14.01.2016
Delegation from Dublin and Glendalough Visit Diocese of Jerusalem
Archbishop Michael Jackson is currently leading a delegation from Dublin and Glendalough on a visit to the Diocese of Jerusalem. The Archbishop is travelling with the Revd Ken Rue, chairperson of the Diocesan Council for Mission and Linda Chambers and Jan de Bruijn of the United Society.
Dublin and Glendalough is entering into a partnership with the Diocese of Jerusalem which spans Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Syria and Lebanon. An accord document will be signed by Archbishop Jackson and Archbishop Suheil Dawani during the visit.
This week the delegation will meet clergy and people of the Diocese of Jerusalem and visit churches, hospitals and schools. In particular they will visit Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza for which over €110,000 was raised in our United Dioceses in Advent 2014.
They also hope to learn more about the impact of the Syrian crisis throughout the region and to discuss how our schools and churches can link up with their counterparts there and how there could be pilgrimages to each others’ dioceses. The Archbishop will also outline to them the Come&C project and work with them in doing a similar exercise around the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion.
This morning (Wednesday January 6) Archbishop Jackson preached in St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem for the Feast of the Epiphany. He spoke of the importance of geography, place, history and presence.
“Those of us who come from afar to mark and celebrate The Epiphany with you in The Land of the Holy One are very conscious of our rootedness in, our dependence on you and on your faith in often impossibly hard times and circumstances in this place and in this lived and living history. Your witness inspires and embodies the witness of millions of Christian people worldwide; and for it we are profoundly grateful,” he said.
He continued, “You rightly describe yourselves as Living Stones: Living Stones, as the hymn writer expresses it, by God appointed : appointed to watch and pray and live and respond. Each one of you is part of the building, the edifice, of witness and salvation. Both witness and salvation are chiselled out in the story of faith that all of you share with all of us: a story of God becoming human in order that we might, through his self–emptying and self–giving in love and service here in The Galilee and in Jerusalem, share in his divinity”.
The Archbishop also spoke of those who had been forced to flee the region and the Anglican diocese in the Middle East, particularly Syria and said that Europe was not coping very well.
“Western society has become very individualised, very compartmentalised and very fond of its own space. It has also lost touch with the sense that God infuses our public spaces for the common good. Many people simply do not want neighbours; they want privacy. This makes it terribly difficult to do anything that makes a difference in love for the people who are in greatest need. It has also made us unsure of ourselves as we relate suddenly to a ‘them’ who are now an ‘us’,” he stated.
In 2016 the people of Ireland would need to develop a compassionate approach and a sustained response to those who come in fear and trauma, he suggested. Those people who come here would also long for human acceptance and recognition of their identity that takes on board who they are and who they will become in Ireland.
“This is a grace we need to accept and to re–discover. Our hope is that, as an island people, we might do this with good grace and that, as a nation of people who have emigrated time and again, we might somehow understand and be sensitive to the fears in arriving somewhere new together with the bereavement of leaving all we ever knew behind,” he said.
You can read Archbishop Jackson’s sermon in full by clicking here.