communities do with blood sacrifice – a theologically rooted idea?
When churches consider their role in 2016 they must consider that now churches are losers, he contended. Citing Professor Diarmuid McCullagh who said that the Great War killed Christendom [as an established religion in support of and supported by empire], he said: “We are not where we were a century ago. Rather than complaining of secularity, we might come to terms with it. We might be losers for our own good”.
Dr McMaster explained the differences between addictive memory and liberating memory. He said it was possible for any society to develop an addictive memory or a fixation with the past. This could lead to hyper sensitivity where the complexity of the past and plurality of the narrative could cause offence. Society gets locked in a siege mentality creating garrisons of identity politics and exclusion.
He asked how much of Unionists’ identity was bound up in the extreme sacrifice of so many at the Somme. How much was Nationalist and Republican identity dependent on the martyrdom of 1916. He was not talking of the ethics of war but identity politics.
“Remembering, memory and commemoration are not the problem. The problem is our motive that drives the remembering, memory and commemoration. Memory may have more to do with psychological needs feeding on historical fiction than an acknowledgement of historical facts,” he commented.
He took the example of post Rising Ireland where Sinn Fein, who had nothing to do with the Rising which was instigated by the IRB, created a Sinn Fein narrative. After the Somme Unionists created a narrative, he suggested, sometimes giving the impression that only the 36th Ulster Division was at the Somme.
“Next year the identity politics of the Rising and the Somme will be commemorated rather than what actually happened in 1916,” he stated. “With every narrative and dogma we do well to exercise a hermeneutic of suspicion… In 2016 we can either indulge in addictive memory, historical fiction or liberating memory.”
Dr McMaster said that we could refuse to live in the past, refuse to be addicted to memory. It was not about forgetting, he explained, but about refusing to be bound by history.
Turning to the role of religion in the 1916 Rising, Dr McMaster pointed out that the theological component of the Rising is often denied because it is deemed embarrassing in 21st century Ireland. A devout Padraig Pearse said that without the shedding of blood there could be no redemption for Ireland. He believed his death would be like that of Robert Emmet, for a divinely ordained purpose, a sacrifice for Ireland like Christ on the cross.
Similarly, Ulster Protestants held the same theology which formed the lens through which the sacrifice at the Somme made sense, he said. It ratified partition and the Unionist State and showed their loyalty. Their blood sacrifice had the same medieval roots.
The myth of redemptive violence has underpinned the memory of domination and ruling and still forms the basis of defence policies, Dr McMaster stated. It has its roots in the theology of the ancient Babylon myths where violence and war begets peace. Violence and redemptive violence were present at the foundation of the State and Northern Ireland.
“We have some ethical thinking to do between now and next Easter and July. We can’t change the past but we can change the future. Churches approach 2016 in Ireland as losers because Christendom has died. But therein lies our liberation. We are not tied to the State or in bed with political power. We can revision God, reimagine Jesus as peace, reread the Bible as a book of resistance and the core idea of peace. Faith communities can become communities of hope, grasped in the here and now in God’s ultimate dream for peace and life,” he said.
He suggested that, in the end, Pearse, McDonagh and Connelly did have eschatological vision. They underlined civil and religious liberty, equality and inclusion in the Proclamation. However, the ethical problem posed by the Proclamation was that the vision of equality and social inclusion and freedom was to be achieved by trust in God and physical violence. The myth of redemptive violence lies at the heart of the Proclamation. The same myth is at the heart of the 1912 Northern Proclamation.
He said the key to 2016 would be hope. “A faith community could not be content with a commemoration that merely looked back… Whatever churches do in 2016 has to be more than commemorating the past. They must look to the future. The past did not bring hope and liberation and peace. Because Christendom is dead, the language of hope is possible – seeking peace and pursuing radical social justice. As the holy losers who are now viewing things from below and at the edge, churches might bring life and hope to 2016 and together we might write a new proclamation of hope,” he concluded.
Photo captions:
Top – Geoffrey Corry, Chairman of Dublin Council of Churches Fr Damien McNeice and Johnston McMaster.
Bottom – The participants in Dublin Council of Churches’ Forum.