25.05.2016
Pioneering Parishioners Presented With First Come&C 5 Marks Challenge Awards
Participants in a pilot project being run as part of the Come&C programme have been presented with the very first Come&C 5 Marks Challenge Awards. The 5 Marks Challenge is designed to affirm different discipleship activities within Dublin and Glendalough and to encourage a deeper reflection on discipleship, linked to the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. Eleven people have taken part in the pilot project and the awards were presented by the Archbishop during a short service in Christ Church Cathedral last Friday evening (May 20).
The idea of the Come&C 5 Marks Challengewas inspired by the example of Gaisce (the President’s Awards). To receive a Gaisce award, a recipient must engage in a combination of learning or service activities over a sustained period of time. The Come&C 5 Marks Challenge is based on the idea of recipients being engaged in some form of discipleship, but more importantly, reflecting on that experience in the light of God’s call to us to ‘Come and See’ and to ‘Follow Me’. The criteria for each award includes a strong emphasis on reflection.
The award for each challenge is in the form of a different coloured ribbon and a certificate. The Blue Challenge relates to the first Mark of Mission – To Proclaim God’s Kingdom (Tell). The Yellow Challenge is for the second Mark of Mission – To Teach, Baptise and Nurture (Teach). The Red Challenge is To Respond to Human Need (Tend). The Purple Challenge is To Transform Unjust Structures (Transform). The final Green Challenge is To Safeguard Creation (Treasure).
On Friday evening, Blue Challenge awards were presented to Lynn Adams from Coolock Parish who leads Ichthus, a music, dance and drama group; James Gallen (in absentia) from Rathmines Parish who leads a weekly Bible study and discussion group; and Alan Rhodes who is a lay reader in Tullow Parish.
Red Challenge awards were presented to James Gallen and Alex Fromholz from Rathmines Parish who both work with Rathmines Women’s Refuge; Nigel Bell and Marianne Johnson from Kill O’ The Grange Parish for their work with the Tiglin Challenge dealing with homelessness and addiction; Hilary Cran of Tullow Parish for her work with Bray Women’s Refuge; Heather Hunter from Clontarf who works with an ecumenical active retirement group; and Joanne Kenny from Coolock Parish for her work with Pashli, a charity that works with an orphanage in Belarus.
Yellow Challenge awards were presented to Robert Adams of Coolock Parish for teaching the children’s Sunday Club; and Lynn Storey from Rathfarnham Parish for her children’s ministry with the parish Sunday Club.
Speaking during the service, Archbishop Michael Jackson give us the precious gift of identity. “We need constantly to be grounded in our faith and in simple, daily expressions of that faith for God, for others and for ourselves,” he stated.
He added that what the recipients of the awards had done was essential to the work of God. “You may think that the phrase: the work is rather plain and disappointing. It is not! It is the work of God, the mission of God and the life of God here on earth. What you have done is truly significant and vitally important in order to advance the expression of the Kingdom of God here and now and it is the following: the ministry of encouragement, the ministry of encounter, the ministry of engagement, the ministry of enlargement, the ministry of extension,” the Archbishop said. He continued: “These are the ways in which God has called and invited you and me: Follow me and: Come and see. Your story is his story and your story is your story. For all of this I both congratulate and thank you one by one and all together”.
An individual may apply for up to five different Challenges. They may opt for one Challenge only or they may focus their reflection on a combination of different Marks of Mission. The activity associated with the project is an external help to a deeper reflection. Undertaking such a reflection in this manner, seeks to make a personal statement which captures and celebrates God’s presence in the life of the individual and the community.
To find out more about the 5 Marks Challenge and to learn about the criteria for the awards email archbishop.awards@rcbdub.org.
Photo caption: Participants in the first Come&C 5 Marks Challenge